Both the Union Minister of HRD and Chair of National Knowledge Commission urge private sector to help in higher education; Vedanta University is more than an answer
August 31st, 2009
Among the local opposition to Vedanta University there are many who are opposed to the whole idea of private higher education institutions. Many others do not get some of the important reasons behind the necessity of Vedanta University. The following excerpts from speeches by the Union HRD minister Mr. Kapil Sibal and Chair of the National Knowledge Commission Mr. Sam Pitroda explains the important role private higher education institutions like Vedanta University can play and more importantly the country’s need for such institutions.
We start with an excerpt from a report in Telegraph about Mr. Kapil Sibal’s speech.
Inaugurating it at Nishani Mundali in Koraput, Union human resource development minister Kapil Sibal said the university’s location was the reflection of pro-tribal policy of the Congress-led UPA government.
“This university will definitely help in development of backward Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput (KBK) region and western Orissa,” said Sibal.
Stating that the Centre was keen to set up international standard educational institutions across the country through public-private partnership, Sibal said companies should come forward to set up such institutes to help students to pursue higher studies in India instead of going abroad.
Following is an excerpt from a report in rediff.com about Mr. Pitroda’s views.
Pitroda emphasizing the lack of capacity when "you really look at higher education overall in India," said that as much as expanding this on the one hand, "on the other hand, the quality of education needs to be improved substantially."
… Pitroda said that these were the three broad categories "under which the Knowledge Commission started looking at recommendations for higher education."
At the macro level, he said, "We have to create more universities," and argued that "the roughly 400 universities that we have is not enough for a country of a billion people. Roughly 8 percent of our eligible children have the opportunity to enter the higher education and that number ought to be closer to 16 or 20 percent."
"So, we need to expand more colleges, more universities, more research programs, more teachers, more facilities, so on and so forth," he added.
Pitroda said in this regard, "The overall expansion requires not only participation from government, but also participation from the private sector …
Entry Filed under: Bhubaneswar-Cuttack-Puri- Khurda area (1),India,Private State Universities,Vedanta University, Puri