"Higher education should narrow gaps in equality of opportunity”

[dhilipkumar]

"Higher education should narrow gaps in equality of opportunity"

CHENNAI: The broad agenda on the higher education front should focus on narrowing the gaps in equality of opportunity for underprivileged aspirants and adherence to quality, R. A. Yadav, Chairman of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), said on Thursday.

In his address at the 11th convocation of Sri Ramachandra University (SRU), Mr. Yadav said the pronounced gap in access to disciplines such as engineering and management would only increase if an action plan was not put in place to generate quality human capital that would provide competitive edge to the nation in a globalised world.

Citing an AICTE-led survey that had shown gross regional imbalances in aspirants' access to higher education, Mr. Yadav said that while Tamil Nadu enjoyed a ratio of 200 engineering seats per lakh of the student population, a State like Bihar had only three seats per lakh of population. The scenario was skewed further with the four southern States accounting for nearly 70 per cent of student intake. Besides, in a country with a spiralling demand for healthcare, there were only 300 medical colleges with an aggregate of about 32,000 seats, he added.

The way forward was for greater inter-disciplinary collaboration among core disciplines of civil, mechanical and electrical engineering to bring about horizontal and vertical mobility for candidates, he said. Courses had to be relevant to the needs of society and corporate world.

The AICTE chairman presented degrees to 976 graduates. SRU Vice-Chancellor S. Rangaswami said that expansion proposals included the launch of Sri Ramachandra Institute of Technology and commencement of new courses in MD Family Medicine, D. Pharm, Fellowship in Otology and PG certificate programme in endoscopic rhinology.

The Department of Environmental Engineering was expected to start functioning as an ICMR Centre for Advanced Research on Environmental Health-Air Pollution in June while a collaborative venture with the University of Cape Town in South Africa to float Sri Ramachandra Sports Sciences Centre was also on the cards, he said. SRU Chancellor V. R. Venkataachalam presided over the convocation ceremony.