Hyderabad: Former Union Education Secretary Ashok Thakur inaugurated one week Training Programme on ‘Academic Leadership’ for the senior University Administrators here on Monday.
The programme, funded by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, GoI organized by the UGC-Human Resource Development Centre, Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) began at its Gachibowli Campus in the presence of Prof.
Furqan Qamar, Secretary General, Association of Indian Universities (AIU) and Navin Mittal, Secretary & Commissioner, Technical & Higher Education, Govt. of Telangana. About 35 participants (Deans, HoDs, Registrars & Finance Officers) drawn from Central and State Universities from all over the country participated in the programme.
Ashok Thakur, in his key note address, emphasized the pivotal role of academic leadership in Higher Education and linked the importance of School Education with the Higher Education.
He also emphasized the critical role to be played by the regulatory bodies such as UGC in shaping the higher education scenario in the country.
Prof. Furqan Qamar underscored the need for focussing on three Fs—Funds, Faculty and Freedom—to foster better quality in the higher education domain. According to his views, the quality of School teachers is directly connected to the quality of higher education.
Navin Mittal shared his thoughts on the issues affecting the quality and accessibility in colleges and Universities education in the State of Telangana.
He also subsequently shared the innovative practices being introduced by his department in the Undergraduate Admission particularly DOST (Degree Online Services Telangana) which increased the Gross Enrollment Ratio.
He also shared his experience about decentralization in his department and importance of digitization in the Colleges and Universities.
Prof. Shakeel Ahmed, Pro Vice-Chancellor of MANUU, in his presidential remarks exhorted the participants to make proper use of the opportunity and gather experience from the training programme.
He reviewed the overall picture of higher education in India and described it as a bit complex. “Academic & Administrative blend is the need of the hour,” he said.
Dr. M. A. Sikander, Registrar of MANUU, proposed the vote of thanks and informed the participants that eminent speakers from UGC, NAAC, Civil Administration and top business schools from Hyderabad are slated to address the participants.
As a part of the programme, the participants shall visit and interact with the Academic Dean of the Indian School of Business (ISB) to know the good practices being followed there.
Earlier, the inaugural session started with the welcome address by Dr. Tahseen Bilgrami, Deputy Director of UGC-HRDC and Course Co-ordinator of the training programme. (INN)