President chairs conference of 46 heads of higher education institutes, asks them to be leadership mentors

President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday said that the heads of leading higher education institutes in the country must discharge their role as leadership mentors for the next generation of academic-administrators.

Speaking at a conference of 46 Heads of Central Universities and Institutes of Higher Learning at Rashtrapati Bhavan here on Saturday, President Kovind said, "Great institutes of learning are different due to the leadership they nurture and build. The heads of leading higher education institutes must discharge their key role as leadership mentors for the next generation of academic-administrators".

This, he said, would ensure that the country has a ready talent pool of directors, deans and administrators who can conceive, establish and administer our institutes of higher education."

According to a Rashtrapati Bhavan release, Kovind said that the institutes will be instrumental to realisation of country's socio-economic goals.

"Central Agricultural Universities can support our national goal of promoting sustainable agriculture, productivity and supporting our farmers with useful research. The same is true of all other institutes linked to different areas be it pharmaceutical, aviation, oceanography, petroleum and energy, IT, Design, Architecture and others," he said.

Rashtrapati Bhavan hosted a conference of 46 Heads of Central Universities and Institutes of Higher Learning in the fields of agriculture, pharmaceuticals, aviation, design, footwear-design, fashion, petroleum and energy, maritime studies, planning and architecture and information technology on Saturday.

Different subgroups comprises of heads of various institutes made presentations on issues such as the promotion of research, promotion of innovation and entrepreneurship among students, building industry-academia linkages, filling up of vacancies including faculty from foreign universities, creating alumni funding and enhancing alumni activities and completion of major infrastructure projects in a time-bound manner.