President asks universities, institutions to focus on quality

Exhorting universities and institutions of higher learning across the country to focus on improving the quality of teaching, faculty and research, President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday said they should take the ranking process seriously.

Addressing a function during which he received the first copy of the book "The President of India and the Governance of Higher Education Institutions" at Rashtrapati Bhavan, Mukherjee said he has repeatedly stressed the need to have quality education.

"It is not that our country lacks the requisite talent or merit. Concerted efforts over the past few years have shown some good results and recently, two Indian institutions found a place among the top 200 universities as per an international ranking," he said.

He said he was hopeful of other institutes improving their ranks in the future.

Mukherjee also congratulated the authors and the O.P. Jindal Global University as well as the International Institute for Higher Education Research and Capacity Building for bringing out the book that provides an overview of higher education in India.