Lt guv inaugurates 'north zone vice chancellors meet' at SMVD University in J-K

A two-day 'north zone vice chancellors meet' commenced at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU) in Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir, with Lt Governor G C Murmu calling for a paradigm shift from theoretical education to job oriented higher education.

Murmu , who is also the chancellor of SMVDU, inaugurated the meet at Kakriyal campus of the university, which was attended by 60 vice chancellors and directors of various institutions, members of UGC, AICTE and other government organisations, an official spokesman said.

He said the meet was also attended by faculty members and students of SMVDU which organised it under the auspices of the Association of Indian Universities (AIU).

In his inaugural address, the Lt governor called upon vice chancellors of all universities across the country to make concerted efforts in providing job oriented higher education to the students making them future ready.

He congratulated Prof R K Sinha, the vice-chancellor of SMVD University, and Dr Pankaj Mittal, the secretary general of AIU, for organising the meet on the important theme 'Developing Employability and Entrepreneurship as Cornerstones in Higher Education' which reflects the commitment of AIU & SMVDU to create a dialogue among its various stakeholders of higher education.

Murmu observed that higher education institutions must introspect to bring reforms in their curriculum that would enable graduates to acquire the competencies required by employers or the skills required to be self-employed.

He outlined that the overall aim should be to improve universities through discussion to improve the quality of higher education and research.

He hoped that meetings like this will create a dialogue among the stakeholders which will be helpful not only for increasing employability, but also in achieving the goal of $5 trillion economy for India.

Earlier, during his welcome address, Prof Sinha presented a report highlighting past achievements and future action plans of the university.

He observed that the university is poised to be a centre of excellence, which is apparent from the improvement in the ranking from 94th in 2018 to 85th rank among the engineering institutions in 2019 as per the NIRF Rankings.