PM for increased industry-academia linkages

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today stressed on the need for increased industry-academia linkages to improve quality of education in central universities and focusing on greater interface with ranking agencies to be recognised globally as centres of excellence.
"Global experience shows that such linkages strengthen both universities as well as industry. While universities get access to valuable resources for research, industry benefits from the outcomes of the research which it has funded.
"I think we need to find innovative ways of encouraging industry-academia partnerships in our country," he told a conference of vice chancellors of central universities here.
Central universities should take a lead in this area and foster linkages which would be a "sure" way of improving the quality of their research output, he said.

Promotion of industry-academia linkages would be one of the items which would be deliberated at the two-day conference which has been convened by the President in his capacity as the visitor of these varsities.
Stressing that the higher educational institutes need to increasingly interact with the ranking agencies, Singh said the institutes should be fully conversant with the ways in which quality related outcomes are quantified and quality performance of an institute measured.

"Today very few institutions are recognised globally as centres of excellence. Improved interfacing with ranking agencies can contribute towards changing this state of affairs," he said.
Government looks upon central universities as agencies of change. These universities particularly aim at promoting interdisciplinary education and research.

They are also expected to build an environment of learning in the area around them through the establishment of business incubation centres, science and technology parks and industrial consultancy centres. It is therefore important that these varsities emerge as centres of excellence, he said.
Talking about Rashtriya Uchhatar Shiksha Abhiyan launched recently, the Prime Minister hoped it would go a long way in expanding access to higher education opportunities.