Enhanced state funding of higher education stressed

The problems of higher education in the country are amplified by the low level of current expenditure which is less than one per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), said Lalji Singh, Vice Chancellor, Banaras Hindu University.

Addressing the second convocation of city based Siksha 'O' Anusandhan (SoA) Deemed University here, he said, the state funding needs to be increased while diversifying the modes of financing higher education at the same time.

Singh rued that the expansion of higher education has led to quality deterioration with compromises being made at different levels. Besides, there are problems of lack of proper planning, inadequate facilities and no clarity of purpose. The quality of higher education depends on the quality of educational infrastructure, instructional designs, quality of curriculum, teachers and their motivation, he pointed out. In the future, medicine will move from curative to predictive and preventive medicine, said Singh, a molecular biologist and former director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB)-Hyderabad.

 

The second convocation ceremony of the varsity witnessed about 3,000 students graduating in different programmes. Doctorate degrees were awarded to nine scholars while 54 gold medals were conferred on recipients from different disciplines. Honorary doctorate degrees were conferred on Damodar Acharya, Director, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Kharagpur and Subrat Kumar Acharya, Head of Gastroenterology, All India Institute of Medical Science-New Delhi. Vice-Chancellor of SoA University R P Mohanty outlined the varsity's perspective plan for the future. The university also inaugurated a centre of bio-mechanical sciences earlier in the day which was a collaborative research project of its faculties of engineering, medical and dental sciences.