SRINAGAR: Commissioner Secretary, Higher Education, Talat Parvez, today had an online interaction with the first batch of PhD students and 5th Batch of MBA students of IIM Jammu. More than 250 students participated in the online conference which was also attended by other faculty members and dignitaries from different Universities.
“Higher Education Department aims at enhancement of quality education in order to foster outcome based research with an objective to address problems faced by the society and to devise models for socio-economic development of the UT besides enhancing employability and competitiveness of educated youth”, the Commissioner Secretary maintained. Talat Parvez highlighted the present education scenario across India besides elucidating the role of Universities and role of Higher Education in J&K. He also elaborated upon broad contours of International covenant and legal position.
Commissioner Secretary, while highlighting challenges and opportunities in Higher Education, said that Higher education aims to serve as a hub for developing ideas and innovations that enlighten individuals and help propel the country forward socially, culturally, scientifically, technologically, artistically and economically.
Regarding goals of Higher Education, he said that the universities must built expertise that society will need over the next 25 years and beyond. The future work place will demand critical thinking, communication, problem solving, creativity and multidisciplinary capability so we all have to work on this in a collective manner, he added.
Commissioner Secretary, while speaking on access to higher education, said that instead of massification of higher education, we must redefine GER as gross employability ratio and work towards enhancing the employability of youth. ‘We need to lay more stress on research and practical exposure about the concepts being taught by laying more weightage on the field studies and acquire knowledge through experimental learning and survey rather than mere instructions in the class rooms’, he asserted.
Highlighting initiatives by the Government, he said that the government acts as a provider as well as regulator. He said Sarva Shiksha Abyan (SSA) and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abyan (RMSA) are two major programmes launched by the Government to lay strong foundation for primary and secondary education. However, in the sphere of higher education, RUSA aims at improving access, equity and quality education. He said that we must strive to prepare and educate productive work force through concerted efforts to improve the quality and relevance of higher education to the local, national and global needs and remove inequalities.
Referring to Higher Education in J&K, Commissioner Secretary said that there are 487 institutions which comprise of 154 Government Degree Colleges, 208 private colleges and 25 professional colleges affiliated to State Universities. We have 8 Government Universities, 3 Semi Government Universities besides, NIT, IIM, IIT, SKIMS, NIFT, IIMC, 7 autonomous institutions of national importance. Besides, two cluster Universities have been constituted by pooling resources of 10 prestigious colleges of the UT and Kashmir University is one of the top 50 universities on NIRF ranking while Jammu University ranks 52 and SMVDU 83 in Engineering discipline, he added. Both the state universities are A++ while as IUST and SMVDU have B++ NAAC ranking, 48 colleges are NAAC accredited.

KR Desk