Punjab Unaided Technical Institutions Association (PUTIA) delegation under the leadership of Dr Anshu Kataria, Chairman, Aryans Group of Colleges met Mr. Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for HRD yesterday. This meeting was held in a conference of Education Promotion Society for India (EPSI) on “Developing Transformational Leaders for Indian Higher Education”. Mr Tharoor listened to the problems of Punjab Colleges and assured Dr Kataria to look into the matter. He also assured to visit Punjab soon. Dr. G Vishwanath, President, EPSI and Dr. H. Chaturvedi, Alternate President, EPSI were also present in the conference.
Dr Kataria requested that AICTE norms for different requirements of building, machinery and equipment, furniture and fixture etc should be on the basis of admissions done not according to the intake of seats.Dr. Kataria said that Indian Higher Education is a mammoth system comprising 611 universities and 31,324 colleges working under a number of regulatory bodies both at Central and State levels. He added that besides complex regulatory issues, universities and other higher education institutions currently face a number of challenges viz., faculty shortage, student unrest, political interference, lack of financial viability etc. “Both state and centre should work together to solve the problem of colleges” Dr Kataria requested.
He further said that EPSI has been spearheading the cause of Indian Higher Education since 2005. During the past eight years, it has initiated and taken up several issues in higher education and also organized conferences and seminars on vital issues at New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Chandigarh, Jaipur etc. He further said that every year, it has been organizing a national level summit on the issues related to higher education. He further added that EPSI has taken the lead to bring to the fore the pressing need of developing educational leaders at the national level. This event will bring policy makers, edu-entrepreneurs, and eminent educationists together to identify appropriate models for developing transformational leaders.
It is to be mentioned that EPSI is a National level body having Universities and Colleges of India as members. PUTIA actively participates in all the endeavors of EPSI. It is to be mentioned that EPSI is a catalyst platform for all the stakeholders, academia, both public and private, industry and the government. The objective is to encourage a constructive and pro-active exchange of ideas and promote accelerated growth of education in India.It is also to be mentioned that the main focus of EPSI is on Quality Education with Industry Interface, Exploring globalization opportunities emerging abroad and within the country, Effective Co-ordination with regulator for employment oriented academic programmes, Setting standards of quality for education etc.