Lieutenant Governor, Girish Chandra Murmu, who is also the Chancellor of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU), today inaugurated the “North Zone Vice Chancellors” meet 2019-20 organized by SMVDU under the auspices of Association of Indian Universities (AIU) here at SMVDU, Kakryal, Katra.Prof. Ravinder Kumar Sinha, Vice Chancellor, SMVDU, Sh. Talat Parvez Rohella, Secretary, Higher Education J&K , Dr. Pankaj Mittal, Secretary General, Association of Indian Universities(AIU), Prof. Ranbir Singh, VC, National Law University (NLU) and Sixty Vice-Chancellors and Directors of various institutions, members of UGC , AICTE and other Government organizations besides Faculty members and students of SMVDU were present on the occasion.In his inaugural address, Lt. Governor called upon vice chancellors of all universities across country to make concerted efforts in providing job oriented higher education to the students making them future ready. He congratulated Prof. RK Sinha, the Vice-Chancellor, SMVD University, and Dr. Pankaj Mittal, Secretary General, AIU, for organizing 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 amongst its various stakeholders of higher education.
Lt. Governor observed that the 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.Lt. Governor 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. Ravindra Kumar Sinha, Vice-Chancellor, SMVDU, presented a report highlighting past achievements and future action plans of the university. He observed that the university is poised to be a center 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.While speaking on the occasion, Sh. Talat Parvez Rohella, Secretary, Higher Education Department, Government of J&K, emphasized on adopting new reforms into educational curriculums. Dr. Pankaj Mittal, Secretary General, AIU thanked SMVDU for hosting the Vice Chancellors’ conference in their beautiful vicinity. She also highlighted innovative steps taken by AIU in guiding universities about new developments being made by the association while Prof. Ranbir Singh, VC, NLU highlighted through an anecdotal account how Indian youth is doing wonders in the US and other countries.On the occasion, a special issue of University News of AIU was also released by the Lt. Governor and other dignitaries.