The Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ launched‘ Higher Education Leadership Development Programme for Administrator’– a joint initiative of UGC and British Council under the auspices of UK India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI), which aims to deliver a leadership development programme for middle and senior level administrative functionaries in Indian Universities. Shri Amit Khare, Secretary, MHRD; Prof. D.P. Singh, Chairman, UGC; Ms. Barbara Wickham OBE, Director, British Council India and other officials from the Ministry of Human Resource Development, University Grants Commission and British Council were present during the launch of the programme.Speaking on the occasion Shri Pokhriyal said that this is a unique programme which will address the critical aspect of enhancing leadership capacity in the mid and senior level functionaries of Indian Universities. He said that the programme will be a step towards institutional development in line with our Governments’ commitment to improve the quality of education being imparted in our Universities. He added that the programme will lead to developing a more global outlook and promote learning for inclusive and internationally connected higher education systems that support the economic and social growth in UK and India.
The Minister also said that the programme will serve as a stimulant for the functionaries to improve their performance and capabilities which consequently shall enhance institutional profile and reputation of Universities in India.The main objective of the programme is to train the senior and middle level academic administrators to enable them to bring about systemic changes with renewed approaches, capacity, tools and skill in Universities in India. This “Higher Education Leadership Development Programme for Administrators” ensures effectiveness on the part of the administrative functionaries of the Universities. This programme includes two workshops conducted by UK trainers, which will train about 300 academic administrators in the level of Registrar and Joint/Deputy/Assistant Registrar to enable them to bring about professional transformation in the higher education institutions. Further to make the programme sustainable 30 potential future leadership development programme trainers from among the 300 participants will be chosen and will be given additional training to train others.The University Grants Commission (UGC) will conduct this programme in collaboration with Advance HE as the training partner with globally recognized institutional expertise and leadership excellence from the UK, which is being enabled by the British Council in India.