Education Promotion Society for India, a national body representing the wide spectrum of education sector and education service providers and Association of Professional Academic Institutions had organised a national conference on “Indian higher education: quality assurance, accreditation and ranking” recently at Hotel Hindustan International, Kolkata. More than 300 delegates of leading government functionaries, vice chancellors, academicians and entrepreneurs attended the national conference.

In the present scenario of disruptive technology, education like other sectors too is going through rapid metamorphosis.

This is particularly pertinent for higher education as the students have to face a completely new environment on leaving academic institutes. Old methods and systems of faculty too are being discarded. Instead, upgraded methods ensuring teacher-student coexistence is becoming necessary to render effective and accountable education. Factors such as faculty and student training are being reconsidered.

Anil D Sahasrabudhe, chairman, AICTE, inaugurated the conference. “The first training academy will soon come up in Jaipur on two acres of plot that the government has provided. Teacher and student training will begin in the new academy in one and half years.

A second academy is also slated to come up in Gujarat where the government has given five acres of land in Baroda. There are also plans for a third in Thiruvananthapuram and fourth in Guwahati,” he said.

This sets an example regarding how the government and private can work together towards greater development of the country. “Quality assurance is a factor that solely depends on the activities of the institution. Government does not have much role to play here. Self introspection is necessary. It is not possible for every institution to perform equally, but each one should be appreciated for their area of strength.

Thus every institution must understand and acknowledge their strength and weakness,” he said.

Once identifying their drawbacks, the institutes must work towards correcting themselves. This way, the qualities of each will improve automatically.

Sahasrabudhe informed that NAAC and NBA are two different accreditation entities working independently. The role of the National Institutional Ranking Framework is to help institutions compete efficiently on a global level. He also stressed the need for technology development.

Sardar Taranjit Singh, president, APAI said, “In the modern ecosystem of education accreditation, it has become very important for the institutions to garner values towards development of the students. Many different institutions with accreditations have come up last two decades, but their long-term survival depends on quality assurance.”

H Chaturvedi, alternate president EPSI and director, BIMTECH, greater Noida, in his presidential address drew a picture of the present education scenario in India.

Also he has stressed that, “The government should give autonomy to private educational institutions,” he said.

He has requested that the regulators should act as facilitators while addressing he has emphasised the liberalisation of industry. Similarly the education system also should come out of clutches and should have more autonomy. He has also quoted the recent interview of the honourable Prime Minister of India. “All the educational institutions should maintain quality and should ensure that the regulators should appreciate the institutions,” he said.

The panel concluded successfully as P Palanivel, executive secretary, EPSI, delivered the vote of thanks.

Some other personalities present at the conference were Amalendu Basu, director, technical education, government of West Bengal; S Satnam Singh Sandhu, vice president, EPSI and chancellor, Chandigarh University; Saikat Maitra, vice chancellor, Maulana Azad University of Technology, Kolkata; R P Singh, secretary general, quality council of India, New Delhi; Bhimaraya Metri, director, Indian Institute of Management, Tiruchirapalli; Ashoke Ranjan Thakur, vice chancellor, Sister Nivedita University, Kolkata; Ajoy K Ray, former director, ISET; P N Razdan, vice chancellor, and D Y Patil, Vidyapeeth, Pune.