UNIVERSITY- INDUSTRY CONGRESS

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in collaboration with All India Council for Technical Education and Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India organized the Global Higher Education Summit on 2nd - 3rd December 2015 at Scope Complex Lodhi Road, New Delhi. The Summit Theme was Think in India - Skill in India - Make in India. 15 students along with two Faculty members Mr. Yashvardhan Soni and Mr. Ravi Dutt from Dronacharya Collage of Engineering, Gurgaon attended the event.

The objective of this summit was to facilitate partnerships among institutes and industry for research, better teaching tools, enhancing the employability of students, creating more relevant curricula, training the trainers and capacity building in teaching arena, among others.

The summit created a platform to discuss the following issues:-

1. Digital Learning.

2. New Education Policy.

3. Accreditation & Rankings.

4. Industry-Academia Collaborations.

5. Internationalisation of Higher Education in India.

6. Research Partnerships between Industry & Institutes.

7. Higher Education in States and Union Territories of India.

Mr. Vijay Thadani, Chairman CII National Committee on Higher Education, Dr. Sanak Mishra, Vice-President Indian National Academy of Engineering and Mr. Ninad Karpe, Chairman, CII Western Region inaugurated the summit. Mr. Thadani delivered the welcome address. He stated that Make in India is an initiative of the Government of India, to encourage companies to manufacture in India. The major objective behind it is to optimize the involvement of 25 sectors of the economy for job creation and skill enhancement. CII has been working with the government in preparing snaps-shots of each state’s effort in higher education.

The dignitaries present at the summit Released 7 Publications followed by Felicitation of Dr. Michael Spence for his Outstanding Contribution to Higher Education and felicitation of Ms. Sushma Berlia for being an Outstanding Woman Leader in the field of Higher Education.

The first panel discussion of the day was on Status of Higher Education in States and Union Territories of India. The panelists were Mr. Pradeep Banerjee, Executive Director - HUL, Prof. Pradipta Banerjee, Director, IIT Roorkee, Dr. Srinivasan Sundarrajan, Director, NIT Tiruchirappalli, Dr. Pratibha Jolly, Principal, Miranda House College and Mr Anindya Mallick, Partner, Consulting Deloitte India. It was discussed at the session that how states can work more closely with industry in developing their higher education eco-system and attract corporates to increase their gross state domestic product.

The second session for the day was on Digital learning: The Changing Paradigm of Education. The panelists were Mr. Vijay Thadani, Mr. Venkatesh Valluri, Founder & CEO, Valluri Technology Accelerator, Prof. Deepak Phatak, Department of Computer Scientist IIT Bombay , Prof. Ralph Wilcox, Provost, University of South Florida and Dr. Sharon Ding, Academic Director, Open University Worldwide. The discussion highlighted on the quality of faculty and pedagogy that is a matter of concern in most institutes. Technology plays a big role by opening new vistas of tools and aides which not only can improve learning for students but can also make teachers better at teaching. Massive open online courses or MOOCS, distance learning, lectures through online mode or lessons via skype on tablets and mobiles are means of “adaptive learning” which allow teachers to track the progress and comprehension level of each and every student in the class through digital platforms. The experts in this field shared latest trends and possibilities.

On 3rd December 2015 the first session of the day was on Internationalization of Indian Higher Education. Prof. Nikhil Sinha, Vice-Chancellor Shiv Nadar University, Prof. SS Murthy Fellow INAE, Dr. Paul Ryan, Associate Dean Newman University, UK, Dr. Joanna Newman, Vice-Principal, International King’s College, London and Dr. Tara Beteille, Senior Economist, World Bank. The summary derived from the session was that the cross mobility of students, the need to attract more foreign students to India, impediments in the process and equivalency of degrees issue.

The second session was on Accreditation and Rankings: The Way Forward. The penalists were Dr. Surendra Prasad, Chairman, National Board of Accreditation, Prof. R Natarajan, Fellow, INAE, Prof Manoj Datta, Head of the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Delhi, Dr. Prakash Chand, Head, Indian Citation Index, Prof. B S Sahay, Director, IIM Raipur and Mr Shankar Vanavarayar, Co-Chairman, CII National Committee on Higher Education. The discussions were on the entire system of accreditation, evaluation and the need for allowing independent bodies such as CII to undertake the task of accreditation and evaluation on behalf of the government. CII has been working closely with the National Board of Accreditation in evaluating the performance of engineering institutions but has also created its own strong tool of evaluating the performance of technical institutes vis a vis the requirements of industry.

The third session panel discussion was on Measuring Industry-Institute Collaborations. The panelists were Dr. Avinash Pant, Vice-Chairman AICTE, Dr. Y S Rajan, Chairman, NIT Manipur, Prof. Prem Vrat, Fellow, INAE, Prof. Nagesh R. Iyer, Fellow, INAE and Mr. Ramesh Datla, Chairman & Managing Director Elico Limited. This discussion focused on the exercise of mapping the industry linkages of technical institutes. In order to stimulate industry - academia collaboration, CII started this mapping in partnership with the AICTE since 2012. This yearly initiative maps and awards the best technical institutions on their industry linkages leading to a benchmark in India. This session looked at the four-year journey of this survey.

The last session of the summit was on Research Partnerships Between Industry & Institutes. The panelists were Prof. T K Chandrashekar, Secretary Science & Engineering Research Board, Prof. Devang Khakhar, Director, IIT Bombay, Dr. Swapan Bhattacharya, Director, NIT Surathkal, Mr. M. S. Unnikrishnan, Managing Director & CEO Thermax Limited, Prof. A. B. Bhattacharyya, Fellow INAE and Ms. Subhra Priyadarshini, Editor, Nature India. It was discussed during the session that the private sector has been a major beneficiary of R&D activities. Academia and industry work in isolation in R&D, which often prevents research from being industry-oriented and free flow of knowledge and funds between sectors. Unattractive research remuneration, especially at initial levels of PhD, act as an impediment for scholars in considering research as a preferred career. Even after the latest revisions in JRF / SRF slabs, several scholars find taking up employment a more gainful option. In an effort to address this situation, and attract competent students in Ph.D programs, the government and CII instituted the Prime Minister’s Fellowship Scheme for Doctoral Research in 2012.

The summit was concluded with a vote of thanks Mr. Shankar Vanavarayar. It was a very knowledgeable event as many important issues were addressed and discussed by the dignitaries present at the summit.