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Saturday, Sep 20, 2008
“Industries must invest in research”
- Universities must set up science parks, says
Higher Education Secretary
Madurai: Industries must invest in university research activities.
Such a trend is widely prevalent abroad. Ford Foundation, Rockefeller
Foundation and Bill Gates have been donating liberally to universities,
said Higher Education Secretary K. Ganesan on Thursday.
He was here to participate in Madurai Kamaraj University’s
Teachers’ Day celebrations and awards ceremony for innovative
practices and experiments in higher education.Change was needed
in higher education and more emphasis and focus should be on
research. With this objective, he said, stipends for research
had been increased.
Universities should also go for science parks on the lines of
the model adopted by Indian Institute of Technology, Madras,
to foster research activities. “The State Government is
contemplating a similar science park for Anna University, Chennai.
Even MKU, if it had 100 acres, should go for one.”
Mr. Ganesan said that 1,000 classrooms and 60 laboratories had
been added to Government colleges in the State. Centres of research
had also been created in universities. Tamil Nadu was the first
State in the country to fully adopt choice-based credit system
across the State
Vice-Chancellor R. Karpaga Kumaravel said that among the top
101 universities in the world, not one was from India. Also,
the gap in research facilities had widened. India’s share
in terms of publications in international journals had come
down to 2.5 per cent from 10 per cent 12 years ago. However,
China’s share had shot up to around 15 per cent from 6
per cent. “A strong higher education system can support
the overall education system in a developing country such as
India, improve the quality and quantity of its human and social
capital…,” he said.
State Planning Commission Vice-Chairman M. Naganathan said that
efforts should be made to ensure that brilliant students were
retained in India and not lost to foreign countries.
Courtesy: The Hindu
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