The Jammu & Kashmir lieutenant governor, Manoj Sinha, stressed that the universities and colleges will have to formulate strategic planning and organizational readiness for adjustments aligned with the National Education Policy 2020 to stay relevant in a constantly evolving world. Sinha said this on Tuesday while addressing the inaugural session of the round table conference with newly appointed vice-chancellors from various universities of the country at the University of Kashmir in Srinagar.

The LG appreciated the endeavour of the Association of Indian Universities to bring together the vice-chancellors on a common platform to deliberate on university governance, collaboration, and promoting innovation in the academic world.

“‘Educate in India’ should be our aim and we need to increase our share in the multi-trillion-dollar global education sector. Institutions with aspirational and shared vision should focus to improve ranking. It should be our top priority and we must take bold action to achieve this goal,” Sinha said.

“We are witnessing a massive growth in demand for higher education. In 10–15 years, India has contributed 74 per cent of all new higher education institutions in the world. We need to ensure quality of studies to provide new tools to students to face the changes,” he said.

He said over 13 lakh Indian students were studying in 79 countries. According to a 2020 estimate, students studying abroad are spending approximately $30 billion annually. Despite having the largest number of higher educational institutions in the world and best facilities, not a single institution of ours is included in the top 10 educational hubs of the world because of lack of promotion.

“Many countries of the global south are now focused on enrolling international students, but India is lagging. On the contrary, we top the list of countries for sending the highest number of students abroad. This trend needs to be reversed with a transformational approach,” the LG said.

At the conference, Sinha shared the efforts of the J&K administration under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to overhaul the education system in the Union territory.

“Since September 2020, J&K is witnessing encouraging reforms in the higher education sector. Universities and colleges have been enabled to focus on demand for education outputs, industry requirements, innovation, new-age skills and to be flexible and resilient to meet the needs of tomorrow,” Sinha said.

The LG also underlined the need for the universities to adjust to the change and meet future challenges.

“Today, the pace of change in every sector is faster than before. The biggest transformational revolution is required in the university campuses,” Sinha said. He further said to remain relevant in the future, universities will have to function like a professional corporation in which each department, unit, and teacher play their crucial role as a separate part and form a complete organic mechanism.

Prof Dinesh Singh, vice-chairman, J&K Higher Education Council, in his address, shared the ongoing transformation in the higher education sector in J&K. Dr Pankaj Mittal, secretary general, Association of Indian Universities, highlighted the endeavours of AIU for enhancing the engagement of universities and teachers in reforming the education system in the country.

Prof Nilofer Khan, vice-chancellor, University of Kashmir; vice-chancellors of various universities; HoDs; senior officers, and faculty members were present at the conference.