Celebrating two decades of Academic Contributions, on May 5, 2022, the Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) of Nirma University organised an expert talk on the Challenges and Opportunities in higher Education? by Dr N V Varghese, Vice Chancellor at the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), New Delhi.
Dr Varghese holds a doctoral degree in Economics with a specialisation in educational planning. He is also the Founding Director of the Centre for Policy Research in Higher Education (CPRHE) at NIEPA. He is closely associated with educational planning at the federal and decentralised levels and with the design and development of externally funded projects in India.
In his talk, Dr Varghese briefed about the current challenges faced by higher education institutions. He also shared the importance of increasing markets and massification. He also narrated four very important aspects which are equity, quality, governance and future. He talked about the processes under the pipelines which will give the major directions to implement the flexible pathways to higher education including (1) Academic Bank of credits, (2) Credit transfer system, (3) Global convention of qualifications and (4) National Higher Education Quality Framework. He further urged to change the institutions, policies, and processes to face these challenges. In a nutshell, he said that ?University, as we know them, will not exist in the future, unless they change for survival? and this is going to be very challenging.
Over 150 faculty members from various constituent institutes of the Nirma University attended the session.