Find ways to maintain peace on campus, Guv tells political parties

BHUBANESWAR: Governor and Chancellor SC Jamir on Monday called upon the political parties to find out ways through consensus to maintain peace on campuses of institutions offering higher education in the State.Addressing the inaugural session of conference of Vice-Chancellors in Raj Bhavan, the Governor called for a sustained focus on quality, relevance and excellence in universities to meet global standards of excellence.

He said the need of the hour is to nurture inter-disciplinary education, engage in cutting edge research and foster creativity and innovation. He asked universities to make every effort for both students and teachers to acquire multi-tasking skills to apply theoretical knowledge to real-world problems.

Describing universities as the repositories of wisdom of enlightened and inspired minds, the Governor urged upon making higher education a foundation to a developed, prosperous and enlightened human society.  He said universities should make efforts to adhere to faculty-student ratio and stay focused on faculty development through training and orientation for augmenting capabilities. He asked universities to create an environment for performing better in teaching, research and outreach and explored means of larger collaboration with industries.

Citing effective governance as one of the performance radars of universities, Governor called upon the VCs to have a leadership of moral stature, honesty and integrity for maintaining transparency and accountability in universities.

Finance Minister Sashi Bhusan Behera, Agriculture Minister Pradip Maharathy, Minister of State for Higher Education Anant Das, Minister of State for Tourism and Culture Ashok Chandra Panda, Principal Secretary to Governor CJ Venugopal, Additional Chief Secretary in Higher Education Department GVV Sharma and senior officials were present.