President to hold high-level meet on education with VCs, Directors

With education always topping his agenda, President Mukherjee will play host to Vice Chancellors and Directors of various premier institutions.

New Delhi: With education always topping his agenda, President Pranab Mukherjee will play host to a meeting of Vice Chancellors and Directors of various premier institutions for finding ways to improve the quality of education and bringing them at par with top institutions of the world.

The three-day conference will begin from November 4 and it will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, HRD Minister Smriti Irani, Nobel Peace laureate Kailash Satyarthi, Bharat Ratna Prof C N R Rao and Prof M S Swaminathan.

This is the first time that a meet bringing together at one forum all heads of higher education institutions is being convened by the President.

Earlier, separate conferences were held of Vice Chancellors of Central Universities, Directors of NITs, IITs, IISERs and IISC.

Mukherjee is the Visitor to all these institutions.

The agenda for the conference includes improving quality of higher education in institutions to bring them at par with top institutions of the world, capacity development of faculty and engagement of institutes of higher learning with community and society for sustainable and inclusive development.

The three-day meet will also deliberate on promotion of gender equity and cultural inclusion through higher education, a Rashtrapati Bhawan spokesman said.