AICTE Chairman proposes vision to make India a global educational superpower during VTU Convocation address

Professor T G Sitharam, the chairman of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), delivered the convocation address at the 22nd annual convocation of Visvesvaraya Technological University in Belagavi on February 23. During his speech, he said, "We are living in exciting times in this digital era. The world is fast changing with disruptive innovations impacting every sphere of people's lives and that education sector is no exception too."

Sitharam emphasised his vision and leadership strengths to make India a global educational knowledge superpower. He expressed his willingness to work with every stakeholder in the education domain to transform higher education into large, well-resourced, vibrant, multi-disciplinary institutions that provide high-quality teaching, innovations, entrepreneurship, research, and community engagement hubs.

 According to him, the organisation's advantages, along with his vision and leadership strengths, can aid India in becoming a global educational knowledge superpower. He expressed his willingness to collaborate with every stakeholder in the education sector to transform higher education into large, well-resourced, vibrant, and multi-disciplinary institutions that provide high-quality teaching, innovations, entrepreneurship, research, and community engagement hubs, as per a report by The New Indian Express.

He further noted that disruptive innovations, driven by digital and communication technologies, offer India a natural advantage, and the NEP has further propelled activities in the education sector. The AICTE transformation framework proposed by the council focuses on four core areas, including research and innovation, academics, society, and students and faculty. Prof Sitharam emphasized that the main focus will be on addressing research problems relevant to society through innovation, with a sustainable development goal (SDG) focus orientation. "At the same time, I propose to move from the creation of towers of excellence to a network of excellence with collaborative value positions involving other top institutions," he added.

At the convocation ceremony, Professor S Vidyashankar, the Vice-Chancellor of Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), welcomed the guests and announced that VTU, Belagavi, was among the first universities in the country to implement NEP-2020 from the academic year 20-21. The university has consistently endeavoured to efficiently implement the NEP in the state's engineering education system, and based on the recommendations of the VTU Task Force and Board of Studies, the scheme and curriculum have been restructured for all programs, with the engineering curriculum undergoing this process from the academic year 2022-23 to achieve the aspirations of NEP-2020.

At the ceremony, the Governor of Karnataka, Thawarchand Gehlot, presented gold medals to the top-performing students across various degrees and courses of VTU. Furthermore, honorary Doctor of Science degrees was awarded to Vikram Kirloskar, the Vice-Chairman of Toyota Kirloskar Motors, M Laxminarayan, the President of WABCO India Ltd and TVS Automotive Solutions Pvt Ltd., and Sachin Sabnis, the Managing Director of Belgaum Ferrocast India Pvt Ltd. The convocation served as evidence of the importance of education and the efforts of institutions such as VTU in shaping the future of higher education in India, stated the report.