India to Increase Its GER Target; More Universities Needed

The Draft of National Education Policy (NEP) has proposed to increase the present Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) and take it from the current 25.8 per cent to 35 per cent by the year 2025. In order to accommodate this rise in enrolment, the total number of universities has to increase from the existing number of 950 to 1,200.

This was mentioned in the white paper that was titled ‘The Road to India Becoming a 5 Trillion USD Economy Traverses Through Higher Education’. It was recently released in the 10th edition of IMC (the Indian Management Conclave).

Harivansh Chaturvedi, who is the alternate President of the Education Promotion Society of India (EPSI) and also the Director of BIMTEHC, and Amit Agnihotri, who is the convener at IMC, authored the white paper jointly. It states that the Brick and Mortar educational institutions will be required to ride the digital highway that is promised by Digital India. These institutions will reshape their focus towards the online, distance, and continuing education in addition to the campus programmes.

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The chief guest at the conclave was the former President of India, Pranab Mukherjee. He emphasised on the need for inspired teachers who can effectively train the young minds of the country using new skills and methods. He said that teachers should foster and catalyse the ability to research in students as it will help the country in retaining the talent and will help them explore the options of higher management education in India.

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This session on the National Education Policy (NEP) highlighted the growth projection of the committee on higher education for fifteen years. The committee outlined the immediate requirements to achieve the quantitative goals for the next five years among its long term recommendations.