August 20, 2026 09:16 pm (IST)
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President calls for improvement in quality of higher education in India
Kolkata, Apr 1 (IBNS): President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday inaugurated in Kolkata the Centenary Building of Asutosh College.
Governor of West Bengal Keshari Nath Tripathy, State Higher Education Minister, Partha Chatterjee, Chairman of the Governing Body of Asutosh College Saugata Roy and many other dignitaries were present on the occasion.
Addressing the gathering, the President said that the quality of higher education in the country must improve.
"The 11th Five Year Plan had made provisions for improving the quality of higher education in the country. India has over 700 Universities and around 36,000 Degree colleges. Nearly 2 crore students participate in tertiary education. Despite these numbers, internationally education rating agencies have not placed any of these institutions within the best 200 of the world. On the whole, the quality of education in the country is still low," said he.
He appealed to the management of Asutosh College to endeavor to further improve the standard of education in their highly acclaimed college.
The President said that while the population of Europe and China are ageing, India will have more than half of the working population of the world.
"This human resource can become a dividend if it is utilized properly. Otherwise it will become a liability to the country, he added. Hence, their skills need to be developed to make them employable. This is why a plan has been developed to impart skill development training to more than 50 crore population by 2022 so that they find jobs both inside and outside India," said he.
"Shri Mukherjee observed that during pre-independence era, luminaries like Sir C.V. Raman, Shri S. N. Bose, Shri J.C. Bose brought laurels to India from Calcutta University. But, after independence Dr. Hargovind Khurana, Dr. Chandrashekhar and Dr. Amartya Sen got the Nobel Prize for their achievements in foreign universities though their foundations were in India. It is therefore absolutely critical that the right environment be created for excellence in higher education in the country," he said.
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