The Vice-Chancellor of University of Madras, G. Thiruvasagam, said that he would endorse the opinion of critics of higher education who had been saying that the present higher education in India was not socially relevant.
“I agree with the critics on this issue. The success of higher education is not about just churning out graduates from colleges and universities. I feel that higher education today is not socially relevant,” he said at a national seminar held at Yadava College in the city on Thursday.
Stating that receiving a graduate degree or a Ph.D. alone would not be enough, he said that the outcome of the degree must give way to solutions. He felt that the universities and colleges must take more efforts to enhance the quality of human resources.
“We have good budget allocation for education; there are several laboratories and there is funding support to organise seminars. Still, something more is to be done to achieve the real objectives of higher education,” Dr. Thiruvasagam said.
He was speaking at the inauguration of a two-day seminar on ‘Renewable Energy Resources’ organised by Yadava College in association with Loyola Institute of Frontier Energy (LIFE), Loyola College, Chennai.
M. Selvanayagam, Director, LIFE, said that environment-friendly energy resources would have to be tapped properly to meet the rising demand. The use of renewable energy should be encouraged. K. P. Navaneethakrishnan, secretary and correspondent, and P. Rengan, Principal, were among those who spoke.
