Education Minister A. Suresh will inaugurate the second meeting of the State Higher Education Planning Board (HEPB), jointly being organised by Andhra University, IIM-Visakhapatnam and IIPE-Visakhapatnam, on September 18 in Visakhapatnam.
Director, IIT-Delhi, V. Ramgopal Rao, will be the chief guest of the event being organised on the theme, ‘Expansion, Equity and Quality in Higher Education’.
The Minister will also launch the AP State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE) Learning Management System (LMS), and this will be followed by a roundtable on inter-institutional collaborations.
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Future activities of the HEPB such as research collaborations among the institutions, remote learning centres (RLCs), online credit transfers of the students, organisation of seminars and webinars, placement support and internships to students, measures for enhancement of gross enrolment ratio in the State and increasing the access, equity and quality of higher education in the State will be discussed. Based on the discussions, an action plan will be charted out and submitted to the government.
After the first HEPB meeting, five cluster groups were formed to work out a plan for effective collaborative activities.
“We believe that the integration of the institutions of higher education will deliver good results. The purpose of constituting the board, a first of its kind in the country, is to facilitate promotion of mutual understanding and development of the State and Central universities / institutions, which will lead to development of higher education in the State,” said K. Hemachandra Reddy, Chairman of the HEPB.
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There are 30 State universities, five deemed universities, seven private universities, eight Central institutions and three Central universities in the State. “The idea is to integrate these institutions to pave the way for a more vibrant ecosystem in the field of higher education in the State,” he said.