Global Rankings & International Collaborations for Excellence marked the Day-2 of AIU's Annual National Meet at LPU

Jalandhar, May 29, 2015 (Newswire.com) - Second day of Association of Indian Universities’ (AIU’s) 89th Annual General Meeting (AGM) at Lovely Professional University remained very important for massive discussions on Global Rankings & International Collaborations for Excellence in Higher Education. The day was divided into four sessions for eminent speakers and participating 200 Vice Chancellors from across the country and foreign delegates from UK, UAE, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Columbia, European Union and more. AIU President Prof H M Desai chaired the first session; whereas, other sessions were chaired by three Vice Chancellors of the top universities of India. Topics widely discussed and elaborated with data for excellence in higher education included Quality Assurance; Global Rankings; International Collaboration & Academic Exchange; and, Leveraging Technology.

Talking about ‘what global rankings require’ AIU Secretary General Prof Furqan Qamar brought forward that the universities of developed nations including US & UK have larger participation (95% & 61% respectively) in higher education than developing countries like India (23%).  He shared that in such comparisons Indian Universities are lagging in global rankings as these face inadequate infrastructure, outdated PG programs, obstructive regulatory & administrative processes, and primitive national Eco-System. Prof Kavita Sharma (President South Asian University) suggested that being pragmatic role of private Universities should not be ignored and Private-Public universities should be made to work together to come out of such a situation.  It was also pondered upon that single accreditation agency is not sufficient so all universities should share responsibilities for excellence themselves. Alternative model of ranking that fits on national universities was also pointed out.

During session for international collaboration and academic exchange speakers talked about opportunities in US, UK, Canada and more countries. During this a specific remark was made about the opportunities in UK for Indian students.

The foreign delegates who participated during different sessions included Prof Stephen Wallis (Director International, DE Montefort University, UK); Prof Richard Harvey (East Anglia University); Prof Robert Allison (Vice Chancellor, Loughborough University UK); Mr. Richard Evritt  (Director-Edn & Soc British Council); Prof Robert Berry (School of Engineering & Applied Sciences, Aston University); Mr S Roy (Sr Higher Education Expert, European Union(DAI); Mr V Seth (Indo Canada Edu Council); Prof R Thomas (Middle East University, UAE); Prof Gistavo Mgkakangky (Embassy of Columbia); Dr Fahima Aziz (Asian University for Women, Bangladesh); Prof Ramli  Bahroom (Vice President, Corporate, Malaysia Open University) and more.