On Wednesday, Ved Prakash, the chairman for University Grants Commission, said that the states have not included higher education on their priority lists.

He stated that, to make higher education one of the top priorities in states is an immense challenge. The varied populace in universities is rising and needs a significant amount of various facilities, resources, and treatment of commendable teachers, he said.

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Prakash added that one of the whys and wherefores for higher education growing more expensive is this lack of priority. The states are lacking sufficient quantity of prestigious universities and, the country as a whole requires more institutions to guarantee that everyone who seeks a quality education gets it. Currently, the percentage of students who are enrolling for higher schooling is only 24 %. Prakash aims to increase this to at least 39 % by 2020 – this is a figure not far from that of our neighbour China, where the percentage of students enrolling for higher schooling is 40 %. This challenge is added to by the fact that an education of good quality needs to be provided.

Ved Prakash, along with the director of CEC (Consortium for Educational Communication) – Rajbir Singh – and the director of NITTTR (National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research) of Sector 26 – MP Poonia, inaugurated Prakriti Film Festival, which was held at the NITTTR-26 campus’s auditorium.

Prakash added that institutes of higher education are obliged to aim for superior quality in research and innovation, teaching and engagement. He insisted the CEC and its media centres to extend the course of academic e-content development; the vice-chancellors were also requested to encourage the teachers to develop e-content.