Khanapara, March 25: The three-day-long mega academic event of the country, the National Conference of Vice-Chancellors (VCs) on “Transformative Higher Education for Atmanirbhar Bharat” ended on Saturday with its valedictory session graced by Gulab Chand Kataria, the Governor of Assam as the Chief Guest.
The conference was organized by the Association of Indian Universities (AIU), New Delhi in collaboration with the University of Science and Technology Meghalaya (USTM) from 23rd to 25th March 2023 at the USTM campus.
The guests of honour for the valedictory session were Atul Kothari, National Secretary, Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas; Rakkam A Sangma, Education Minister, Government of Meghalaya, and Dr Nani Gopal Mahanta, Education Advisor, Government of Assam.
Addressing the august gathering, Gulab Chand Kataria thanked AIU and all the Vice-Chancellors on behalf of Assam and all the states of the North East for participating in the conference at USTM and expressed his hope that India will again become ‘Viswaguru’ based on knowledge, dedication, and service.
Meghalaya Education Minister Rakkam A. Sangma addressed the participants as the special guest of honour. Earlier, Prof G D Sharma, Vice President of AIU, and Vice-Chancellor, USTM, made the welcome address. Dr Pankaj Mittal, Secretary-General, AIU, addressed the august gathering and thanked all the distinguished dignitaries for participating in the conference and making it successful. The conference report was presented by Dr S Rama Devi Pani, Editor of University News, AIU.
Delivering the presidential address, Prof Suranjan Das, President, AIU, and VC, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, said that this was an unparalleled conference hosted by USTM. Atul Kothari, National Secretary Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas, and Prof Nani Gopal Mahanta, Education Advisor, Govt of Assam addressed the gathering as guests of honour.
The valedictory session of the VC’s Conference was preceded by a technical session with the theme “Future of Education, Learning, and Workplace”. The sub-themes of the session were: ‘Technology-based personalized teaching-learning models’, ‘Changing the role of teachers as facilitators’ and ‘Preparing the students for future jobs’. This last technical session of the Conference was chaired by Prof. Ranbir Singh, Former President, AIU, and Chancellor, IILM University, Gurugram. It was co-chaired by Prof. Bhushan Patwardhan, Former Vice Chairman, UGC & Former Chairman-EC, NAAC. The speakers at the session were Prof M M Pant, Former Pro Vice-Chancellor, IGNOU (Online); Prof Marmar Mukhopadhyay, Former Director, NIEPA, and Prof Parameswar K Iyer, Director, IIT, Guwahati. The session was followed by the AIU General and Business Session.
The three-day-long National Conference of Vice-Chancellors was attended by more than 500 Vice-Chancellors and Directors of IITs, IISc, NITs, and other higher education institutions from India and abroad.
