Telangana governor expresses concern over education status, urges stakeholders to pull up socks

Interacting with the vice-chancellors of the state universities through virtual mode, she urged all the stakeholders to join hands and work to ensure a top place for the Telangana in quality higher education.

"Telangana should be in the top rank in higher education," she said.

Calling upon Vice-Chancellors to strive for transforming universities into centers of excellence, she said varsities should not just remain as 'teaching facility. She said universities should emerge as the centers of innovation, research, and development.

Highlighting the need for research, Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan said that encouraging innovation in universities was vital for the country's development. "India stands at 49th position in Global Innovation Index. Universities have a greater role in catapulting our country into the league of top-20 countries of the Global Innovation Index," she said.

The governor also called for multi-disciplinary research related to the Covid-19 pandemic. "Quality research and publication in international journals must be encouraged through support and incentives," she added.

The governor also asked the vice-chancellors to build a strong network of alumni and rope them in for the university's development.

The other suggestions of the Governor to the VCs included promoting Academic Social Responsibility, ensuring vaccination of students, reaching out to the unreachable sections and help them to be part of the online classes, protecting the academic year through regular classes and examinations, and encouraging the Youth Red Cross and NSS activities to adopt the villages.

Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan announced that as the Chancellor she would institute awards for best teacher, who will be selected by the students, best research paper, and the award for the best village adopted by the students.

The governor directed the universities to conduct the convocations on a regular basis.

Besides VCs of all 14 state universities, chairman and vice-chairman of Telangana State Council of Higher Education also participated in the 3-hour-long exhaustive interaction.