Indian Institute of Management Nagpur hosted the UGC Western Zone Conference for Autonomous Colleges on implementing the NEP 2020.
Hon’ble Governor of Maharashtra, Shri C.P Radhakrishnan, the Chief Guest, inaugurated the Conference in the presence of Prof. M. Jagdish Kumar, Chairman, UGC and Dr. BhimarayaMetri, Director of IIM Nagpur. The Academic Mentors, Directors, Principals, and 500 Delegates from approximately 240 autonomous Institutions in the Western Zone of India attended the conference.
Hon’ble Governor of Maharashtra congratulated IIM Nagpur for a meaningful, timely, and relevant Conference. In his inaugural speech he shared that in current times, India stands ahead in the education sector offering high-quality education at every stage due to top-tier academic resources, world-class infrastructure, and ground-breaking avenues for research.
He also said the Delegates that the NEP 2020 is a transformative step in this direction as it can create long-lasting change in the coming years and decades. It sets forth ambitious goals to bring transformational reforms in education: positioning India as a global knowledge superpower; ensuring that the Indian education system provides high-quality learning to all regardless of economic or social background; increases gross enrolment ratio from the current 28% to 50% by 2035 and nurtures graduates from the Indian higher education system.
He expressed his belief that by achieving such goals, India can realize the vision of Viksit Bharat by 2047. With an emphasis on collective efforts to realize the objectives of NEP 2020 as per the guiding pillars of Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability, and Accountability, the reforms will elevate the quality of education by focusing on core values, cognitive skills, critical thinking, and problem-solving abilities.
NEP 2020 emphasizes multidisciplinary holistic education, institutional autonomy, quality research through the National Research Foundation, professional development for teachers, and technology integration. The recommendations are internationalization of higher education, governance restructuring, and multilingual education promotion.
University Grants Commission (UGC) initiated nearly 50 actions to enable Higher Education Institutions to implement NEP 2020. They create a flexible, multidisciplinary, globally benchmarked higher education ecosystem in India. Academic Bank of Credits, National Credit Framework, and Professor of Practice transform the landscape by fostering student mobility, credit transfer, and industry-academia collaboration to prepare relevant graduates in today’s global job market. The ‘Apprenticeship Embedded Degree Programme’ is a game-changer.
IIM Nagpur is an ideal venue for such conferences as it is distinguished by its commitment to addressing the needs of modern India with innovative management education and research. Its rapid growth and achievements by adopting NEP 2020 are commendable.
In his opening remarks, Professor M. Jagdish Kumar, Chairman, UGC, told the gathering of the Academic leadership,“You truly represent what our country is today. Optimism drives India on the path to progress. It has many great institutions, excellent constitution, great democracy, and a solid judicial system.”
He further said that “With the world’s most significant education infrastructure, India is the 3rd largest student ecosystem. We also have many challenges to overcome in which Educators attending the Conference have significant roles to play. This Conference will create awareness for exploring the best practices, understand the challenges and find suitable solutions for rapid implementation of NEP 2020. UGC plans to launch many innovative programs in online and offline modes to serve the purpose.”
Dr.BhimarayaMetri, Director of IIM Nagpur, said that as one of the new-generation IIMs established in 2015, it has carved out a prominent position in management education with innovative programs like Cybersecurity and Blockchain.
He further said that NEP is a gold standard and with NEP 2020 implementation more autonomy is possible for the educators who understand the valuable advantages of NEP and they should consider this as the right time to transform their institutions and offer students new avenues more effectively.
He also emphasized that as academic institutions of high repute, we must bring Industry to the Campus and Campus to the Industry.
Enhancing research culture is an effective strategy NEP 2020 recommends, said Dr.Metri. He further noted that flexibility is a crucial benefit of NEP 2020. This policy has guidelines to develop scientific temper amongst students.
The Conference was divided into 8 themes. NEP 2020 prepares students to meet academic and career goals.Opting for skill-oriented course programs is necessary. The dignitaries were involved in different sessions. A short film on NEP 2020 by the UGC was also shown.