Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan performing Bhoomi Pujan for construction of new buildings at National Institute of Technology- Tiruchi on January 22, 2023. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Union Minister for Education, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday said the launch of the National Digital University later this year will pave the way for taking the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) in higher education much above the current 27 per cent.
The minister told media persons that emphasis on online education, collaboration between existing institutions and starting of new ones are other ways to achieve the desired target of 50 per cent GER.
Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, who was here to inaugurate the second floor of the logo lecture hall complex and annexe buildings at National Institute of Technology – Tiruchi, hailed innovation and research among top-tier higher education institutions like NITs, IITs and IIMs. advocated cooperation. Activities that benefit people.
On the imminent entry of select foreign universities into India, the minister said the initiative was meant to provide a cost-effective option to a section of learners who pursue higher education in foreign universities without any certainty of the status of the institutions.
The University Grants Commission, while specifying the guidelines for the four-year UG program in Sciences and Humanities, has given the option of higher educational institutions to follow the three-year UG pattern keeping in view the period required to transition to the new system. retained. National Education Policy 2020, the minister said.
Complimenting NIT-T for implementing the NEP, the minister assured support for the institute’s plan to set up a research park next year to coincide with its Diamond Jubilee. Urging the students to take up entrepreneurship, the Minister said that research should be community oriented.
Shri Pradhan lauded IGNIT, the learning club of NIT Tiruchi for identifying students from underprivileged backgrounds and training them to face the toughest entrance exams in the country.
Later the Minister met Bhaskar Bhat, Chairman, Board of Governors, NIT Tiruchi, and G. Aghila, Director, NIT Tiruchirappalli performed the bhoomi puja for the annexe buildings of the Production, Mechanical, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering departments. An estimated Rs 68 crore will be spent on the construction of these buildings.
The second floor of the lecture hall complex, which he inaugurated on the occasion, was constructed at a cost of ₹14 crore.