AP State varsities told to compete with private ones

Visakhapatnam: HRD minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao urged the vice-chancellors (V-Cs) of state universities to strive to compete with private varsities. 

He held a meeting with the V-Cs of state universities at Andhra University here on Sunday to review the action taken with regard to the resolutions made during a meeting with Governor E S L Narasimhan in January this  year. He narrated various plans initiated by the state government. 

He said 12 private universities have signed MoUs with the government and hence the competition would be intensive.  The private universities like SRM, Centurion, Great Lakes University have already set up their campuses in AP, after the state government introduced Andhra Pradesh Private University (Establishment and Regulation) Bill.

The HRD minister  said that every students wants a job after completion of their course. Private universities and colleges are going one step ahead to ensure that students are hired through campus drive by introducing placement cells, he added.

Pointing out that this is where the state universities were lagging behind, he said to overcome the situation, the state  universities also should establish placement officers and placement cells.

The main goal of the state government is that the varsities secure good ranks in NIRF and healthy competitions was required to do so.  As part of that, the HRD ministry would conduct a review meeting  for every three months with all the state varsity V-Cs.’

Quoting words of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu spoken at Fintech Festival recently, he said there is a mismatch between the industry and academics. “Students should be taught as per the demands of the job market. The research should also be relevant to the society and time.

The syllabus needs to be upgraded frequently as per the industry need. That is why the state government is roping in industrialists in creating new curriculum according to the needs of industry,” he said. He further added that the varsity would enhance their interface with industries bringing in industry leaders to the executive council.