Union health and family welfare minister J.P. Nadda stressed that the country’s institutions of higher education would get full autonomy and there would be no political interference in the education sector.
He was speaking at the inauguration of the south zone vice-chancellors’ conference at VIT University last week. “Academicians can work freely under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership,” he said, adding that the government will also cooperate with states in fostering education, irrespective of the party in power.
Speaking about global university rankings, the Union minister said that the Centre would come up with an India-specific ranking system.
Former Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, director P Balaram raised the issue of the appointment of politicians on the search committee for the selection of vice-chancellors. “The vice-chancellors are controlled by syndicate members, whose appointments are political sometimes. There is no autonomy for higher education institutions,” he said.
