Higher education policy makers from India will share the stage with renowned Swedish statistician Hans Rosling at a global roundtable conference in Miami, South Florida, this month.

The conference, to be held from April 29 to May 1, will be conducted by the British Council in collaboration with the planning commission of Miami city.

The annual conference — ‘Going Global’ — will discuss higher education in large system countries. More than 70 countries, including India, the UK, the US and China, will participate at the event.

The three-day conference aims at enhancing cooperation among countries to improve higher education.

It will help countries share experiences and strategies reforms in higher education.

Education secretary of the Union ministry of HRD Ashok Thakur, vice-chancellor of Delhi University Dinesh Singh, Planning Commission secretary Sindhushree Khullar and advisor for higher education at the Planning Commission Pawan Agarwal will represent India at the event.

Delhi University has rejected the Delhi government’s proposal for reserving 85 percent of seats in state government-funded colleges for students from the city, citing its central character.

The DU assistant registrar (academic), in response to a letter by principal secretary R K Verma, department of IT, wrote: “I am directed to convey that the University of Delhi, being a central university, the proposal submitted by you for reservation of seats in admission in DU colleges for students passing XII from the schools in Delhi cannot be acceded to.”

In a letter, Verma had drawn the attention of DU VC, Dinesh Singh, “to the shortage of institutions of higher learning in Delhi to provide admissions to all students passing higher secondary examination from Delhi schools. Students from Delhi have to go to areas outside Delhi for higher studies… It also takes away opportunity for availing admission in undergraduate and postgraduate courses….”

Reservation in DU has become a political issue. While BJP has been demanding reservation for a long time, the Congress government, in one of its last order, decided to seek 85 percent reservation in 12 of the colleges fully funded by it and 50 percent seats in 16 colleges that are receiving 5 percent funding from state government.

NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul on Friday underlined the need for vigorous efforts to make Indian universities world class, saying the fundamental component of long-term economic health will depend largely on skilled work force to meet the challenge ahead.

Addressing Punjab Technical University here, Lord Paul also expressed concern over failure of any Indian university to feature among the top 200 universities globally and said concerted efforts are needed to improve standards of education in India.

It is a cause for concern that the standards of education in many of our institutions are below benchmark. There is not a single Indian institution in the list of top 200 universities in the world said Paul.

Observing that a higher rank can boost the morale of the academic and student communities, he said it will encourage greater flow of faculty and students from abroad and help in opening new areas of technology and free exchange of ideas.

Lord Paul said that I am a very passionate advocate for education. Education is the foundation on which the strength of a nation rests. It forms the basis for robust, democratic societies and enables economic growth and development. I firmly believe that education should be a fundamental right of any society and the opportunity to participate in education and gain vital life skills should be provided to all.