President of India Inaugurates Golden Jubilee Celebrations of Bharati Vidyapeeth

The President of India, Shri Pranab MukherjeeinauguratedtheGolden Jubilee Celebrations of Bharati Vidyapeethtoday (June 25, 2015) at Pune.

Speaking on the occasion, the President said that he was happy to be present on the momentous occasion of the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of Bharatiya Vidyapeeth.He had earlier visited their campus in 2010 for the convocation of Bharati Vidyapeeth University.Dr. Kadam had the vision to develop this organization into a full-fledged University.Dr. Kadam’s dream came true in 1996 when deemed-to-be-university status was conferred on a cluster of institutions under Bharati Vidyapeeth.He said that overcoming difficult circumstances, Dr Kadam has developed this centre of learning into one of the largest educational organizations in the country with 160 educational units from pre-primary to post-graduate and doctoral levels.Its motto ‘social transformation through dynamic education’ is appropriate in the present context.The transformative role of education is immense.

The President said that today we have a repository of over 700 universities and 36000 thousand colleges.However, despite this physical expansion of higher education, the quality of education in most institutes is below par. The President said that he has been repeating in his interactions with institutions of higher learning that none of our universities finds a place amongst the top 200 positions in world university rankings.It remains a matter of serious concern not only for the fact that universities from several countries are better placed than our institutions but also because ancient seats of learning in India – Nalanda, Takshashila, Valabhi, Somapura – were leading educational institutions in their time. We do not have dearth of talent.Inspired teachers are also there.A holistic approach is required to help us occupy our rightful place in the comity of nations.Besides, a programme of skill development should be taken up with all seriousness to take advantage of the demographic dividend which India will have in the coming future when two-thirds of the working population of the world will be living in India.

The President said that private educational institutions play an important role in the higher education sector worldwide.Harvard, Yale and Stanford Universities are excellent examples of private sector initiative in higher education.Higher academic institutions in the country would also do well to engage with the industry. Every academic institution has a duty to imbibe in their students social consciousness.

On the occasion a souvenir was released and its first copy was presented to the President.A Golden Jubilee Museum and Golden Jubilee Sanshodhan Bhavan were also inaugurated by the President.

This release issued 1940 hrs.