President Pranab Mukherjee today said that top priority must be given to filling up of vacancies in academic institutions and building capacity in teachers for quality education.
"The availability of quality teachers in academic institutions is paramount. Our higher education institutions are short of good faculty. This may hamper our effort at quality improvement. We must pay top priority in filling up vacancies and building capacities in our teachers," he said.
Addressing the convocation of Himachal Pradesh University, he said that as against China and the US where over five lakh patent applications are filed, in India, there are only 42,000 applications.
He said that the country must strengthen methods such as interdisciplinary and inter-university research partnership, research fellowship and industry incubation park.
Noting that none of the Indian universities figure among the top 200 in the world, Mukherjee said that the country must revive its leadership position on higher education.
"A culture of excellence should be promoted by allowing adequate flexibility in different aspects of academic management," he said.
Hailing the good work of Himachal Pradesh University, he said it was gratifying to note that the university was giving a serious thought to the introduction of a choice-based credit system that will act as a medium for knowledge convergence.
