Emphasising on bringing higher education closer to the common man on May 14, President Pranab Mukherjee said the dream of creating world class universities in India is an achievable aspiration.
“We must remember that once we had world class universities in Nalanda and Takshashila where brilliant minds of the world came for acquiring education. Therefore, the dream of creating world class universities in India is an achievable aspiration,” he said at the 13th annual convocation of Assam University in Silchar.
“India with strong scientific and technical manpower has the opportunity to become a major knowledge power in the years to come. To make this dream a reality, we have to invest in research and development,” Mukherjee said.
To make education accessible to more students, efforts must be directed at bringing higher education closer to the population, particularly to those in remote corners of the country, he said.
“We must remove the imbalances in the reach of higher education across states, regions and sections of society. Knowledge pursuit has many dimensions. It brings gender equity as a result of access and reach,” he said.
Mukherjee expressed happiness over the attention paid to women’s education in the northeast which has enabled a large of number of girls from the region to pursue education and find employment in major cities across the country.