13th National Symposium on: “Ranking of Agricultural Education” held at Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (Hisar) during 19th– 20th Sept, 2019.
Recommendations emerged from the Symposium:
- The draft of National Agricultural Education Policy should be deliberated in detail in all the universities and suggestions after in house discussion of different universities/ICAR institutes should be compiled. A committee comprising of prof. K.P. Singh, VC, CCSHAU, Hisar; Dr.S.K. Patil, VC,IGKVV, Raipur; Dr.S.K. Rao, VC, RVSKVVU, Gwalior and Dr. M.B. Chetti, VC, UAS, Dharwad was constituted to work out the detailed joint response of Agriculturl Universities to be submitted to the MHRD through MoA and MoAH.
(Action: Committee members/President IAUA) - A committee was constituted to work out a common criteria and suggest improvements in the existing criteria regarding ranking adopted by ICAR, which will be acceptable to all universities/ institutions. Dr. B.S. Dhillon, VC, PAU, Ludhiana was nominated as Chairperson, while committee members nominated were Prof.K.P. Singh, VC, CCSHAU, Hisar; Dr. R.K. Singh, Director cum VC, IVRI Bareilly; Dr. Gopal Krishana, Director cum VC, CIFE,Mumbai; Dr.Parminder Kaushal, VC, Dr YSPUH&F, Nauni and Dr. M.K.Naik, VC, UAHS, Shivamogga.
(Action: Committee members/President IAUA) - All the universities were asked to prepare a brief note (4-5 pages)on their contributions during last 5 years quantifying impacts on society so that the information can be uploaded on IAUA website and updated regulary
(Action: All Vice-Chancellors) - Ranking of Institutes/Universities should be carried out based on performance of last-3 years against the present process based on performance during one year, as research is a long process. Institutes/Universities should be ranked separately based on the programmes being offered such as PG only; and UG and PG both for ICAR. However, considering the contribution of agriculture towards feeding the country and upliftment of rural economy, there is a need for separate ranking of SAUs in NIRF to maintain separate identity of agricultural education.
(Action: ICAR/President IAUA) - Universities should develop partnership and collaboration with other universities, countries states, Government agencies, NGOs and civil societies for transfer of technologies and schemes run by govt. for farmers and rural development; and community partnership to bring together different pieces of research puzzle i.e. expertise, knowledge & equipment.
(Action: All Vice-Chancellors) - Agri Business Incubation Centers should be established in all the universities so that graduates can be motivated for Agri-business startups. Vocational training centers should be strengthened for imparting skills in agriculture for employment generation for the unemployed rural youths. Development of outreach programmer through online courses and distance education in agricultural sciences in regional languages would also help in improving the perception of the university
(Action: ICAR/All Vice-Chancellors) - Faculty exposure to the international laboratories, tuning of soft skills etc.should be facilitated with provision of Sabbatical leave for the teaching faculty.Credit transfer for the students should be encouraged so that benefit of excellent facilities and courses in one university can be availed by others.
(Action: All Vice-Chancellors) - Independence of university and industry partners must be protected and their differing missions be respected. University must not lose sight of their prime academic mission and performing basic scientific and engineering inquiry while working in synergy with industry.
(Action: All Vice-Chancellors) - Collaboration for students in getting the fellowship and scholarships from the industries should be explored. Skill requirement of industry must be fulfilled and mid-term reviews of curriculum are also required. Flexibility in courses is required for international collaboration.
(Action: ICAR/All Vice-Chancellors) - To develop sustainable agricultural practices, encouragement for use of ICT based technologies and demonstration programmes for transfer of knowledge and skill to farmers should be encouraged.
(Action: All Vice-Chancellors) - There is a need to develop a corpus fund in the institutes which can be used for funding international joint projects which will enhance quality publication, patenting, etc. Matching funds can be earmarked by respective participating Institutes/Universities.
(Action: ICAR/All Vice-Chancellors) - To convert agricultural universities into global institutions, good quality students are to be attracted. Restrictions for admission of students in the ratio of 75:25 (State:ICAR) is a limiting factor and there is a need to modify this ratio to 50:50. Some mechanism may be evolved to increase the strength of international students through direct admission.
(Action: ICAR/All Vice-Chancellors)