Odishatv Bureau
Nagpur: UGC Chairman Ved Prakash has appealed to universities to focus on the inter-disciplinary educational programs and strengthen infrastructure to enable students to avail fruits of higher education.

He was addressing students and teachers on the occasion of the 98th convocation of Rashtrasant Tukdoji Maharaj (RTM) Nagpur University, formerly known as Nagpur University, at the university campus here on Saturday.

Underlining the need to define higher education, Ved Prakash said the universities in the country were plagued by poor administration and lacking basic infrastructure to cater to global challenges.

He said the role of teachers plays important role in shaping the students having global outlook. "The role of teachers in higher education has become more demanding. How many teachers discuss national and international issues with students. It`s duty of teachers to make student fluent in languages. There is no age bar to learn any language," he said.

In his presidential address, Vice Chancellor Dr Vilas Sapkal said the RTM Nagpur University has decided to introduce inter-disciplinary courses in a bid to give an opportunity to students to acquire various skills.

The courses include M.tech and Ph.D programs, he said. "The decade 2010-2020 is declared as the decade of innovation wherein innovative ideas, creative concepts are to be used to improve competitiveness. The university has also planned to become global through establishing meaningful international co-operations for joint research, training and degree," Sapkal said.

Former Supreme Court judge Justice Vikas Sirpurkar, senior counsel Kumkum Sirurkar, former vice chancellor of Amrawati University Dr Kamal Singh and others were present on the occasion.

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