Cuttack: Over 100 vice-chancellors attended the Central Zone Vice-Chancellors’ Conference 2020-21 of the Association of Indian Universities (AIU), which was hosted virtually by Sri Sri University, Cuttack, on February 8 and 9.
Anandiben Patel, Governor of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, was chief guest at the inaugural session of the conference whose theme was ‘Promoting Quality, Research and Internationalization in Higher Education’.
Guest of honour Dr Arun Kumar Sahoo, minister of Higher Education, Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment, Fisheries and Animal Resource Development, government of Odisha, stressed on industry-academia collaboration and said that the state aims to provide all support and tools to institutions to perform at their full capacity.
Delivering his valedictory address, Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said that education is not just a process of job creation but an evolutionary process of human life.
Sri Sri University (SSU) vice-chancellor Prof. Ajay Kumar Singh said that the government should accord the university the status of ‘Institute of Global Eminence’ with the autonomy to have centres around the world as Art of Living is present in 156 countries with more than 40,000 teachers and millions of students.
With government approval, SSU can become the world’s largest university, he added.
Three technical sessions, one session with apex body members and an AIU business session were conducted with eminent academicians, regulatory authorities and vice-chancellors of different Central Zone universities.
