‘Higher education must be affordable’
Prof Furqan Qamar said higher education cannot remain exclusive and elitist
Chennai: Higher education has to be made accessible and affordable to women, poor and those in rural areas, said Prof Furqan Qamar, secretary general, Association of Indian Universities.Delivering the 20th convocation address at Sri Ramachandra University on Saturday, Prof Qamar said higher education cannot remain exclusive and elitist.
“Economic affordability is a major impediment to inclusive education. Our gross enrolment ratio in higher education is just 20 per cent and we plan to push it to 30 per cent in five years and 50 per cent in 20 years,” he said.
Prof Qamar gave away 16 gold medals to meritorious students. Chancellor V.R. Venkataachalam conferred the degrees and distributed certificates to over 280 MBBS and other graduates. Vice-Chancellor, Dr J.S.N. Murthy, Dr T.K. Parthasarathy, chief advisor, and Dr S.P. Thyagarajan, dean, research, among others, were also present at the convocation.