AIU celebrates 96th foundation day; Prof PB Sharma, VC, Amity Haryana urges AIU to get 10+ universities in Top 100 before its centenary celebrations

New Delhi, 24th March: Association of Indian Universities (AIU), a flagship body of the Indian higher education institutions, celebrated its 96th foundation day on 23rd March, in virtual presence of about 100 vice chancellors who shared their suggestions for reforming the Indian higher education landscape.

AIU, formed in 1925, was the first higher education body in India to cater to the needs of Indian Universities. AIUs significance in Indian higher education landscape is backed by the fact that it has been led by many eminent educationists including two former presidents – S. Radhakrishnan and Dr. Zakir Hussain – over the course of 96 years, informed Dr. Pankaj Mittal, the Secretary General of AIU, who has been credited for being the torch bearer for the Indian universities, especially during the challenging period of Covid-19.

Sharing the activities undertaken by AIU during the past one year, Dr. Mittal said, “AIU used the Covid as an opportunity to reach out to member universities. We held many training programs to train our faculty members to teach effectively during online classes. We held online training programs for placement officers, so that they can conduct online placements, since it was a very big issue during Covid times.”

“We have also started online courses for community engagement, online training programs, roundtables on rankings, philanthropy, eligible enrollment. In this way, the AIU has been involved in many academic and research activities during the Covid period.”

While complimenting AIU, Amity University Haryana VC and past president of AIU Prof. P.B Sharma urged AIU to push for a highly ambitious target of getting atleast 10-15 Indian Universities in top 100 and atleast 1-2 in top 10, before its centenary celebration in 2025.

Dr. Sharma gave an example of two Singapore Universities – Nanyang Technological University and National University of Singapore – which were designed to foray into the list of top 20 universities in the world.

While complimenting AIU and showering praise on AIU for its efforts during Covid times, Dr. Balvinder Shukla, Amity University Noida VC, said, “The initiatives that AIU undertook during the Covid period – including professional development of faculties, research collaboration, internship collaboration – really helped our universities in a big way.”

Dr. Shukla also raised some issues pertinent to the education sector. The most demanding one being the conflicting guidelines that have been issued by the UGC, state governments and AIU for NEP implementation. Dr. Shukla called for a unified way of implementing the new education policy.

AIU was supposed to celebrate its 96th foundation day with a foundation lecture by Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog and Chancellor of Gokhale Institute of Economics & Politics in Pune. “Dr. Kumar couldn’t deliver the lecture but paid compliments to the AIU in his brief address,” informed Dr. Alok Kumar Mishra, Joint Secretary, AIU.

Photo Highlights of 96th Foundation Day of Association of Indian Universities

Eminent educationists including – Bhushan Patwardhan, former Vice Chairman of UGC; Prof. Ami Upadhyayay, Vice Chancellor at Dr BabaSaheb Ambedkar Open University; Professor (Dr.) C. Raj Kumar, Vice-Chancellor at OP Jindal Global University; Prof Mehraj-ud-Din, Vice-Chancellor at Central University of Kashmir; Dr. Debkumar Mukhopadhyay, Vice-Chancellor at Cooch Behar Panchanan Barma University; Prof Upinder Dhar, Vice-Chancellor at Shri Vaishnav Vidyapeeth Vishwavidyalaya and Dr Mrunalini Fadnavis, Vice Chancellor of the Solapur University – paid compliments to the Tej Pratap Singh, President, AIU and Dr. Pankaj Mittal, Secretary General, AIU on its 96th foundation day.