9^th Mile, Khanapara, Ri Bhoi, March 24, 2023: Vice Chancellors of various universities and heads of IITs, IISc, AICTE, NAAC, ICAR, ACU, IIIT from across the nation today deliberated on how transformative higher education can create an ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ through different ways like ‘minimum government and maximum governance’ at the second day of the National Conference of Vice Chancellors-2023 at the Central Auditorium of the University of Science and Technology Meghalaya (USTM). The Conference has been organized by the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) and hosted by USTM from the 23^rd to the 25^th of March.

Chairing the second technical session on “Minimum Government: Maximum Governance- What does it mean for the universities?”, Dr Abhay Jere, Vice Chairman, AICTE, said there are many questions on the parameters of ranking of universities. “We have to evolve our own ranking model, and not rely on the western model. It’s a journey, and we are going in the right direction”, he added.  In this context, Dr S Vaidhyasubramaniam, VC, SHASTRA, said, “For the last one and a half year, we have been working on a very important project informally called ‘One Nation One Data’. We will go with a unified platform, take all the data from the universities just once, and then through this system, we will give data to all the agencies like NAAC, NIRF, UGC. This single pool of data will help the higher education institutions.” Sub-themes of the session were ‘Ideal Model for HECI’, ‘Ranking & Rating: Differential Harmony’, and ‘Autonomy: Issues and Concerns’. The session was co-chaired by Prof. Rajiv Mohan Pant, VC, Assam University, where Prof Neelima Gupta, VC, Dr Harisingh Gour Vishwavidyalaya; Prof Alok Kumar Chakrawal, VC, Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya also participated as speakers.

In the third technical session on “Reforms for Holistic Education,” the sub-themes were ‘Promoting Outcome Based Learning’, ‘Integrating skills with higher education’, ‘Innovative Assessment & Evaluation Techniques’. It was chaired by Prof Gautam Barua, Director, IIIT, Guwahati, and co-chaired by Prof. Dhrubojyoti Chattopadhyay, VC, Sister Nivedita University. The speakers were: Dr Basheerhamad Shadrach, Director, CEMCA; Smt. Monika S Garg, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Higher Education Department, Govt. of UP and Prof Vistap Karbhari, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Texas at Arlington, USA.

The fourth Technical Session had the theme “Creating an ecosystem for Research & Excellence” with sub-themes: ‘National &