38th Annual Convocation held by Gulbarga University

The 38th Annual Convocation of Gulbarga University was held on November 20 via a virtual meeting. The convocation was held under exceptional circumstances brought due to the pandemic induced environment.

Addressing the conference Prof. Madheswaran, the director of the Institute for Social and Economic Change spoke about various topics. He brought attention to the need to balance the basic demand and supply chain of an educated workforce. According to him, this could be done by an optimal enrolment policy.

As he said, the increasing disconnect between the higher educational institutes and the demands of the market raises a valid question about the importance and relevance of the degrees given by the Universities. He further said that the gross enrolment ratio between developing and developed countries differ greatly.

In the last survey taken by the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE), it was revealed that the Gross Enrollment Ratio has increased somewhat from 19.4 in 2010 to 26.3 in 2019. This was no small improvement.

Touching on that topic, Mr. Madheswaran said that India had made significant progress in terms of higher education in the last decades but there was still much work that needed to be done.

Despite the vast improvements, the Indian GRE remained lower than the global average of 29.

However, the difference between the GER and the Eligible Employment Ratio, which tells about the quality of graduates, is between 20 to 30% in India. However, the global average for the same in developing countries was less than 10% which indicated a stable educational system.

This indicated a gap between the education that is imparted in the country and the skills that are required by the employer. Mr. Madheswaran said that this could be attributed to the boom of students in 1980 when the enrolment ratio increased exponentially. Since the government was unable to keep up, a gap opened up.

Mr. Madheswaran also spoke about the key challenges that impeded the performance of the higher education sector. He stressed the need for research-driven education and improved funding to the Universities.

This event was also attended by the Minister of Higher Education Mr. Ashwath Narayana. He congratulated all the graduating students and gold medal winners and spoke about the importance of students in the improvement of society.