Amidst a war of supremacy or assertion of constitutional rights between the Head of State and the elected government, the scheduled two-day conference of Vice Chancellors of Tamil Nadu universities formally commenced on 25 April at Ooty in the Nilgiris district.
Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar addressed the inaugural session of the Conference of VCs of State, Central and Private Universities of Tamil Nadu at Raj Bhavan in Udhagamandalam.
The Vice-President of India said, “I must commend Governor R.N. Ravi for doing this as his constitutional ordainment. He has taken oath under Article 159 of the Indian Constitution. His oath, as that of the Hon’ble President, is very significant. The oath he has taken as Governor is to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and the law. By his oath, he is further enjoined to devote to the service and well-being of people of Tamil Nadu. By organising such events, which are extremely relevant to the field of education, Governor Ravi is vindicating his oath.”
I must commend Governor R.N. Ravi for doing this as his constitutional ordainment. He has taken oath under Article 159 of the Indian Constitution.
His oath, as that of the Hon’ble President, is very significant. The oath he has taken as Governor is to preserve, protect, and… pic.twitter.com/do6vnwqjPw
— Vice-President of India (@VPIndia) April 25, 2025
He said, “From this platform, I wish to indicate that the National Education Policy is not a government policy. It is a policy for the nation. Therefore, I appeal, it is time for us all to adopt it, understand it, execute it, and to reap the fruits.”
Dhankhar said, “Tamil Nadu has been home to such widely accolade learning centres like Kanchipuram and Ennayiram, which must be considered our North Star. We must take pride that it was in Tamil Nadu, that the Madras University was established in 1857. Modern education was exemplified in this land! In these conferences, I see the emergence of crucibles of ideation that will rekindle the spirit of Kanchipuram and bring back glory of Ennayiram. The nectar of university is that a solo voice that has an opinion different from that of the majority is heard with deference by engaging in dialogue and discourse, not by being judgmental.”
We are well past the era of standalone institutions. There is now need of convergence for various verticals to give institutions the cutting edge. Multi-disciplinary approach across academic pursuits is the only answer.
Share your faculty talent virtually, technologically and… pic.twitter.com/sVaYigeT2Z
— Vice-President of India (@VPIndia) April 25, 2025
R.N. Ravi, Hon’ble Governor of Tamil Nadu and Chancellor of Tamil Nadu’s 20 state universities, presided over the fourth consecutive Vice Chancellors’ Conference.
The Raj Bhavan release said, “The conference serves as a vital platform for academic leaders to engage in dialogue, share best practices and shape the future of higher education in Tamil Nadu. This year’s event brought together 32 Vice Chancellors, Deans, Registrars, and Directors from Central, State and Private Universities. Sessions focused on technology integration in education, capacity building for learners, financial management in universities and strategies for wealth creation. Past editions of the conference have resulted in key policy recommendations and collaborative initiatives that have significantly impacted the state’s higher education landscape.”
Addressing the event, Governor Ravi said, “Unfortunately in this conference, state universities are not participating because they have informed in writing that they have been warned by the state government not to participate. As of now, one of our VCs is in police station. Some VCs have reached Ooty and something unprecedented happened, which never happened before. There was a midnight knock at their doors where special branch of the police went and told them that if they participate in the conference, they will not be able to go home. I advise them to take care of their families. Don’t, don’t jeopardize their interest. I wish good sense prevails, because essentially this conference is meant to improve the quality. There’s no politics involved in it, and it has been showing result. But perhaps people, those who are in the government, they feel for them, it is not something which is comfortable situation.”
A Raj Bhavan note says, “The way Hon’ble CM Thiru. Stalin used police to deter the Vice-Chancellors of state universities from participating in the prescheduled conference today is reminiscent of the Emergency days. When telephonic threats from Minister Higher Education to the VCs not to participate in the conference did not work, CM Stalin used police…. Such a gross abuse of Police! Is it a police state? Don’t VCs have academic freedom to attend an academic conference within the state? Or is CM Stalin afraid of consequences of rise in standards of state universities which largely caters to Dalit and poor students and any quality improvement will make them aspirational and inspirational that could be a threat to his political future?”
Governor Ravi said, “We studied the education system in the state of Tamil Nadu. And then, we came to know that we have two parallel streams of education in our state. One, vertically going up, the other side one being progress in decline. The school education ASER report year-on-year tells us that how the private schools have been doing excellent. The government schools are on a steady decline, so much so that more than half the students in a government school, in high school, cannot read even a class two textbook.”
Explaining further, he said, “More than half the students in government school cannot recognise two-digit numbers between 11 and 99. And then we find that its continuation is even in the state universities. In the higher education, we needed to improve the quality, when we checked up, we found that our state, of course, we have one of the highest gross enrolment ratio over 50%. We also have the fact that our state universities produce more than 6,500 PhDs every year; but the other side of the story is that out of 6,500 plus PhDs not even 1% is NET JRF qualified.”
Ravi said, “How do we improve it?” Then we realised that our universities, our state universities, they were not even talking to themselves. They were all working in silos run by the secretariat. Then we thought let—let there be a fusion. Let there be a meeting of minds because that is how the knowledge grows.”
Governor said, “We have more than 34, 35 institutions present here.” But according to media reports, “Of the 56 heads of higher education institutions who were invited—including five central universities, 20 state universities, four central institutions, and 27 private universities—just 18 attended.”
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