FICCI to hold Higher Education Summit 2008 on policy and practice imperatives

The summit is organizingwith the support of Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. The summit will feature Conference, Exhibition, One-to-One Meetings and Master Classes on various aspects of higher education in India. MBAUniverse.com is the official Online Media partner of this initiative.

Summit will host many high profile speakers from the education domain. Mr. Arjun Singh, Union Minister, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India has been invited to deliver the Inaugural Address. Prof. Malcolm Grant, President and Provost, University College London, UK will deliver the special Keynote Address. Dr. David Johnston, President, University of Waterloo, Canada will deliver the Keynote Address. Mr. R P Agrawal, Secretary, Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India will deliver the Special Address. Some of the other key speakers at the Summit will include Prof. H. S Ballal, Pro Chancellor, Manipal University, Manipal and Chairman of FICCI Higher Education and Dr. N. M Kondap, NMIMS University, Mumbai and Co-chairman, FICCI Higher Education Summit.

Offering the background of summit, FICCIs Joint Director, Shobha Mishra says, The Government has charted out an extensive expansion plan for Higher Education with increased resource allocation from Rs.9600 crore in the 10th plan to Rs. 84,943 crore in the 11th Plan. However, as per Planning Commission, GoI there would still be a huge shortfall both in terms of minimum numbers of universities and resources required which the private sector will be supplementing through self-financing initiatives, public-private partnerships and collaborations with foreign universities. Through the Conference, we endeavour to bring together key policy makers, educationists and corporates at both national and international level for deliberation and interactions that would lead to knowledge sharing, identification of policy and practice imperatives and action plan for the way forward.

During the summit, Master Classes are also being organized on two relevant topics by experts on: Convergence of Private Sector Investment and Education through Partnerships by the Knowledge Partner, Ernst & Young and on Quality Assurance on International Academic Collaborations by Greenwich University, UK.

One-to-One Meeting facilitations are also organised on request for delegates who are keen to collaborate with Indian or Foreign Universities and Higher Education Institutions for joint collaborative programmes, faculty-student exchanges, research initiatives, etc. Exhibition at the conference site is an additional attraction for participants to showcase their programmes and products to the students of schools and colleges from NCR region and the captive target audience attending the Conference. The entry to the exhibition is free for visitors so that students from Delhi and NCR region can visit to find information on higher education institutions in India and abroad. More than 1500 students are expected to visit the Exhibition.

FICCI informs that delegates from Canada, USA, UK Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, CIS countries and Africa are confirming their participation. FICCI expects about 500 delegates to participate in the Summit. Canada is the Partner Country for the Summit and a delegation of more than 40 Canadian institutions are participating in the event.

Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for highlights from this important knowledge event. MBAUniverse.com is the online media partner for this FICCI Summit.