BHUBANESWAR: Academic freedom and institutional autonomy is must for higher educational institutions and universities to excel, said Prof C Raj Kumar, founding Vice-Chancellor of OP Jindal Global University (JGU), Haryana, here on Tuesday.
Releasing a 10-point growth and reform plan for Indian Higher Education Institutions here, Kumar said there is an urgent need to focus on the two aspects as core components of ensuring higher academic standards and development of a curriculum that will meet needs of the future.
Kumar said public and private universities need to be not-for-profit and philanthropic universities and encourage inter-disciplinary learning.
There should also be a transparent admission process with no management quota, he added. OP Jindal Global University prides itself on having recruited highly qualified faculty and staff from across the world with 51 per cent of the existing faculty members coming from top 200 international universities of the world, he added.
In 2020 the university will be offering four new courses in BA (Hons) in Political Science, Social Science and Policy and Legal Studies and MA in Economics. Sudarshan Ramaswamy, Dean, Jindal School of Government and Policy, also spoke.