Bhubaneswar: Jesuit principals from across India along with key officials of the Society of Jesus’ South Asia region have gathered in Odisha to address among other things the federal government’s new policy on higher education.
Xavier Institute of Management Bhubaneswar, a Business school, is hosting a national conference on Jesuit higher education. The October 22-15 event has chosen as its theme, “Strategic Leadership in Higher Education: Options for the Future.”
The conference will help the Jesuit educationists to express their concern over the Indian government’s policy on higher education that being prepared by the federal Ministry of Human Resource Development.
Other topics include sharing the activities of SWBJCPA (Sikkim West Bengal Jesuit College Principals’ Association), Melbourne Conference and its Implementation: International Jesuit Ecology Project, Social Justice in the University, Service Learning and Student Formation Programmes, Developing Social Entrepreneurs: Jesuit Business Schools Collaboration, Transform, Thinking Transform the world: Jesuit Commons: Higher education.
The educationists are also looking for ways to reach higher education to those on the margins, setting up a Jesuit Digital Network for the region, and evolving a strategy for the Higher Education in South Asian Assistancy.
Participants included Fr. George Pattery, Jesuit provincial of South Asia, Jamshedpur provincial Fr. George Fernandes, Fr. Swebert D’Silva, secretary, Jesuit Higher Education Association South Asia, and Fr. Joseph Surin, Jamshedpur Province Coordinator of Higher Education.
Archbishop John Barwa of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar opened the conference.
India’s higher education system is the third largest in the world, next to the United States and China.
The system has expanded at a fast pace by adding nearly 20,000 colleges and more than 8 million students in a decade between 2000 and 2010.
As of 2011, India has 42 central universities, 275 state universities, 130 deemed universities, 90 private universities, 5 institutions established and functioning under the State Act, and 33 Institutes of National Importance.
Other institutions include 33,000 colleges as Government Degree Colleges and Private Degree Colleges, including 1,800 exclusive women’s colleges.