Ensure freedom of speech on campuses: Kovind
It is your paramount duty to ensure that your campuses emerge as spaces that nurture free expression and ideas, where experimentation is encouraged and failure is not ridiculed but is seen as learning...
RAM NATH KOVIND, President of India
NEW DELHI: In the backdrop of protests by students in many universities including the Jawaharlal Nehru (JNU) university in the capital, President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday, while addressing the closing session of the meeting of vice-chancellors of central universities, said it is their duty to ensure that “campuses emerge as spaces that nurture free expression and ideas”.
He said universities should play a leading role in addressing the specific challenges faced by the country. “Many of these challenges require creative and innovative solutions. It is your paramount duty to ensure that your campuses emerge as spaces that nurture free expression and ideas, where experimentation is encouraged and failure is not ridiculed but is seen as learning. In addition, universities should become conduits for exposing students to the problems faced by our people, our nation, cities, towns and villages,” he said.
He said,“through such expo- sure coupled with a push towards creative and innovative thinking, universities can prepare its students to take up research and innovation projects contributing to national development. For instance, while doing ‘Basic Research’ in science is important, so too is doing ‘Applied Research’ that can solve real-life specific problems, say of our farmers. And while theory lectures in classroom are important for students, so too are field projects in nearby villages and towns. We need to introspect whether we are doing enough in this regard. All of you should make a conscious effort to integrate communityoriented projects as part of your curriculum.”
The President was the host of the one-day meet of vice-chancellors of Central universities of whom he is a Visitor.
Among those who participated in the meet were Union minister for human resource development (HRD) minister Prakash Javadekar and MOS, HRD, Satya Pal Singh among others.
During the inaugural session of the meet, he presented the Visi- tor’s Awards for Research in the field of Basic and Applied Sciences and in the field of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.
The awards were presented to Professor Sanjay K Jain for his work on the development of a drug delivery system having the potential to make cancer treatment more effective and affordable, Professor Ashish Kumar Mukherjee for his research on the molecular complexity of the snake venom; Professor Ashwani Pareek for his work on the development of a variety of rice having the potential to enhance farm productivity and the income of farmers and Professor Pramod K Nayar for his work in the field of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.