Retaining Maharashtra as the education hub

With tough competition from other states, what Maharashtra should do to remain ahead in the education domain, was the topic of debate at the state-level seminar recently held at Yashwantrao Chavan Pratishthan in Nariman Point, Mumbai.

“Pune and Mumbai will play an important role in branding the state as the higher education hub with Mumbai being the destination for management education. The state minister for higher and technical education has stated that Maharashtra will form a committee to ensure promotion of higher education,” said Apoorva Palkar, president, Consortium of Management Education (COME) and director of Sinhgad Institute of Management & Computer Application (SIMCA), Pune.   

The Directorate of Technical Education (DTE), Maharashtra and COME jointly organised the seminar ‘Brand Maharashtra, the destination for higher education — Way forward”. The conference was inaugurated by Rajesh Tope, minister for higher and technical education, Maharashtra, with Kishore Biyani, CEO, Future Group, giving the keynote address. Also present on the occasion were SK Mahajan (director, Technical Education), Vishwajeet Kadam (secretary, Bharati Vidyapeeth, Pune), Uday Salunkhe (group director, Welingkar), Apoorva Palkar (president, COME) and other industry experts.  

Seizing the opportunity to share ideas about the admission process in management institutes across the state, Palkar said, “The fees structure for management institutes needs to be flexible in order to provide quality learning. Similarly, the commencement of course should be shifted to September as against the current date of July 1,” said Palkar.

Supporting Palkar’s views, Tope stated that he will try to bring uniformity in the fees of private unaided management institutes and flexibility in admission process. He informed that a new law to regularise fee structures for higher education in the state is being drafted and will be tabled in the next assembly session.
Tope also said, “There is an urgent need to emphasise on quality of higher education as India is lagging behind with 6.3% gross enrolment ratio.”