‘Asian countries should focus on quality education to youngsters’

The VIT University Chancellor G Viswanathan chaired a session on ‘Asian Education Trends and Visions’, at the 11th Asian University Presidents’ Forum (AUPF) held at the Dongseo University, Republic of Korea, recently.

Heads of 68 universities from 17 countries had gathered at the forum to deliberate on issues relating the higher education institutions in Asia. The theme of this year’s conference was “The Era of Asia; Creating a co-operative Network of Asian University”. The three-day conference had discussions on topics pertaining to higher education, especially in the Asian context.

Viswanathan said he had spoken on the need for the Asian countries to improve educational infrastructure on par with the Western countries, besides strengthening close network among the Asian universities. The Asian countries were assuming importance in the region due to their growing economy.

The Asian countries needed to sustain this development by focusing on quality education to youngsters who were seeking the same from Western countries, he pointed out.

AUPF is held annually at member institutions in one of the Asian countries. Last year’s AUPF was hosted by VIT University. The AUPF was born out of a friendly association of institutions of higher education in China and Thailand in 1999. Today, the Forum has grown bigger to include members from other countries. AUPF has helped member institutions to network and create opportunities for mutual growth. As part of the networking sessions, participating institutions get to sign MoUs with other interested universities.

Viswanathan signed agreements of partnership with Dongseo University, Korea, Irkutsk State University, Russia, Huree University of Information and Communication Technology, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Sharif University of Technology, Iran and Salahaddin University-Erbil, Iraq.