Special Lectures and Announcements
Dr. P R Trivedi
has given a new dimension to his theory of "Peace, Mercy and Tolerance".
Dr. P R Trivedi has
advocated for an urgent need for a Neological Approach to Higher and Tertiary Education
Dr. P R Trivedi has
stressed the need for Globalisation and Internationationalisation of Education
Dr. P R Trivedi has
developed a Masterplan Paradigm for a Confederative Approach to Higher Education
Dr. P R Trivedi has
designed the Linkages between Higher Education and Employment Generation
Dr. P. R. Trivedi
has stressed the Need for Greening of Employment
Lectures of Dr. Priya Ranjan Trivedi on YouTube
world spiritual parliament
Presidential Speech on "Peace, Mercy and Tolerance".
Dr. Priya Ranjan Trivedi
Speaker, World Spiritual Parliament
Let us, first of all, try to discuss and diagnose intolerance
among members of the society for locating respective critical paths for being
merciful and tolerant for bringing peace on earth in the twentyfirst century and
the third millennium. Viewing the growing peacelessness and intolerance all over
the world, let us also discuss the need for disaster education including
disaster preparedness, mitigation and management.
Educating the children and young people with a sense of openness and
comprehension towards other people, their diverse culture and histories and
their fundamental shared humanity; teaching them the importance of refusing
violence and adopting peaceful means for resolving disagreements and conflicts;
forging in the next generation feelings of altruism, openness and respect
towards others, solidarity and sharing based on a sense of security in one's own
identity and a capacity to recognise the many dimensions of being human in
different cultural and social context should be the main thrust during the
deliberations on peace, mercy and tolerance. Let us discuss these matters in a
greater detail :
1. The manifestations of violence, racism, xenophobia, aggressive nationalism
and violations of human rights, by religious intolerance, by the upsurge of
terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and by the growing gap separating
wealthy countries from poor countries, phenomena which threaten the
consolidation of peace, tolerant behaviour and democracy both nationally and
internationally and which are all obstacles to development are matters of deep
concern.
2. The educational plans and policies have to contribute to the development of
understanding, solidarity and tolerance among individuals and among ethnic,
social, cultural and religious groups and sovereign nations. Education should
promote knowledge, values, attitudes and skills conducive to respect for human
rights and to an active commitment to the defence of such rights and to the
building of a culture of peace, tolerance and mercy.
3. We are aware of the great responsibility incumbent not only on parents, but
on society as a whole, to work together with all those involved in the
educational system, and with non-governmental organisations, so as to achieve
full implementation of the objectives of education for peace, human rights and
civil liberty and to contribute in this way to sustainable development and to a
culture of peace.
4. We understand the need to seek synergies between the formal education system
and the various sectors of non-formal education, which are helping to make a
reality of education that is in conformity with the aims of "Education for All".
We know of the decisive role that also falls to non-formal educational
organisations in the process of forming the personalities of young people.
5. Accordingly we should strive resolutely to base education on principles and
methods that contribute to the development of the personality of pupils,
students and adults who are respectful of their fellow human beings and
determined to promote peace, non violence, mercy, compassion and tolerance; to
take suitable steps to establish in educational institutions an atmosphere
contributing to the success of education for international understanding, so
that they become ideal places for the exercise of tolerance, respect for the
rights, the practice of democracy and learning about the diversity and wealth of
cultural identities.
6. Action should be taken to eliminate all direct and indirect discrimination
against girls and women in education systems and to take specific measures to
ensure that they achieve their full potential.
7. There is an urgent need to give special attention to improving curricula, the
content of textbooks, and other educational materials including new
technologies, with a view to educating caring and responsible citizens open to
other cultures, able to appreciate the value of freedom, respectful of human
dignity and differences, and able to prevent conflicts or resolve them by
non-violent means.
8. Measures must be adopted to enhance the role and status of educators in
formal and non-formal education and to give priority to pre-service and
in-service training as well as the retraining of educational personnel,
including planners and managers, oriented notably towards professional ethics,
civic and moral education, cultural diversity, national codes and
internationally recognised standards of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
9. The development of innovative strategies adapted to the new challenges of
educating responsible citizens committed to peace, human rights, democracy and
sustainable development, and to apply appropriate measures of evaluation and
assessment of these strategies should be encouraged.
10. In a period of transition and accelerated change marked by the expression of
intolerance, manifestations of racial and ethnic hatred, the upsurge of
terrorism in all its forms, discrimination, war, violence and the growing
disparities between rich and poor, at international and national levels alike,
action strategies must aim both at ensuring fundamental freedoms, peace, human
rights, and democracy and at promoting sustainable and equitable economic and
social development, all of which have an essential part to play in building a
culture of peace. This calls for a transformation of the traditional styles of
educational action.
11. The ultimate goal of education for peace, mercy and tolerance is the
development in every individual of a sense of universal values and types of
behaviour on which a culture of peace is predicated. It is possible to identify
even in different socio-cultural context values that are likely to be
universally recognised.
12. Education must develop the ability to value freedom and the skills to meet
its challenges. This means preparing citizens to cope with difficult and
uncertain situations and fitting them for personal autonomy and responsibility.
Awareness of personal responsibility must be linked to recognition of the value
of civic commitment, of joining together with others to solve problems and to
work for a just, peaceful and democratic community.
13. Education must develop the ability to recognise and accept the values which
exist in the diversity of individuals, genders, peoples and cultures and develop
the ability to communicate, share and co-operate with others. The citizens of a
pluralist society and multicultural world should be able to accept that their
interpretation of situations and problems is rooted in their personal lives, in
the history of their society and in their cultural traditions; that,
consequently, no individual or group holds the only answer to problems; and that
for each problem there may be more than one solution. Therefore, people should
understand and respect each other and negotiate on an equal footing, with a view
to seeking common ground. Thus education must reinforce personal identity and
should encourage the convergence of ideas and solutions which strengthen peace,
friendship and solidarity between individuals and people.
14. Education must develop the ability of non-violent conflict-resolution. It
should therefore promote also the development of inner peace in the minds of
learners so that they can establish more firmly the qualities of tolerance,
compassion, sharing and caring.
15. Education must cultivate in citizens the ability to make informed choices,
basing their judgements and actions not only on the analysis of present
situations but also on the vision of a preferred future.
16. Education must teach citizens to respect the cultural heritage, protect the
environment, and adopt methods of production and patterns of consumption, which
lead to sustainable development. Harmony between individual and collective
values and between immediate basic needs and long-term interests is also
necessary. Education should cultivate feelings of solidarity and equity at the
national and international levels in the perspective of a balanced and long-term
development.
17. Strategies relating to education for peace, mercy, tolerance and disaster
education must (a) be comprehensive and holistic, which means addressing a very
broad range of factors; (b) be applicable to all types, levels and forms of
education; (c) involve all educational partners and various agents of
socialisation, including NGOs and community organisations; (d) be implemented
locally, nationally, regionally and world-wide; (e) entail modes of management
and administration, co-ordination and assessment that give greater autonomy to
educational establishments so that they can work out specific forms of action
and linkage with the local community, encourage the development of innovations
and foster active and democratic participation by all those concerned in the
life of the establishment; (f) be suited to the age and psychology of the target
group and take account of the evolution of the learning capacity of each
individual; (g) be applied on a continuous and consistent basis. Results and
obstacles have to be assessed, in order to ensure that strategies can be
continuously adapted to changing circumstances; (h) include proper resources for
education as a whole and specially for marginalised and disadvantaged groups.
18. To strengthen the formation of values and abilities such as solidarity,
creativity, civic responsibility, the ability to resolve conflicts by
non-violent means, and critical acumen, it is necessary to introduce into
curricula, at all levels, true education for citizenship which includes an
international dimension. Teaching should particularly concern the conditions for
the construction of peace; the various forms of conflict, their causes and
effects; the ethical, religious and philosophical bases of human rights, their
historical sources, the way they have developed and how they have been
translated into national and international standards, such as in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child; the
bases of democracy and its various institutional models; the problem of racism
and the history of the fight against sexism and all the other forms of
discrimination and exclusion. Particular attention should be devoted to culture,
the problem of development and the history of every people, as well as to the
role of the United Nations and international institutions. There must be
education for peace, conflict resolution, non violence, mercy, compassion and
tolerance. It cannot, however, be restricted to specialised subjects and
knowledge. The whole of education must transmit this message and the atmosphere
of the institution must be in harmony with the application of democratic
standards. Likewise, curriculum reform should emphasise knowledge, understanding
and respect for the culture of others at the national and global levels and
should link the global interdependence of problems to local action. In view of
religious and cultural differences, every country may decide which approach to
ethical education best suits its cultural context.
19. All people engaged in educational action must have adequate teaching
materials and resources at their disposal. In this connection, it is necessary
to make the required revisions to textbooks to remove negative stereotypes and
distorted views. International co-operation in producing textbooks could be
encouraged. Whenever new teaching materials, textbooks and the like are to be
produced, they should be designed with due consideration of new situations. The
textbooks should offer different perspectives on a given subject and make
transparent the national or cultural background against which they are written.
Their content should be based on scientific findings. It would be desirable for
the documents of United Nations institutions to be widely distributed and used
in educational establishments, especially in countries where the production of
teaching materials is proving slow owing to economic difficulties. Distance
education technologies and all modern communication tools must be placed at the
service of education for peace, non violence, mercy, compassion and tolerance.
20. It is essential for the development of education for peace, non violence,
mercy, compassion and tolerance that reading and verbal and written expression
programmes should be considerably strengthened. A comprehensive grasp of
reading, writing and the spoken word enables citizens to gain access to
information, to understand clearly the situation in which they are living, to
express their needs, and to take part in activities in the social environment.
In the same way, learning foreign languages offers a means of gaining a deeper
understanding of other cultures, which can serve as a basis for building better
understanding between communities and between nations.
21. Proposals for educational change find their natural place in schools and
classrooms. Teaching and learning methods, forms of action and institutional
policy lines have to make peace, non violence, mercy, compassion and tolerance
both a matter of daily practice and something that is learned. With regard to
methods, the use of active methods, group work, the discussion of moral issues
and personalised teaching should be encouraged. As for institutional policy
lines, efficient forms of management and participation must promote the
implementation of democratic school management, involving teachers, pupils,
parents and the local community as a whole.
22. The reduction of failure must be a priority. Therefore, education should be
adapted to the individual student’s potential. The developments of self-esteem,
as well as strengthening the will to succeed in learning, are also basic
necessities for achieving a higher degree of social integration. Greater
autonomy for schools implies greater responsibility on the part of teachers and
the community for the results of education. However, the different development
levels of education systems should determine the degree of autonomy in order to
avoid a possible weakening of educational content.
23. The training of personnel at all levels of the education system: teachers,
planners, managers, teacher educators has to include education for peace, non
violence, mercy, compassion and tolerance. This pre-service and in-service
training and retraining should introduce and apply in situ methodologies,
observing experiments and evaluating their results. In order to perform their
tasks successfully, schools, institutions of teacher education and those in
charge of non-formal education programmes should seek the assistance of people
with experience in the fields of peace, non violence, mercy, compassion and
tolerance (politicians, jurists, sociologists and psychologists) and of the NGOs
specialised in human rights, environment and disaster education. Similarly,
pedagogy and the actual practice of exchanges should form part of the training
courses of all educators.
24. Teacher education activities must fit into an overall policy to upgrade the
teaching profession. International experts, professional bodies and teachers’
unions should be associated with the preparation and implementation of action
strategies because they have an important role to play in promoting a culture of
peace among teachers themselves.
25. Specific strategies for the education of vulnerable groups and those
recently exposed to conflict or in a situation of open conflict are required as
a matter of urgency, giving particular attention to children at risk and to
girls and women subjected to sexual abuse and other forms of violence. Possible
practical measures could include, for example, the organisation outside the
conflict zone of specialised forums and workshops for educators, family members
and mass media professionals belonging to the conflicting groups and an
intensive training activity for educators in post-conflict co-operation with
governments whenever possible.
26. The organisations of education programmes for abandoned children, street
children, refugee and displaced children and economically and sexually exploited
children are a matter of urgency. It is equally urgent to organise special youth
programmes laying emphasis on participation by children and young people in
solidarity actions and environmental protection. In addition, efforts should be
made to address the special needs of people with learning difficulties by
providing them with relevant education in a non- exclusionary and integrated
educational setting.
27. Furthermore, in order to create understanding between different groups in
society, there must be respect for the educational rights of persons belonging
to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, as well as
indigenous people, and this must also have implications in the curricula and
methods and in the way education is organised.
28. New problems require new solutions. It is essential to work out strategies
for making better use of research findings, to develop new teaching methods and
approaches and to improve co-ordination in choosing research themes between
research institutes in the social sciences and education in order to address in
a more relevant and effective way the complex nature of education for peace, non
violence, mercy, compassion and tolerance. The effectiveness of educational
management should be enhanced by research on decision-making by all those
involved in the educational process (government, teachers, parents, etc.).
Research should also be focused on finding new ways of changing public attitudes
towards human rights, in particular towards women, and environmental issues. The
impact of educational programmes may be better assessed by developing a system
of indicators of results, setting up data banks on innovative experiments, and
strengthening systems for disseminating and sharing information and research
findings, nationally and internationally.
29. Higher education institutions can contribute in many ways to education for
peace, non violence, mercy, compassion and tolerance. In this connection, the
introduction into the curricula of knowledge, values and skills relating to
peace, human rights, justice, the practice of democracy, professional ethics,
civic commitment and social responsibility should be envisaged. Educational
institutions at this level should also ensure that students appreciate the
interdependence of nations in an increasingly global society.
30. The education of citizens cannot be the exclusive responsibility of the
education sector. If it is to be able to do its job effectively in this field,
the education sector should closely co-operate, in particular, with the family,
the media, including traditional channels of communication, the world of
voluntary organisations and NGOs.
31. Concerning co-ordination between school and family, measures should be taken
to encourage the participation of parents in school activities. Furthermore,
education programmes for adults and the community in general in order to
strengthen the school’s work are essential.
32. The influence of the media in the socialisation of children and young people
is increasingly being acknowledged. It is, therefore, essential to train
teachers and prepare students for the critical analysis and use of the media,
and to develop their competence to profit from the media by a selective choice
of programmes. On the other hand, the media should be urged to promote the
values of peace, respect for human rights, democracy and tolerance, in
particular by avoiding programmes and other products that incite hatred,
violence, cruelty and disrespect for human dignity.
33. Young people who spend a lot of time outside school and who often do not
have access to the formal education system, or to vocational training or a job,
as well as young people doing their military service, are a very important
target group of education programmes for peace, non violence, mercy, compassion
and tolerance. While seeking improved access to formal education and vocational
training, it is therefore essential for them to be able to receive non-formal
education adapted to their needs, which would prepare them to assume their role
as citizens in a responsible and effective way. In addition, education for
peace, human rights and respect for the law has to be provided for young people
in prisons, reformatories or treatment centres.
34. Adult education programmes where NGOs have an important role to play should
make everyone aware of the link between local living conditions and world
problems. Basic education programmes should attach particular importance to
subject matter relating to peace. All culturally suitable media such as
folklore, popular theatre, community discussion groups and radio should be used
in mass education.
35. The promotion of peace will require regional co-operation, international
solidarity and the strengthening of co-operation between international and
governmental bodies, non-governmental organisations, the scientific community,
business circles, industry and the media. This solidarity and co- operation must
help the developing countries to meet their needs for promoting education for
peace.
36. In the light of the information provided relating peace, mercy, tolerance
and disaster education we must the following resolve :
i) Alarmed by the current rise in acts of intolerance, violence, terrorism,
xenophobia, aggressive nationalism, racism, anti-semitism, exclusion,
marginalisation and discrimination directed against national, ethnic, religious
and linguistic minorities, refugees, migrant workers, immigrants and vulnerable
groups within societies, as well as acts of violence and intimidation committed
against individuals exercising their freedom of opinion and expression - all of
which threaten the consolidation of peace, mercy, tolerance and disaster
management efforts both nationally and internationally, and are obstacles to
development.
ii) Resolving to take all positive measures necessary to promote peace, mercy
and tolerance in our societies, because these are not only the cherished
principles, but also a necessity for peace and for the economic and social
advancement of all peoples.
iii) Mercy and Tolerance are respect, acceptance and appreciation of the rich
diversity of our world’s cultures, our forms of expression and ways of being
human. It is fostered by knowledge, openness, communication, and freedom of
thought, conscience and belief. Mercy and Tolerance are harmony in difference.
These are not only a moral duty, but are also political and legal requirements.
Mercy and Tolerance, the virtues that make peace possible, contribute to the
replacement of the culture of war by a culture of peace.
iv) Mercy and Tolerance are not concession, condescension or indulgence. Mercy
and Tolerance are, above all, active attitudes prompted by recognition of the
universal human rights and fundamental freedoms of others. In no circumstance
can these be used to justify infringements of these fundamental values. Mercy
and Tolerance are to be exercised by individuals, groups and nations.
v) Mercy and Tolerance are the responsibility that upholds human rights,
pluralism (including cultural pluralism), democracy and the rule of law. It
involves the rejection of dogmatism and absolutism and affirms the standards set
out in international human rights instruments.
vi) Consistent with respect for rights, the practice of mercy and tolerance does
not mean toleration of social injustice or the abandonment or weakening of one’s
convictions. It means that one is free to adhere to one’s own convictions and
accepts that others adhere to theirs. It means accepting the fact that human
beings, naturally diverse in their appearance, situation, speech, behaviour and
values, have the right to live in peace and to be as they are. It also means
that one’s views are not to be imposed on others.
vii) Mercy and Tolerance require just and impartial legislation, law
enforcement, judicial and administrative processes. It also requires that
economic and social opportunities be made available to each person without any
discrimination. Exclusion and marginalisation can lead to frustration, hostility
and fanaticism.
viii) In order to achieve a more tolerant society, nations should ratify
existing international human rights conventions, and draft new legislation where
necessary to ensure equality of treatment and of opportunity for all groups and
individuals in society.
ix) It is essential for international harmony that individuals, communities and
nations accept and respect the multicultural character of the human family.
Without mercy and tolerance there can be no peace, and without peace there can
be no development.
x) Intolerance may take the form of marginalization of vulnerable groups and
their exclusion from social and political participation, as well as violence and
discrimination against them. Declaration on Race and Racial Prejudice confirms
‘All individuals and groups have the right to be different’.
xi) In the modern world, mercy and tolerance are more essential than ever
before. It is an age marked by the globalisation of the economy and by rapidly
increasing mobility, communication, integration and inter-dependence,
large-scale migrations and displacement of populations, urbanisation and
changing social patterns. Since every part of the world is characterised by
diversity, escalating intolerance and strife potentially menaces every region.
It is not confined to any country, but is a global threat.
xii) Mercy and Tolerance are necessary between individuals and at the family and
community levels. Tolerance promotion and the shaping of attitudes of openness,
mutual listening and solidarity should take place in schools and universities
and through non-formal education, at home and in the workplace. The
communication media are in a position to play a constructive role in
facilitating free and open dialogue and discussion, disseminating the values of
tolerance, and highlighting the dangers of indifference towards the rise in
intolerant groups and ideologies.
xiii) Appropriate scientific studies and networking should be undertaken to
co-ordinate the international community’s response to this global challenge,
including analysis by the social sciences of root causes and effective
countermeasures, as well as research and monitoring in support of policy-making
and standard-setting action by different countries
xiv) Education is the most effective means of preventing intolerance. The first
step in mercy and tolerance education is to teach people what their shared
rights and freedoms are, so that they may be respected, and to promote the will
to protect those of others.
xv) Education for mercy and tolerance should be considered an urgent imperative;
that is why it is necessary to promote systematic and rational mercy and
tolerance teaching methods that will address the cultural, social, economic,
political and religious sources of intolerance which are the major roots of
violence and exclusion. Education policies and programmes should contribute to
development of understanding, solidarity and tolerance among individuals as well
as among ethnic, social, cultural, religious and linguistic groups and nations.
xvi) Education for mercy and tolerance should aim at countering influences that
lead to fear and exclusion of others, and should help young people to develop
capacities for independent judgement, critical thinking and ethical reasoning.
xvii) It is time to pledge to really support and implement programmes of social
science research and education for mercy, tolerance, compassion, human rights
and non-violence. This means devoting special attention to improving teacher
training, curricula, the content of textbooks and lessons, and other educational
materials including new educational technologies, with a view to educating
caring and responsible citizens open to other cultures, able to appreciate the
value of freedom, respectful of human dignity and differences, and able to
prevent conflicts or resolve them by non-violent means.
xviii) It is essential that we commit ourselves to promoting mercy, tolerance as
well as non-violence through programmes and institutions in the fields of
education, science, culture and communication.
xix) In order to generate public awareness, emphasise the dangers of intolerance
and disastrous actions and react with renewed commitment and action in support
of tolerance promotion and education, pledge to design tailor made training
programmes of short as well as long duration in the areas of peace, mercy,
tolerance, compassion, disaster education and related subjects.
xx) People should commit themselves to promote tolerance and non-violence
through programmes and institutions by developing a neological as well as
neocratic approach to governance and by designing a masterplan paradigm for
peace on earth.
World Society, having emerged from the decades of the cold war, enjoyed for a
short time the hopes that the end of this struggle was the beginning of an era
in which the destructive consequences of that conflict and the deep divisions
imposed by global economic inequities might be addressed. These hopes were
sorely tested, however, by the eruption of regional conflicts and the
hostilities between people which fragmented nations and drastically changed the
political map of the world as it had been for nearly half a century. All over
the globe, intergroup tensions, religious hostilities and ethnic conflicts have
been erupting. Many long-standing conflicts previously overlooked have come to
world attention.
Deep hatreds, some of which had previously healed over through reconciliations
that permitted ethnic groups to live together in peace and cooperation have
surfaced in social behaviour and political movements, and are voiced in the
media and at conferences; communities exploded into warfare. The process of
settling the disputes, reconciling the hostilities and reconstructing the
societies will be one of the most difficult human society has ever undertaken.
It may be one of the greatest challenges ever faced by those who seek to educate
for peace. Educators should not shrink from facing the realities of history, nor
can they avoid the responsibility to taking up the challenge posed by the
reconciliation process to those who plan and carry out the social learning
process.
Mercy and Tolerance are but the beginning, the first stage in a longer, deeper
process of developing a culture of peace. It is the minimal essential quality of
social relations that eschew violence and coercion. Without mercy and tolerance,
peace is not possible. With mercy and tolerance, a panoply of positive human and
social possibilities can be pursued, including the evolution of a culture of
peace and the convivial communities that comprise it.
Religion has been a significant factor in the evolution of cultures, peace and
nonviolence providing behavioural and social codes. Sadly, it has also been the
basis of divisions, intolerance, war and conflict. As we have seen many man made
disasters during last few years, teaching for religious tolerance has become an
urgent necessity. We must identify a range of strategies and services to help
both the perpetrators of violence and victims.
This will require of religious people repentance and humility : a recognition
that we have hurt one another, we have misused religion to seek power over
others, we have allowed institutional self-interest to hide the spiritual
heritage entrusted to our care. Too easily we have passed fine resolutions, but
failed to live by them ourselves. In this gathering it is we ourselves who need
to change. This Global Assembly is a celebration and a thanks giving for all who
have pioneered this work and enthused us with their dreams; but it is also a
time of dedication, when strengthened by each other's encouragement, we shall
commit ourselves to be used in the building of the new and spiritual world home,
in which all people enjoy a fully human life.
It is hard to assess the impact that religious people can have on political
processes, especially as politicians seldom acknowledge those who have
influenced them. Modern communications have given added weight to popular
opinion. Religious leaders may play an important role in forming public opinion.
They can insist on the relevance of spiritual and moral considerations. They
have helped to maintain public alarm at the enormous stockpile of nuclear
weapons and other means of mass destruction. They have voiced public outrage at
the starvation of millions of people, as a result of hunger, war, injustice and
an unfair pattern of international trade. They have upheld human dignity and
protested against torture and racism. They have underpinned efforts to develop
internationally agreed standards of human rights and have helped to monitor
their application.
In all religions there is an increase of extremism, which also alienates others
from any religious allegiance. Religious differences sometimes enflame political
and economic divisions and sometimes religion is exploited by the powerful as an
instrument of social control.
It is easy to deplore intolerance – especially in others. It is harder to
understand its causes, which may be psychological or related to a group feeling
politically, culturally or economically marginalised. Intolerance may be caused
by fear or ignorance or it may be based on exclusive claims to truth.
The educational task is still far from complete. Increasingly formal and
non-formal training, teaching and research will become more practical with an
emphasis on ways of cooperating to face urgent problems and to seek a global
ethic or consensus on moral values.
We should be trying to show that people of all religions and races can agree on
the importance of peace, mercy, compassion and tolerance. Only together will
prejudice and discrimination be removed, violence and injustice ended, poverty
relieved and the planet preserved.
In our contemporary world, we are very conscious of the persistence of
injustice, war, hunger and environmental damage; and we are conscious too of the
many ways in which religions can be use to perpetuate division and
misunderstanding. Why not long for a world where men and women of faith strive
to know and respect one another's beliefs and ways of life, to work together for
the common good of all, to build up a true world community from our diverse
communities.
World Peace can be restored at the earliest if we propose the creation of an
"Inter-religious Spiritual Forum for Cooperation with United Nations" with a
view to having all the important religious leaders of different faiths for
discussing and resolving to be compassionate, tolerant, humanitarian and good to
others.
Let us remember what we read in Upnishad – "From the unreal, lead me to the
Real; From darkness, lead me to the Light; From death, lead me to Immortality".
Neological Approach to Higher and Tertiary Education
1. To encourage links between institutions of higher
education throughout the country.
2. To base the mission of the Confederation on the fundamental principles for
which every university should stand, namely the right to pursue knowledge for
its own sake, to follow wherever the search for truth may lead, the tolerance of
divergent opinion and freedom from political interference.
3. To aim to give expression to the obligation of universities to promote,
through teaching and research, the principles of freedom and justice, of human
dignity and solidarity, and to contribute through regional, national and
international cooperation to the development of national and moral assistance
for the strengthening of higher education generally.
4. To link up its members, offer them quality services and provide a forum for
the universities from all over the country to work together and to speak on
behalf of universities, and of higher education in general, and to represent
their concerns and interests in public debate and to outside parties.
5. To pursue its goals through future oriented collective action including
information services, informed policy discussion, research and publications.
6. To facilitate the exchange of experience and learning.
7. To restate and defend the values that underlie and determine the proper
functioning of universities in the Indian subcontinent.
8. To uphold and contribute to the development of a long term vision of
universities' role and responsibility in society.
9. To voice the concerns for higher education with regard to policies of
national and international bodies.
10. To contribute to a better understanding of current trends and developments
through analysis, research and debate.
11. To provide comprehensive and authoritative information on higher education
systems, institutions and qualifications worldwide.
12. To act as a cooperation and service-oriented organisation to promote the
exchange of information, experience and ideas to facilitate academic mobility
and mutual, technical, national and international collaboration among
universities, and to contribute through research and meetings to informed higher
education policy debate.
13. To organise congress, conferences, seminars, round tables and workshops etc.
14. To conduct comparative studies and higher education policy research.
15. To strengthen cooperation and clearing-house activities.
16. To establish national information networks.
17. To provide consultancy, credential evaluation and advice.
18. To invite university level degree granting institutions whose main objective
is higher education and research, irrespective of whether or not they carry the
name of university.
19. To maintain and preserve university autonomy, academic freedom and mutual
understanding.
20. To stand for the right to pursue knowledge for its own sake.
21. To remain free from political and economic interference, and give, room for
divergent opinion.
22. To work for the advancement of ethical values in the work of the
Confederation and its members as well as in society and respect for diversity.
23. To remember the responsibility of universities and academies as guardians of
free intellectual activity.
24. To stand for the universities' obligation as social institutions to deliver
education, research and service to the community, and, in connection with this,
to advance the principles of freedom and of justice, of sustainable development,
human dignity and of solidarity.
25. To conserve the obligation of universities to foster constructive criticism
and intellectual independence in the research for truth.
26. To contribute to the development of the long term vision of the university's
role and responsibilities in society.
27. To strengthen solidarity and to contribute to reducing inequalities amongst
universities, while keeping alive their cultural differences.
28. To promote access to higher education and equal opportunities for students.
29. To encourage quality and excellence worldwide, through sharing, knowledge,
know-how and experience, through collaboration and through networking.
30. To help universities to become better learning organisations (for students,
for teachers, for administrators).
31. To contribute to a better understanding of developments in higher education,
through analysis, research and debate, as well as through the provision of
information services on higher education.
32. To design and implement programmes for its members in partnership with other
organisations working in the same field.
33. To pledge itself to be an open, inclusive and transparent organisation, the
common voice of the university level institutions.
34. To provide a centre of cooperation among the universities and similar
institutions of higher education, as well as organisations in the field of
higher education generally, and to be an advocate for their concerns.
35. To facilitate the interchange of students and academic staff, and develop
means for the better distribution and exchange of laboratory material, books and
other equipment for university study and research.
36. To formulate the basic principles and higher education values for which the
CIU will stand for.
37. To establish a strong structural relationship with the national as well as
regional associations of universities and seek their direct involvement in the
life and work of CIU.
38. To focus its activities on institutional examples regarding the use of new
information and communication technologies in teaching and learning.
39. To encourage sustainability to be considered as being central to teaching,
research, outreach and operations at universities and to identified exemplary
practices and strategies.
40. To prepare comprehensive assessments periodically on how the principles of
sustainable development can best be pursued and promoted by higher education
institutions.
41. To identify the key issues of a future-oriented higher education policy
debate, as well as concrete needs for support in academic exchange, knowledge
transfer, and capacity building through international cooperation.
42. To assess our respective capacities to respond to such needs, the
complementarity and uniqueness of our respective possibilities and
responsibilities, as compared with what can be better done by others,
bilaterally or multi-laterally, on the institutional, national, regional or
international level.
43. To establish appropriate networking structures and facilities that will
allow to serve better, through shared efforts, the needs and interests of our
common higher education constituency.
44. To translate into action the services set out by CIU more clearly in terms
of support to concrete cooperation needs, both of individual universities and of
partner organisations, and to identify new services as best corresponding to the
Confederation's vocation and possibilities; and to give expression to its
internal and external missions through a strengthened confederative life,
including a broader interaction with other university organisations.
45. To disseminate relevant information on the world of higher education in an
international perspective, on missions, policies and strategies, in the form of
concise briefs and overviews, easily accessible and usable for higher education
policy and decision-makers.
46. To have a similar approach in relation to issues of research and debate,
comparison of experiences, publications or conjointly organised special meetings
and seminars for university leaders and administrators.
47. To provide a link to consultancy, second opinions and referee networks for
universities, particularly in developing countries, who wish to have access to
independent advice, for example on directives from governments and different
agencies or on institutional development plans.
48. To maintain a pool of independent advisors to be made available for special
tasks, third party assessments, legal advice, management advice, helping with
analysis, formulation of strategic plans, governance strategies, and codes
related to academic freedom, etc.
49. To offer consultancy to agencies related to university cooperation.
50. To evaluate the institutional impact of university links and collaborative
programmes, independent from the usual evaluation by sponsors to be pointed to
practical and ethical guidelines for collaboration and codes of good practice,
which could serve universities in their interaction.
51. To benefit from academic freedom and institutional autonomy with regard to
the central mission of research and teaching.
52. To assume, in carrying out the tasks, its responsibility to society and to
promote the principles of freedom, justice, human dignity and solidarity.
53. To reduce the tensions arising within the universities between the
requirements of technological and economic globalisation and the specificities
of cultural and national roots.
54. To contribute to the production and dissemination of information and
knowledge concerning facts, trends and developments in higher education.
55. To help contribute to the production and dissemination of reflection,
research and debate concerning the universities.
56. To help clarify, disseminate and refine a vision of the university and of
its value base.
57. To pay particular attention to strengthening solidarity and reducing
inequalities between universities of different backgrounds, resources and
capacities.
58. To express a common voice of the universities, on national as well as global
level, vis-a-vis partners like national and international statutory bodies and
UN agencies as well as the public opinion.
59. To catalyse the cooperation of universities and university organisations
amongst themselves and with other partners, with regard to major questions of
society, which are national as well as international in nature and to which
universities must make an important contribution, such as: the construction of
peace and democracy; sustainable development; the challenges and stakes of
globalisation and accelerated change in society; the commitment to ethical
standards in the conduct of science and technology.
60. To offer to other national and international university and higher education
organisations a preferential platform for information, contacts and networking,
and to participate itself in such international networks.
61. To stipulate the indissociable principles for which every university should
stand, including the right to pursue knowledge for its own sake and to follow
wherever the search for truth may lead; the tolerance of divergent opinion and
freedom from political interference; the obligation as social institutions to
promote, through teaching and research, the principles of freedom and justice,
of human dignity and to develop mutually material and moral aid on both national
as well as international levels.
62. To collect data regarding the new forms of higher education over the ensuing
half century with special reference to the number of universities, of academic
staff, of students, of the emergence of a world economy, of its benefits and its
dangers with a view to locating the required practical nature of the
university's historic and abiding commitment to universalism, pluralism and
humanism.
63. To evaluate whether in the course of the twentieth century, which has seen
an unparalleled growth in knowledge, in research and their diffusion, the
universities have shouldered the responsibilities in the common endeavour of
human development, social, economic, technical and cultural advancement, and in
responding to the major planetary problems such as environmental protection and
poverty eradication, violence and social exclusion.
64. To promote the philosophy that human development and the continued extension
of knowledge depend upon the freedom to examine, to enquire, and that academic
freedom and university autonomy are essential to that end.
65. To urge universities to seek, establish and disseminate a clearer
understanding of Sustainable development - "development which meets the needs of
the present without compromising the needs of future generations" - and
encourage more appropriate sustainable development principles and practices at
the local, national and global levels, in ways consistent with their missions.
66. To utilise resources of the university to encourage a better understanding
on the part of the Central and the State Governments and the public at large of
the inter-related physical, biological and social dangers facing the planet
Earth, and to recognise the significant interdependence and international
dimensions of sustainable development.
67. To emphasise the ethical obligation of the present generation to overcome
those practices of resource utilisation and those widespread disparities which
lie at the root of environmental unsustainability.
68. To enhance the capacity of the university to teach and undertake research
and action in society on sustainable development principles, to increase
environmental literacy, and to enhance the understanding of environmental ethics
within the university and with the public at large.
69. To cooperate with one another and with all segments of society in the
pursuit of practical and policy measures to achieve sustainable development and
thereby safeguard the interests of future generations.
70. To encourage universities to review their own operations to reflect best
sustainable development practices.
71. To make an institutional commitment to the principle and practice of
sustainable development within the academic milieu and to communicate that
commitment to its students, its employees and to the public at large.
72. To promote sustainable consumption practices in its own operations.
73. To develop the capacities of its academic staff to teach environmental
literacy.
74. To encourage among both staff and students an environmental perspective,
whatever the field of study.
75. To utilise the intellectual resources of the university to build strong
environmental education programmes.
76. To encourage interdisciplinary and collaborative research programmes related
to sustainable development as part of the institution's central mission and to
overcome traditional barriers between disciplines and departments.
77. To emphasise the ethical obligations of the university community - current
students, faculty and staff - to understand and defeat the forces that lead to
environmental degradation, and the inter-generational inequities; to work at
ways that will help its academic community, and the graduates, and the
governments that support it, to accept these ethical obligations.
78. To promote interdisciplinary networks of environmental experts at the local,
national and international levels in order to disseminate knowledge and to
collaborate on common environmental projects in both research and education.
79. To promote the mobility of staff and students as essential to the free trade
of knowledge;
80. To forge partnerships with other sectors of society in transferring
innovative and appropriate technologies that can benefit and enhance sustainable
development practices.
81. To devote its activities to the study of systems, institutions and processes
in higher education to specially focus on the historical role of higher
education in society, contemporary policy problems, and how universities and
colleges can change to meet the growing educational, research, and public
service needs of a "knowledge" society.
82. To promote public confidence that quality of provision and standards of
awards in higher education are being safeguarded and enhanced.
83. To help other confederal bodies of universities and higher education
institutions in other countries aimed at providing quality education and at
supporting synergistic ventures in teaching, examination, research and community
service programmes.
84. To seek to make a significant contribution to the understanding of
policy-making, governance and management of universities and other higher
education institutions.
85. To emphasise equity and access and the improvement of educational
experiences of people of all age levels and backgrounds.
86. To include partnerships with other like minded organisations to address a
wide array of problems, drawing upon the insights of academic disciplines and
professional perspectives.
87. To meet the widely felt need in the Indian subcontinent for a centre for
policy research and cooperation in education in the Indian perspective, with the
sole purpose to contribute to policy analysis in education and training, to
carry out evaluation of systems, reforms, programmes and institutions, and to
provide technical assistance and support to all interested actors in this field.
88. To help the member universities in designing new information and
communications technologies for heralding as a revolution for the world of
learning and to fulfil the promise of better and cheaper higher education for
more students.
89. To review the open and distance learning in the context of present
challenges and opportunities, describe relevant concepts and contribution,
outline significant current global and regional trends, suggest policy and
strategy considerations and identify CIU's role in capacity building, national
as well international cooperation.
89. To maintain an inventory of successful strategies to increase the
participation of women in higher education and promote the principle of gender
equity, and to increase access and retention as well as to improve the quality
of education for all women in universities.
90. To serve as a clearing house of information for providing regular
opportunities for the discussion on university development in general and on
academic development in particular with a view to assisting the member
universities in the recruitment and placement of faculty and staff, exchange of
teachers and students and in the development of cooperative arrangements.
91. To establish relations with significant players and opinion makers from
education, business, culture, law, and government sectors in order to facilitate
strategic alliances with other organisations.
92. To support preparation, production and widespread distribution of
educational materials on higher education with a view to strengthen the
employment generation movement.
92. To help promote such new Central and State legislation or amendments as may
be deemed necessary for the development of higher education.
93. To encourage the students of all universities to be active, to emphasize the
personal nature of learning, to accept that difference is desirable, to
recognise student's right to make mistakes, to tolerate imperfection, encourage
openness of mind, to make feel respected and accepted, to facilitate discovery,
to put emphasis on self evaluation in cooperation, and to permit confrontation
of ideas.
94. To promote the hypothesis that learning is primarily controlled by the
learner, is unique and individual, is affected by the total state of the
learner, is cooperative and collaborative, is a consequence of experience, is
not directly observable, is both an emotional and intellectual process, is
evolutionary process, is development oriented, and, is quite sustainable.
95. To collaborate, affiliate and federate with the Central and the State
Governments, agencies and bodies for implementing the projects on higher
education.
96. To raise and borrow money for the purpose of the Confederation in such a
manner as may be decided from time to time and to prescribe the membership fees,
charges, grants in aid etc.
97. To purchase, take on lease or exchange, hire or otherwise acquire
properties, movable or immovable and rights and privileges all over the world,
which may be deemed necessary or convenient for the benefit of the Confederation
and to sell, lease, mortgage, dispose or otherwise deal with all or any part of
the property of the Confederation.
98. To open branches, chapters and constitutent centres in different parts of
the country and get them registered with appropriate authorities if needed and
felt conducive for the attainment of the aims and objects of the Confederation.
99. To invest the money of the Confederation not immediately required in such
securities and in such manner as may be decided from time to time, the money
especially collected through subscriptions, advertisements, sponsorship, sale of
publications, fees, gifts, endowments, donations, grants etc.
100. To finally provide information, knowledge, wisdom, and education that
prepares every body for educational leadership and social responsibility
enabling to think and communicate effectively and to develop a global awareness
and sensitivity for a better global understanding, world peace and unity.
101. And to generally do all that is incidental and conducive to the attainment
of the aims and objects mentioned above.
Globalisation and Internationationalisation of Education
It has often been taken for granted that universities are
international. The universal nature of knowledge, a long tradition of
international collegiality and cooperation in research, the comings and goings
of faculty and students since antiquity have all served to create this
impression. Conscious that this impression only partially reflects the day to
day reality of higher education institutions and noting that
internationalisation of higher education is today more than ever a worthy goal,
there is an urgent need to reaffirm the commitment and to urge all stakeholders
to contribute to its realisation.
As we approach the 21st Century, a number of major challenges face women and men
as they interact with one another as individuals, groups, and with nature.
Globalisation of trade, of production, of services, and of communications has
created a highly interconnected world. Yet the tremendous gaps between the rich
and the poor continue to widen both within, and between nations. Sustainable
development remains an elusive long-term goal, too often sacrificed for
short-term gains.
It is imperative that higher education offers solutions to existing problems and
innovate to avoid problems in the future. Whether in the economic, political, or
social realms, higher education is expected to contribute to raising the overall
quality of life. To fulfil its role effectively and maintain excellence, higher
education must become far more internationalised; it must integrate an
international and intercultural dimension into its teaching, research, and
service functions.
Preparing future leaders and citizens for a highly interdependent world,
requires a higher education system where internationalisation promotes cultural
diversity and fosters intercultural understanding, respect, and tolerance among
peoples. Such internationalisation of higher education contributes to building
more than economically competitive and politically powerful regional blocks; it
represents a commitment to international solidarity, human security and helps to
build a climate of global peace.
Technological advances in communications are powerful instruments, which can
serve to further inter-nationalisation of higher education and to democratise
access to opportunities. However, to the extent that access to new information
technologies remains unevenly distributed in the world, the adverse side effects
of their widespread use can threaten cultural diversity and widen the gaps in
the production, dissemination, and appropriation of knowledge.
Highly educated manpower at the highest levels are essential to increasingly
knowledge-based development. Internationalisation and international cooperation
can serve to improve higher education by increasing efficiency in teaching and
learning as well as in research through shared efforts and joint actions.
The Confederation of Indian Universities (CIU) from the very day of its
establishment on 15 April 2004 thinks it proper to define the principle of
institutional autonomy as the necessary degree of independence from external
interference that a university requires in respect of its internal organisation
and governance, the internal distribution of financial resources and the
generation of income from non public sources, the recruitment of its staff, the
setting of the conditions of study and, finally, the freedom to conduct teaching
and research.
The CIU wishes to further define the principle of academic freedom as the
freedom for members of the academic community that is, scholars, teachers and
students to follow their scholarly activities within a framework determined by
that community in respect of ethical rules and international standards, and
without outside pressure.
Rights confer obligations. These obligations are as much incumbent on the
individuals and on a university of which they are part, as they are upon the
State and the Society.
Academic freedom engages the obligation by each individual member of the
academic profession to excellence, to innovation, and to advancing the frontiers
of knowledge through research and the diffusion of its results through teaching
and publications.
Academic freedom also engages the ethical responsibility of the individuals and
the academic community in the conduct of research, both in determining the
priorities of that research and in taking account of the implications, which its
results may have for humanity and nature.
For its part, the University has the obligation to uphold and demonstrate to the
society that it stands by its collective obligation to quality and ethics, to
fairness and tolerance, to the setting and the upkeep of standards — academic
when applied to research and teaching, administrative when applied to due
process, to the rendering of accounts to the society, to self-verification, to
institutional review and to transparency in the conduct of institutional
self-government.
For their part, organising powers and stakeholders, public or private, stand
equally under the obligation to prevent arbitrary interference, to provide and
to ensure those conditions necessary, in compliance with internationally
recognised standards, for the exercise of academic freedom by individual members
of the academic profession and for University autonomy to be exercised by the
institution.
In particular, the organising powers and stakeholders, public or private, and
the interests they represent, should recognise that by its very nature the
obligation upon the academic profession to advance knowledge is inseparable from
the examination, questioning and testing of accepted ideas and of established
wisdom. And that the expression of views, which follow from scientific insight
or scholarly investigation may often be contrary to popular conviction or judged
as unacceptable and intolerable.
Hence, agencies which exercise responsibility for the advancement of knowledge
as to particular interests which provide support for, or stand in a contractual
relationship with, the university for the services it may furnish, must
recognise that such expressions of scholarly judgement and scientific inquiry
shall not place in jeopardy the career or the existence of the individual
expressing them nor leave that individual open to pursual for delit d'opinion on
account of such views being expressed.
If the free range of inquiry, examination and the advance of knowledge are held
to be benefits society derives from the University, the latter must assume the
responsibility for the choices and the priorities it sets freely. Society for
its part, must recognise its part in providing means appropriate for the
achievement of that end.
Resources should be commensurate with expectations — especially those which,
like fundamental research, demand a long-term commitment if they are to yield
their full benefits.
The obligation to transmit and to advance knowledge is the basic purpose for
which academic freedom and university autonomy are required and recognised.
Since knowledge is universal, so too is this obligation.
In practice, however, universities fulfil this obligation primarily in respect
of the societies in which they are located. And it is these communities,
cultural, regional, national and local, which establish with the University the
terms by which such responsibilities are to be assumed, who is to assume them
and by what means and procedures.
Responsibilities met within the setting of 'national' society, extend beyond the
physical boundaries of that society. Since its earliest days, the University has
professed intellectual and spiritual engagement to the principles of
'universalism' and to 'internationalism' whilst Academic freedom and university
autonomy evolved within the setting of the historic national community.
For universities to serve a world society requires that academic freedom and
university autonomy form the bedrock to a new Social Contract - a contract to
uphold values common to humanity and to meet the expectations of a world where
frontiers are rapidly dissolving.
In the context of international cooperation, the exercise of academic freedom
and university autonomy by some should not lead to intellectual hegemony over
others. It should, on the contrary, be a means of strengthening the principles
of pluralism, tolerance and academic solidarity between institutions of higher
learning and between individual scholars and students.
At a time when the ties, obligations and commitments between the society and the
university are becoming more complex, more urgent and more direct, it appears
desirable to establish a broadly recognised Charter of mutual rights and
obligations governing the relationship between the University and society,
including adequate monitoring mechanisms for its application.
masterplan paradigm for a confederative approach in
universities
Introduction
1. There is an unprecedented demand for and a great diversification in
higher education, as well as an increased awareness of its vital importance for
sociocultural and economic development, and for building the future, for which
the younger generations will need to be equipped with new skills, knowledge and
ideals.
2. Higher education includes ‘all types of studies, teaching, training and
research at the post-secondary level, provided by universities or other
educational establishments that are approved as institutions of higher education
by the competent authorities.
3. Everywhere higher education is faced with great challenges and difficulties
related to financing, equity of conditions at access into and during the course
of studies, improved staff development, skills-based training, enhancement and
preservation of quality in teaching, research and services, relevance of
programmes, employability of graduates, post-graduates and doctorates,
establishment of efficient co-operation agreements and equitable access to the
benefits of international co-operation.
4. At the same time, higher education is being challenged by new opportunities
relating to technologies that are improving the ways in which knowledge can be
produced, managed, disseminated, accessed and controlled. Equitable access to
these technologies should be ensured at all levels of education systems.
5. The initial years of this century and the last 50 years of the twentieth
century will go down in the history of higher education as the period of its
most spectacular expansion: an over sixfold increase in student enrolments
worldwide. But it is also the period which has seen the gap between the
industrially developed, the developing countries and in particular the least
developed countries with regard to access and resources for higher learning and
research, already enormous, becoming even wider. It has also been a period of
increased socio-economic stratification and greater difference in educational
opportunity within countries, including in some of the most developed and
wealthiest nations.
6. Without adequate higher education and research institutions providing a
critical mass of skilled and educated people, no country can ensure genuine
endogenous and sustainable development and, in particular, developing countries
and the least developed countries cannot reduce the gap separating them from the
industrially developed ones. Sharing knowledge, international co-operation and
new technologies can offer new opportunities to reduce this gap.
7. Higher education has given ample proof of its viability over the centuries
and of its ability to change and to induce change and progress in society. Owing
to the scope and pace of change, society has become increasingly knowledge-based
so that higher learning and research now act as essential components of
cultural, socio-economic and environmentally sustainable development of
individuals, communities and nations.
8. Higher education itself is confronted, therefore, with formidable challenges
and must proceed to the most radical change and renewal it has ever been
required to undertake, so that our society, which is currently undergoing a
profound crisis of values, can transcend mere economic considerations and
incorporate deeper dimensions of morality and spirituality.
9. It is with the aim of providing solutions to these challenges and of setting
in motion a process of in-depth reform in higher education worldwide that the
Confederation of Indian Universities (CIU) is being established with a view to
designing a Masterplan Paradigm for introducing development systems for
strengthening the cause of higher education in the third millennium.
CIU's declaration on higher education
We, the University level Institutions in India assembled at New Delhi on 15
April 2004;
10. Recalling the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states in Article
26, paragraph 1, that ‘Everyone has the right to education’ and that ‘higher
education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit’, and
endorsing the basic principles of the Convention against Discrimination in
Education (1960), which, by Article 4, commits the States Parties to it to ‘make
higher education equally accessible to all on the basis of individual capacity’.
11. Convinced that education is a fundamental pillar of human rights, democracy,
sustainable development and peace, and shall therefore become accessible to all
throughout life and that measures are required to ensure co-ordination and
co-operation across and between the various sectors, particularly between
general, technical and professional secondary and post-secondary education as
well as between universities, colleges and technical institutions.
12. Believing that, in this context, the solution of the problems faced in the
twenty-first century will be determined by the vision of the future society and
by the role that is assigned to education in general and to higher education in
particular.
13. Aware that at the beginning of a new millennium it is the duty of higher
education to ensure that the values and ideals of a culture of peace prevail and
that the intellectual community should be mobilized to that end.
14. Considering that a substantial change and development of higher education,
the enhancement of its quality and relevance, and the solution to the major
challenges it faces, require the strong involvement not only of governments and
of higher education institutions, but also of all stakeholders, including
students and their families, teachers, business and industry, the public and
private sectors of the economy, legislatures, the media, the community,
professional associations and society as well as a greater responsibility of
higher education institutions towards society and accountability in the use of
public and private, national or international resources;
15. Emphasizing that higher education systems should enhance their capacity to
live with uncertainty, to change and bring about change, and to address social
needs and to promote solidarity and equity; should preserve and exercise
scientific rigour and originality, in a spirit of impartiality, as a basic
prerequisite for attaining and sustaining an indispensable level of quality; and
should place students at the centre of their concerns, within a lifelong
perspective, so as to allow their full integration into the global knowledge
society of this new century; and
16. Also believing that international co-operation and exchange are major
avenues for advancing higher education throughout the world.
Proclaim the following:
MISSIONS AND FUNCTIONS OF the
confederation of Indian Universities
Mission to Educate, to Train and to Undertake Research
We affirm that the core missions and values of higher education, in particular
the mission to contribute to the sustainable development and improvement of
society as a whole, should be preserved, reinforced and further expanded,
namely, to:
17. Educate highly qualified graduates and responsible citizens able to meet the
needs of all sectors of human activity, by offering relevant qualifications,
including professional training, which combine high-level knowledge and skills,
using courses and content continually tailored to the present and future needs
of society.
18. Provide opportunities for higher learning and for learning throughout life,
giving to learners an optimal range of choice and a flexibility of entry and
exit points within the system, as well as an opportunity for individual
development and social mobility in order to educate for citizenship and for
active participation in society, with a worldwide vision, for endogenous
capacity-building, and for the consolidation of human rights, sustainable
development, democracy and peace, in a context of justice.
19. Advance, create and disseminate knowledge through research and provide, as
part of its service to the community, relevant expertise to assist societies in
cultural, social and economic development, promoting and developing scientific
and technological research as well as research in the social sciences, the
humanities and the creative arts.
20. Help understand, interpret, preserve, enhance, promote and disseminate
national and regional, international and historic cultures, in a context of
cultural pluralism and diversity.
21. Help protect and enhance societal values by training young people in the
values which form the basis of democratic citizenship and by providing critical
and detached perspectives to assist in the discussion of strategic options and
the reinforcement of humanistic perspectives; and
22. Contribute to the development and improvement of education at all levels,
including through the training of teachers.
Ethical Role, Autonomy, Responsibility and
Anticipatory Function
Higher education institutions and their personnel and students should :
23. Preserve and develop their crucial functions, through the exercise of ethics
and scientific and intellectual rigour in their various activities.
24. Be able to speak out on ethical, cultural and social problems completely
independently and in full awareness of their responsibilities, exercising a kind
of intellectual authority that society needs to help it to reflect, understand
and act.
25. Enhance their critical and forward-looking functions, through continuing
analysis of emerging social, economic, cultural and political trends, providing
a focus for forecasting, warning and prevention.
26. Exercise their intellectual capacity and their moral prestige to defend and
actively disseminate universally accepted values, including peace, justice,
freedom, equality and solidarity.
27. Enjoy full academic autonomy and freedom, conceived as a set of rights and
duties, while being fully responsible and accountable to society.
28. Play a role to help identify and to address issues that affect the
well-being of communities, nations and global society.
SHAPING A NEW VISION OF HIGHER EDUCATION
Equity of Access
29. In keeping with Article 26.1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
admission to higher education should be based on the merit, capacity, efforts,
perseverance and devotion, showed by those seeking access to it, and can take
place in a lifelong scheme, at any time, with due recognition of previously
acquired skills. As a consequence, no discrimination can be accepted in granting
access to higher education on grounds of race, gender, language or religion, or
economic, cultural or social distinctions, or physical disabilities.
30. Equity of access to higher education should begin with the reinforcement
and, if need be, the reordering of its links with all other levels of education,
particularly with secondary education. Higher education institutions must be
viewed as, and must also work within themselves to be a part of and encourage, a
seamless system starting with early childhood and primary education and
continuing through life. Higher education institutions must work in active
partnership with parents, schools, students, socio-economic groups and
communities.
31. Secondary education should not only prepare qualified candidates for access
to higher education by developing the capacity to learn on a broad basis but
also open the way to active life by providing training on a wide range of jobs.
However, access to higher education should remain open to those successfully
completing secondary school, or its equivalent, or presenting entry
qualifications, as far as possible, at any age and without any discrimination.
32. As a consequence, the rapid and wide-reaching demand for higher education
requires, where appropriate, all policies concerning access to higher education
to give priority in the future to the approach based on the merit of the
individual.
33. Access to higher education for members of some special target groups, such
as indigenous peoples, cultural and linguistic minorities, disadvantaged groups,
peoples living under occupation and those who suffer from disabilities, must be
actively facilitated, since these groups as collectivities and as individuals
may have both experience and talent that can be of great value for the
development of societies and nations. Special material help and educational
solutions can help overcome the obstacles that these groups face, both in
accessing and in continuing higher education.
Enhancing Participation and Promoting the Role of Women
34. Although significant progress has been achieved to enhance the access of
women to higher education, various socio-economic, cultural and political
obstacles continue in many places in the world to impede their full access and
effective integration. To overcome them remains an urgent priority in the
renewal process for ensuring an equitable and non-discriminatory system of
higher education based on the principle of merit.
35. Further efforts are required to eliminate all gender stereotyping in higher
education, to consider gender aspects in different disciplines and to
consolidate women’s participation at all levels and in all disciplines, in which
they are under-represented and, in particular, to enhance their active
involvement in decision-making.
36. Gender studies (women’s studies) should be promoted as a field of knowledge,
strategic for the transformation of higher education and society.
37. Efforts should be made to eliminate political and social barriers whereby
women are under-represented and in particular to enhance their active
involvement at policy and decision-making levels within higher education and
society.
Advancing Knowledge through Research in
Science, the Arts and Humanities and the
Dissemination of its Results
38. The advancement of knowledge through research is an essential function of
all systems of higher education, which should promote postgraduate studies.
Innovation, interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity should be promoted and
reinforced in programmes with long-term orientations on social and cultural aims
and needs. An appropriate balance should be established between basic and
target-oriented research.
40. Institutions should ensure that all members of the academic community
engaged in research are provided with appropriate training, resources and
support. The intellectual and cultural rights on the results of research should
be used to the benefit of humanity and should be protected so that they cannot
be abused.
41. Research must be enhanced in all disciplines, including the social and human
sciences, education (including higher education), engineering, natural sciences,
mathematics, informatics and the arts within the framework of national, regional
and international research and development policies. Of special importance is
the enhancement of research capacities in higher education and research
institutions, as mutual enhancement of quality takes place when higher education
and research are conducted at a high level within the same institution. These
institutions should find the material and financial support required, from both
public and private sources.
Long-Term Orientation based on Relevance
42. Relevance in higher education should be assessed in terms of the fit between
what society expects of institutions and what they do. This requires ethical
standards, political impartiality, critical capacities and, at the same time, a
better articulation with the problems of society and the world of work, basing
long-term orientations on societal aims and needs, including respect for
cultures and environmental protection. The concern is to provide access to both
broad general education and targeted, career-specific education, often
interdisciplinary, focusing on skills and aptitudes, both of which equip
individuals to live in a variety of changing settings, and to be able to change
occupations.
43. Higher education should reinforce its role of service to society, especially
its activities aimed at eliminating poverty, intolerance, violence, illiteracy,
hunger, environmental degradation and disease, mainly through an
interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach in the analysis of problems and
issues.
44. Higher education should enhance its contribution to the development of the
whole education system, notably through improved teacher education, curriculum
development and educational research.
45. Ultimately, higher education should aim at the creation of a new society -
non-violent and non-exploitative - consisting of highly cultivated, motivated
and integrated individuals, inspired by love for humanity and guided by wisdom.
Strengthening Co-operation with the World of Work and Analysing and Anticipating
Societal Needs
46. In economies characterized by changes and the emergence of new production
paradigms based on knowledge and its application, and on the handling of
information, the links between higher education, the world of work and other
parts of society should be strengthened and renewed.
47. Links with the world of work can be strengthened, through the participation
of its representatives in the governance of institutions, the increased use of
domestic and international apprenticeship/work-study opportunities for students
and teachers, the exchange of personnel between the world of work and higher
education institutions and revised curricula more closely aligned with working
practices.
48. As a lifelong source of professional training, updating and recycling,
institutions of higher education should systematically take into account trends
in the world of work and in the scientific, technological and economic sectors.
In order to respond to the work requirements, higher education systems and the
world of work should jointly develop and assess learning processes, bridging
programmes and prior learning assessment and recognition programmes, which
integrate theory and training on the job. Within the framework of their
anticipatory function, higher education institutions could contribute to the
creation of new jobs, although that is not their only function.
49. Developing entrepreneurial skills and initiative should become major
concerns of higher education, in order to facilitate employability of graduates
who will increasingly be called upon to be not only job seekers but also and
above all to become job creators. Higher education institutions should give the
opportunity to students to fully develop their own abilities with a sense of
social responsibility, educating them to become full participants in democratic
society and promoters of changes that will foster equity and justice.
Diversification for Enhanced Equity of Opportunity
50. Diversifying higher education models and recruitment methods and criteria is
essential both to meet increasing international demand and to provide access to
various delivery modes and to extend access to an ever-wider public, in a
lifelong perspective, based on flexible entry and exit points to and from the
system of higher education.
51. More diversified systems of higher education are characterized by new types
of tertiary institutions: public, private and non-profit institutions, amongst
others. Institutions should be able to offer a wide variety of education and
training opportunities: traditional degrees, short courses, part-time study,
flexible schedules, modularized courses, supported learning at a distance, etc.
Innovative Educational Approaches: Critical
Thinking and Creativity
52. In a world undergoing rapid changes, there is a perceived need for a new
vision and paradigm of higher education, which should be student-oriented,
calling in most countries for in-depth reforms and an open access policy so as
to cater to ever more diversified categories of people, and of its contents,
methods, practices and means of delivery, based on new types of links and
partnerships with the community and with the broadest sectors of society.
53. Higher education institutions should educate students to become well
informed and deeply motivated citizens, who can think critically, analyse
problems of society, look for solutions to the problems of society, apply them
and accept social responsibilities.
54. To achieve these goals, it may be necessary to recast curricula, using new
and appropriate methods, so as to go beyond cognitive mastery of disciplines.
New pedagogical and didactical approaches should be accessible and promoted in
order to facilitate the acquisition of skills, competencies and abilities for
communication, creative and critical analysis, independent thinking and team
work in multicultural contexts, where creativity also involves combining
traditional or local knowledge and know-how with advanced science and
technology. These recast curricula should take into account the gender dimension
and the specific cultural, historic and economic context of each country. The
teaching of human rights standards and education on the needs of communities in
all parts of the world should be reflected in the curricula of all disciplines,
particularly those preparing for entrepreneurship. Academic personnel should
play a significant role in determining the curriculum.
55. New methods of education will also imply new types of teaching-learning
materials. These have to be coupled with new methods of testing that will
promote not only powers of memory but also powers of comprehension, skills for
practical work and creativity.
Higher Education Personnel and Students as Major Actors
56. A vigorous policy of staff development is an essential element of higher
education institutions. Clear policies should be established concerning higher
education teachers, who nowadays need to focus on teaching students how to learn
and how to take initiatives rather than being exclusively founts of knowledge.
Adequate provision should be made for research and for updating and improving
pedagogical skills, through appropriate staff development programmes,
encouraging constant innovation in curricula, teaching and learning methods, and
ensuring appropriate professional and financial status, and for excellence in
research and teaching. Furthermore, in view of the role of higher education for
lifelong learning, experience outside the institutions ought to be considered as
a relevant qualification for higher educational staff.
57. Clear policies should be established by all higher education institutions
preparing teachers of early childhood education and for primary and secondary
schools, providing stimulus for constant innovation in curricula, best practices
in teaching methods and familiarity with diverse learning styles. It is vital to
have appropriately trained administrative and technical personnel.
58. National and institutional decision-makers should place students and their
needs at the centre of their concerns, and should consider them as major
partners and responsible stakeholders in the renewal of higher education. This
should include student involvement in issues that affect that level of
education, in evaluation, the renovation of teaching methods and curricula and,
in the institutional framework in force, in policy-formulation and institutional
management. As students have the right to organize and represent themselves,
students’ involvement in these issues should be guaranteed.
59. Guidance and counselling services should be developed, in cooperation with
student organizations, in order to assist students in the transition to higher
education at whatever age and to take account of the needs of ever more
diversified categories of learners. Apart from those entering higher education
from schools or further education colleges, they should also take account of the
needs of those leaving and returning in a lifelong process. Such support is
important in ensuring a good match between student and course, reducing
drop-out. Students who do drop out should have suitable opportunities to return
to higher education if and when appropriate.
FROM VISION TO ACTION
Qualitative Evaluation
60. Quality in higher education is a multidimensional concept, which should
embrace all its functions, and activities: teaching and academic programmes,
research and scholarship, staffing, students, buildings, facilities, equipment,
services to the community and the academic environment. Internal self-evaluation
and external review, conducted openly by independent specialists, if possible
with international expertise, are vital for enhancing quality. Independent
national bodies should be established and comparative standards of quality,
recognized at international level, should be defined. Due attention should be
paid to specific institutional, national and regional contexts in order to take
into account diversity and to avoid uniformity. Stakeholders should be an
integral part of the institutional evaluation process.
61. Quality also requires that higher education should be characterized by its
international dimension: exchange of knowledge, interactive networking, mobility
of teachers and students, and international research projects, while taking into
account the national cultural values and circumstances.
62. To attain and sustain national, regional or international quality, certain
components are particularly relevant, notably careful selection of staff and
continuous staff development, in particular through the promotion of appropriate
programmes for academic staff development, including teaching/learning
methodology and mobility between countries, between higher education
institutions, and between higher education institutions and the world of work,
as well as student mobility within and between countries. The new information
technologies are an important tool in this process, owing to their impact on the
acquisition of knowledge and know-how.
The Potential and the Challenge of Technology
63. The rapid breakthroughs in new information and communication technologies
will further change the way knowledge is developed, acquired and delivered. It
is also important to note that the new technologies offer opportunities to
innovate on course content and teaching methods and to widen access to higher
learning. However, it should be borne in mind that new information technology
does not reduce the need for teachers but changes their role in relation to the
learning process and that the continuous dialogue that converts information into
knowledge and understanding becomes fundamental. Higher education institutions
should lead in drawing on the advantages and potential of new information and
communication technologies, ensuring quality and maintaining high standards for
education practices and outcomes in a spirit of openness, equity and
international co-operation by:
64. Engaging in networks, technology transfer, capacity-building, developing
teaching materials and sharing experience of their application in teaching,
training and research, and making knowledge accessible to all;
65. Creating new learning environments, ranging from distance education
facilities to complete virtual higher education institutions and systems,
capable of bridging distances and developing high-quality systems of education,
thus serving social and economic advancement and democratization as well as
other relevant priorities of society, while ensuring that these virtual
education facilities, based on regional, continental or global networks,
function in a way that respects cultural and social identities;
66. Noting that, in making full use of information and communication technology
(ICT) for educational purposes, particular attention should be paid to removing
the grave inequalities which exist among and also within the countries of the
world with regard to access to new information and communication technologies
and to the production of the corresponding resources;
67. Adapting ICT to national, regional and local needs and securing technical,
educational, management and institutional systems to sustain it;
68. Facilitating, through international co-operation, the identification of the
objectives and interests of all countries, particularly the developing
countries, equitable access and the strengthening of infrastructures in this
field and the dissemination of such technology throughout society;
69. Closely following the evolution of the ‘knowledge society’ in order to
ensure high quality and equitable regulations for access to prevail;
70. Taking the new possibilities created by the use of ICTs into account, while
realizing that it is, above all, institutions of higher education that are using
ICTs in order to modernize their work, and not ICTs transforming institutions of
higher education from real to virtual institutions.
Strengthening Higher Education Management and Financing
71. The management and financing of higher education require the development of
appropriate planning and policy-analysis capacities and strategies, based on
partnerships established between higher education institutions and state and
national planning and co-ordination bodies, so as to secure appropriately
streamlined management and the cost-effective use of resources. Higher education
institutions should adopt forward-looking management practices that respond to
the needs of their environments. Managers in higher education must be
responsive, competent and able to evaluate regularly, by internal and external
mechanisms, the effectiveness of procedures and administrative rules.
72. Higher education institutions must be given autonomy to manage their
internal affairs, but with this autonomy must come clear and transparent
accountability to the government, legislature, students and the wider society.
73. The ultimate goal of management should be to enhance the institutional
mission by ensuring high-quality teaching, training and research, and services
to the community. This objective requires governance that combines social
vision, including understanding of global issues, with efficient managerial
skills. Leadership in higher education is thus a major social responsibility and
can be significantly strengthened through dialogue with all stakeholders,
especially teachers and students, in higher education. The participation of
teaching faculty in the governing bodies of higher education institutions should
be taken into account, within the framework of current institutional
arrangements, bearing in mind the need to keep the size of these bodies within
reasonable bounds.
74. The promotion of North-South co-operation to ensure the necessary financing
for strengthening higher education in the developing countries is essential.
Financing of Higher Education as a Public Service
The funding of higher education requires both public and private resources. The
role of the government remains essential in this regard.
75. The diversification of funding sources reflects the support that society
provides to higher education and must be further strengthened to ensure the
development of higher education, increase its efficiency and maintain its
quality and relevance. Public support for higher education and research remains
essential to ensure a balanced achievement of educational and social missions.
76. Society as a whole must support education at all levels, including higher
education, given its role in promoting sustainable economic, social and cultural
development. Mobilization for this purpose depends on public awareness and
involvement of the public and private sectors of the economy, legislature, the
media, governmental and non-governmental organizations, students as well as
institutions, families and all the social actors involved with higher education.
Sharing Knowledge and Know-How across Borders and Continents
77. The principle of solidarity and true partnership amongst higher education
institutions worldwide is crucial for education and training in all fields that
encourage an understanding of global issues, the role of democratic governance
and skilled human resources in their resolution, and the need for living
together with different cultures and values. The practice of multilingualism,
faculty and student exchange programmes and institutional linkage to promote
intellectual and scientific co-operation should be an integral part of all
higher education systems.
78. The principles of international co-operation based on solidarity,
recognition and mutual support, true partnership that equitably serves the
interests of the partners and the value of sharing knowledge and know-how across
borders should govern relationships among higher education institutions in both
developed and developing countries and should benefit the least developed
countries in particular. Consideration should be given to the need for
safeguarding higher education institutional capacities in regions suffering from
conflict or natural disasters. Consequently, an international dimension should
permeate the curriculum, and the teaching and learning processes.
79. Regional and international normative instruments for the recognition of
studies should be ratified and implemented, including certification of the
skills, competencies and abilities of graduates, making it easier for students
to change courses, in order to facilitate mobility within and between national
systems.
From ‘Brain Drain’ to ‘Brain Gain’
80. The ‘brain drain’ has yet to be stemmed, since it continues to deprive the
developing countries and those in transition, of the high-level expertise
necessary to accelerate their socio-economic progress. International
co-operation schemes should be based on long-term partnerships between
institutions in the South and the North, and also promote South-South
co-operation. Priority should be given to training programmes in the developing
countries, in centres of excellence forming regional and international networks,
with short periods of specialized and intensive study abroad.
81. Consideration should be given to creating an environment conducive to
attracting and retaining skilled human capital, either through national policies
or international arrangements to facilitate the return - permanent or temporary
- of highly trained scholars and researchers to their countries of origin. At
the same time, efforts must be directed towards a process of ‘brain gain’
through collaboration programmes that, by virtue of their international
dimension, enhance the building and strengthening of institutions and facilitate
full use of endogenous capacities.
Partnership and Alliances
82. Partnership and alliances amongst stakeholders - national and institutional
policy-makers, teaching and related staff, researchers and students, and
administrative and technical personnel in institutions of higher education, the
world of work, community groups - is a powerful force in managing change. Also,
non-governmental organizations are key actors in this process. Henceforth,
partnership, based on common interest, mutual respect and credibility, should be
a prime matrix for renewal in higher education.
The Confederation of Indian Universities (CIU) adopts this Declaration and
reaffirms the right of all people to education and the right of access to higher
education based on individual merit and capacity.
The Confederation of Indian Universities (CIU) pledges to act together within
the frame of our individual and collective responsibilities, by taking all
necessary measures in order to realize the principles concerning higher
education contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the
Convention against Discrimination in Education.
The Confederation of Indian Universities (CIU) solemnly reaffirms the commitment
to peace. To that end, CIU is determined to accord high priority to education
for reducing peacelessness, unemployment, pollution and intolerance.
The Confederation of Indian Universities (CIU) adopts, therefore, this
Declaration on Higher Education and Development. To achieve the goals set forth
in this Declaration and, in particular, for immediate action, CIU agrees on the
following Framework for Priority Action for Change and Development of Higher
Education.
FRAMEWORK FOR PRIORITY ACTION FOR CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION
Priority Actions at National Level
States, including their governments, legislatures and other decision-makers,
should:
83. Establish, where appropriate, the legislative, political and financial
framework for the reform and further development of higher education, in keeping
with the terms of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which establishes
that higher education shall be ‘accessible to all on the basis of merit’. No
discrimination can be accepted, no one can be excluded from higher education or
its study fields, degree levels and types of institutions on grounds of race,
gender, language, religion, or age or because of any economic or social
distinctions or physical disabilities;
84. Reinforce the links between higher education and research;
85. Consider and use higher education as a catalyst for the entire education
system;
86. Develop higher education institutions to include lifelong learning
approaches, giving learners an optimal range of choice and a flexibility of
entry and exit points within the system, and redefine their role accordingly,
which implies the development of open and continuous access to higher learning
and the need for bridging programmes and prior learning assessment and
recognition;
87. Make efforts, when necessary, to establish close links between higher
education and research institutions, taking into account the fact that education
and research are two closely related elements in the establishment of knowledge;
88. Develop innovative schemes of collaboration between institutions of higher
education and different sectors of society to ensure that higher education and
research programmes effectively contribute to local, regional and national
development;
89. Fulfil their commitments to higher education and be accountable for the
pledges adopted with their concurrence, at several forums, particularly over the
past decade, with regard to human, material and financial resources, human
development and education in general, and to higher education in particular;
90. Have a policy framework to ensure new partnerships and the involvement of
all relevant stakeholders in all aspects of higher education: the evaluation
process, including curriculum and pedagogical renewal, and guidance and
counselling services; and, in the framework of existing institutional
arrangements, policy-making and institutional governance;
91. Define and implement policies to eliminate all gender stereotyping in higher
education and to consolidate women’s participation at all levels and in all
disciplines in which they are under-represented at present and, in particular,
to enhance their active involvement in decision-making;
92. Recognize students as the centre of attention of higher education, and one
of its stakeholders. They should be involved, by means of adequate institutional
structures, in the renewal of their level of education (including curriculum and
pedagogical reform), and policy decision, in the framework of existing
institutional arrangements;
93. Recognize that students have the right to organize themselves autonomously;
94. Promote and facilitate national and international mobility of teaching staff
and students as an essential part of the quality and relevance of higher
education;
95. Provide and ensure those conditions necessary for the exercise of academic
freedom and institutional autonomy so as to allow institutions of higher
education, as well as those individuals engaged in higher education and
research, to fulfil their obligations to society.
96. States in which enrolment in higher education is low by internationally
accepted comparative standards should strive to ensure a level of higher
education adequate for relevant needs in the public and private sectors of
society and to establish plans for diversifying and expanding access,
particularly benefiting all minorities and disadvantaged groups.
97. The interface with general, technical and professional secondary education
should be reviewed in depth, in the context of lifelong learning. Access to
higher education in whatever form must remain open to those successfully
completing secondary education or its equivalent or meeting entry qualifications
at any age, while creating gateways to higher education, especially for older
students without any formal secondary education certificates, by attaching more
importance to their professional experience. However, preparation for higher
education should not be the sole or primary purpose of secondary education,
which should also prepare for the world of work, with complementary training
whenever required, in order to provide knowledge, capacities and skills for a
wide range of jobs. The concept of bridging programmes should be promoted to
allow those entering the job market to return to studies at a later date.
98. Concrete steps should be taken to reduce the widening gap between
industrially developed and developing countries, in particular the least
developed countries, with regard to higher education and research. Concrete
steps are also needed to encourage increased co-operation between countries at
all levels of economic development with regard to higher education and research.
Consideration should be given to making budgetary provisions for that purpose,
and developing mutually beneficial agreements in order to sustain co-operative
activities and projects through appropriate incentives and funding in education,
research and the development of high-level experts.
PRIORITY ACTIONS AT THE LEVEL OF SYSTEMS AND INSTITUTIONS
99. Each higher education institution should define its mission according to the
present and future needs of society and base it on an awareness of the fact that
higher education is essential for any country or region to reach the necessary
level of sustainable and environmentally sound economic and social development,
cultural creativity nourished by better knowledge and understanding of the
cultural heritage, higher living standards, and internal and international
harmony and peace, based on human rights, democracy, tolerance and mutual
respect. These missions should incorporate the concept of academic freedom.
In establishing priorities in their programmes and structures, higher education
institutions should:
100. Take into account the need to abide by the rules of ethics and scientific
and intellectual rigour, and the multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary
approach;
101. Be primarily concerned to establish systems of access for the benefit of
all persons who have the necessary abilities and motivations;
102. Use their autonomy and high academic standards to contribute to the
sustainable development of society and to the resolution of the issues facing
the society of the future. They should develop their capacity to give
forewarning through the analysis of emerging social, cultural, economic and
political trends, approached in a multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary
manner, giving particular attention to:
high quality, a clear sense of the social pertinence of studies and their
anticipatory function, based on scientific grounds;
knowledge of fundamental social questions, in particular related to the
elimination of poverty, to sustainable development, to intercultural dialogue
and to the shaping of a culture of peace;
the need for close connection with effective research organizations or
institutions that perform well in the sphere of research; and
fundamentals of human ethics, applied to each profession and to all areas of
human endeavour.
103. Ensure, especially in universities and as far as possible, that faculty
members participate in teaching, research, tutoring students and steering
institutional affairs.
104. Take all necessary measures to reinforce their service to the community,
especially their activities aimed at eliminating poverty, intolerance, violence,
illiteracy, hunger and disease, through an interdisciplinary and
transdisciplinary approach in the analysis of challenges, problems and different
subjects.
105. Set their relations with the world of work on a new basis involving
effective partnerships with all social actors concerned, starting from a
reciprocal harmonization of action and the search for solutions to pressing
problems of humanity, all this within a framework of responsible autonomy and
academic freedom.
106. Ensure high quality of international standing, consider accountability and
both internal and external evaluation, with due respect for autonomy and
academic freedom, as being normal and inherent in their functioning, and
institutionalize transparent systems, structures or mechanisms specific thereto.
107. As lifelong education requires academic staff to update and improve their
teaching skills and learning methods, even more than in the present systems
mainly based on short periods of higher teaching, establish appropriate academic
staff development structures and/or mechanisms and programmes.
108. Promote and develop research, which is a necessary feature of all higher
education systems, in all disciplines, including the human and social sciences
and arts, given their relevance for development are needed to ensure continued
progress towards such key national objectives as access, equity, quality,
relevance and diversification.
109. Remove gender inequalities and biases in curricula and research, and take
all appropriate measures to ensure balanced representation of both men and women
among students and teachers, at all levels of management.
110. Provide, where appropriate, guidance and counselling, remedial courses,
training in how to study and other forms of student support, including measures
to improve student living conditions.
111. While the need for closer links between higher education and the world of
work is important worldwide, it is particularly vital for the developing
countries and especially the least developed countries, given their low level of
economic development. Governments of these countries should take appropriate
measures to reach this objective through appropriate measures such as
strengthening institutions for higher/professional/vocational education. At the
same time, international action is needed in order to help establish joint
undertakings between higher education and industry in these countries. It will
be necessary to give consideration to ways in which higher education graduates
could be supported, through various schemes, following the positive experience
of the micro-credit system and other incentives, in order to start small- and
medium-size enterprises. At the institutional level, developing entrepreneurial
skills and initiative should become a major concern of higher education, in
order to facilitate employability of graduates who will increasingly be required
not only to be job-seekers but to become job-creators.
112. The use of new technologies should be generalized to the greatest extent
possible to help higher education institutions, to reinforce academic
development, to widen access, to attain universal scope and to extend knowledge,
as well as to facilitate education throughout life. Governments, educational
institutions and the private sector should ensure that informatics and
communication network infrastructures, computer facilities and human resources
training are adequately provided.
Institutions of higher education should be open to adult learners:
113. By developing coherent mechanisms to recognize the outcomes of learning
undertaken in different contexts, and to ensure that credit is transferable
within and between institutions, sectors and states.
114. By establishing joint higher education/community research and training
partnerships, and by bringing the services of higher education institutions to
outside groups.
115. By carrying out interdisciplinary research in all aspects of adult
education and learning with the participation of adult learners themselves.
116. By creating opportunities for adult learning in flexible, open and creative
ways.
ACTIONS TO BE TAKEN AT INTERNATIONAL
LEVEL
117. Co-operation should be conceived of as an integral part of the
institutional missions of higher education institutions and systems.
Inter-governmental organizations, donor agencies and non-governmental
organizations should extend their action in order to develop inter-university
co-operation projects in particular through twinning institutions, based on
solidarity and partnership, as a means of bridging the gap between rich and poor
countries in the vital areas of knowledge production and application. Each
institution of higher education should envisage the creation of an appropriate
structure and/or mechanism for promoting and managing international
co-operation.
118. The intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations
active in higher education, the states through their bilateral and multilateral
co-operation programmes, the academic community and all concerned partners in
society should further promote international academic mobility as a means to
advance knowledge and knowledge-sharing in order to bring about and promote
solidarity as a main element of the global knowledge society of tomorrow,
including through strong support a the joint work plan 2004-2010 on the
recognition of studies, degrees and diplomas in higher education and through
large-scale co-operative action involving, inter alia, the establishment of an
educational credit transfer scheme, with particular emphasis on South-South
co-operation, the needs of the least developed countries and of the small states
with few higher education institutions or none at all.
119. Institutions of higher education in industrialized countries should strive
to make arrangements for international co-operation with sister institutions in
developing countries and in particular with those of poor countries. In their
co-operation, the institutions should make efforts to ensure fair and just
recognition of studies abroad. Initiatives should be taken to develop higher
education throughout the world, setting itself clear-cut goals that could lead
to tangible results. One method might be to implement projects in different
regions renewing efforts towards creating and/or strengthening centres of
excellence in developing countries relying on networks of national, regional and
international higher education institutions.
120. All concerned parts of society, should also undertake action in order to
alleviate the negative effects of ‘brain drain’ and to shift to a dynamic
process of ‘brain gain’. An overall analysis is required in all regions of the
world of the causes and effects of brain drain. A vigorous campaign should be
launched through the concerted effort of the international community and on the
basis of academic solidarity and should encourage the return to their home
country of expatriate academics, as well as the involvement of university
volunteers - newly retired academics or young academics at the beginning of
their career - who wish to teach and undertake research at higher education
institutions in developing countries. At the same time it is essential to
support the developing countries in their efforts to build and strengthen their
own educational capacities.
Within this framework, International Organisations should:
121. Promote better co-ordination among intergovernmental, supranational and
non-governmental organizations, agencies and foundations that sponsor existing
programmes and projects for international co-operation in higher education.
Furthermore, co-ordination efforts should take place in the context of national
priorities. This could be conducive to the pooling and sharing of resources,
avoid overlapping and promote better identification of projects, greater impact
of action and increased assurance of their validity through collective agreement
and review. Programmes aiming at the rapid transfer of knowledge, supporting
institutional development and establishing centres of excellence in all areas of
knowledge, in particular for peace education, conflict resolution, human rights
and democracy, should be supported by institutions and by public and private
donors.
122. Jointly with the various intergovernmental and non-governmental
organizations, become a forum of reflection on higher education issues aiming
at:
(i) preparing update reports on the state of knowledge on higher education
issues in all parts of the world;
(ii) promoting innovative projects of training and research, intended to enhance
the specific role of higher education in lifelong education;
(iii) reinforcing international co-operation and emphasizing the role of higher
education for citizenship education, sustainable development and peace; and
(iv) facilitating exchange of information and establishing, when appropriate, a
database on successful experiences and innovations that can be consulted by
institutions confronted with problems in their reforms of higher education.
123. Take specific action to support institutions of higher education in the
least developed parts of the world and in regions suffering the effects of
conflict or natural disasters.
124. Make renewed efforts towards creating or/and strengthening centres of
excellence in developing countries.
125. Take the initiative to draw up an international instrument on academic
freedom, autonomy and social responsibility.
Ensure follow-up of this Declaration jointly with other inter-governmental and
non-governmental organizations and with all higher education stakeholders. It
should have a crucial role in promoting international cooperation in the field
of higher education in implementing this follow-up under the aegis of the
Confederation of Indian Universities (CIU) and in the light of the following
context :
126. At the start of the twenty-first century, universities nationwide and
worldwide, though their circumstances differ, face important and common
challenges.
127. The phenomenon of globalisation which affects diverse sectors - the
economy, the media, etc. - also has its impact on higher education throughout
the world. It demands change and an explicit policy of internationalisation by
universities.
127. The unprecedented development of information and communication technologies
is an important vehicle in the processes of globalisation and technological
accleration which carry with them opportunities and challenges that are specific
to universities and to the way they fulfil their missions.
128. More than ever, the creation of knowledge, access to knowledge and its
development are central to the development of societies. The knowledge society
requires a new generation of skilled people. In this context, demand for more
differentiated higher and continuing education, including professional
development as well as open and distance learning, is in all countries expanding
and, in some regions, overwhelming.
129. The rapid production of knowledge and technological development spur on the
quest for quality, excellence and relevance. The university has a special
responsibility to ensure that attention is paid to solving ethical questions. In
this setting, the university's critical role towards society assumes a new
urgency.
130. The preconditions for universities and other types of higher education
institutions to cope successfully with new challenges such as these remain,
however, basically unchanged. These preconditions include autonomy of action,
academic freedom and adequate human and financial resources.
131. For higher education of quality to be today and in the future a motor of
social, cultural and economic development, other conditions are required,
amongst which effective dialogue with external partners and responsible
university governance.
As a social institution, the university cannot be replaced. Hence, it must
continue to adapt and change if the challenges are to be met. It will remain an
institution central to societies throughout the world as long as its activities
make a difference to better the condition of humankind.
strategies for a confederative approach
1. To encourage links between institutions of higher
education throughout the country.
2. To base the mission of the Confederation on the fundamental principles for
which every university should stand, namely the right to pursue knowledge for
its own sake, to follow wherever the search for truth may lead, the tolerance of
divergent opinion and freedom from political interference.
3. To aim to give expression to the obligation of universities to promote,
through teaching and research, the principles of freedom and justice, of human
dignity and solidarity, and to contribute through regional, national and
international cooperation to the development of national and moral assistance
for the strengthening of higher education generally.
4. To link up its members, offer them quality services and provide a forum for
the universities from all over the country to work together and to speak on
behalf of universities, and of higher education in general, and to represent
their concerns and interests in public debate and to outside parties.
5. To pursue its goals through future oriented collective action including
information services, informed policy discussion, research and publications.
6. To facilitate the exchange of experience and learning.
7. To restate and defend the values that underlie and determine the proper
functioning of universities in the Indian subcontinent.
8. To uphold and contribute to the development of a long term vision of
universities' role and responsibility in society.
9. To voice the concerns for higher education with regard to policies of
national and international bodies.
10. To contribute to a better understanding of current trends and developments
through analysis, research and debate.
11. To provide comprehensive and authoritative information on higher education
systems, institutions and qualifications worldwide.
12. To act as a cooperation and service-oriented organisation to promote the
exchange of information, experience and ideas to facilitate academic mobility
and mutual, technical, national and international collaboration among
universities, and to contribute through research and meetings to informed higher
education policy debate.
13. To organise congress, conferences, seminars, round tables and workshops etc.
14. To conduct comparative studies and higher education policy research.
15. To strengthen cooperation and clearing-house activities.
16. To establish national information networks.
17. To provide consultancy, credential evaluation and advice.
18. To invite university level degree granting institutions whose main objective
is higher education and research, irrespective of whether or not they carry the
name of university.
19. To maintain and preserve university autonomy, academic freedom and mutual
understanding.
20. To stand for the right to pursue knowledge for its own sake.
21. To remain free from political and economic interference, and give, room for
divergent opinion.
22. To work for the advancement of ethical values in the work of the
Confederation and its members as well as in society and respect for diversity.
23. To remember the responsibility of universities and academies as guardians of
free intellectual activity.
24. To stand for the universities' obligation as social institutions to deliver
education, research and service to the community, and, in connection with this,
to advance the principles of freedom and of justice, of sustainable development,
human dignity and of solidarity.
25. To conserve the obligation of universities to foster constructive criticism
and intellectual independence in the research for truth.
26. To contribute to the development of the long term vision of the university's
role and responsibilities in society.
27. To strengthen solidarity and to contribute to reducing inequalities amongst
universities, while keeping alive their cultural differences.
28. To promote access to higher education and equal opportunities for students.
29. To encourage quality and excellence worldwide, through sharing, knowledge,
know-how and experience, through collaboration and through networking.
30. To help universities to become better learning organisations (for students,
for teachers, for administrators).
31. To contribute to a better understanding of developments in higher education,
through analysis, research and debate, as well as through the provision of
information services on higher education.
32. To design and implement programmes for its members in partnership with other
organisations working in the same field.
33. To pledge itself to be an open, inclusive and transparent organisation, the
common voice of the university level institutions.
34. To provide a centre of cooperation among the universities and similar
institutions of higher education, as well as organisations in the field of
higher education generally, and to be an advocate for their concerns.
35. To facilitate the interchange of students and academic staff, and develop
means for the better distribution and exchange of laboratory material, books and
other equipment for university study and research.
36. To formulate the basic principles and higher education values for which the
CIU will stand for.
37. To establish a strong structural relationship with the national as well as
regional associations of universities and seek their direct involvement in the
life and work of CIU.
38. To focus its activities on institutional examples regarding the use of new
information and communication technologies in teaching and learning.
39. To encourage sustainability to be considered as being central to teaching,
research, outreach and operations at universities and to identified exemplary
practices and strategies.
40. To prepare comprehensive assessments periodically on how the principles of
sustainable development can best be pursued and promoted by higher education
institutions.
41. To identify the key issues of a future-oriented higher education policy
debate, as well as concrete needs for support in academic exchange, knowledge
transfer, and capacity building through international cooperation.
42. To assess our respective capacities to respond to such needs, the
complementarity and uniqueness of our respective possibilities and
responsibilities, as compared with what can be better done by others,
bilaterally or multi-laterally, on the institutional, national, regional or
international level.
43. To establish appropriate networking structures and facilities that will
allow to serve better, through shared efforts, the needs and interests of our
common higher education constituency.
44. To translate into action the services set out by CIU more clearly in terms
of support to concrete cooperation needs, both of individual universities and of
partner organisations, and to identify new services as best corresponding to the
Confederation's vocation and possibilities; and to give expression to its
internal and external missions through a strengthened confederative life,
including a broader interaction with other university organisations.
45. To disseminate relevant information on the world of higher education in an
international perspective, on missions, policies and strategies, in the form of
concise briefs and overviews, easily accessible and usable for higher education
policy and decision-makers.
46. To have a similar approach in relation to issues of research and debate,
comparison of experiences, publications or conjointly organised special meetings
and seminars for university leaders and administrators.
47. To provide a link to consultancy, second opinions and referee networks for
universities, particularly in developing countries, who wish to have access to
independent advice, for example on directives from governments and different
agencies or on institutional development plans.
48. To maintain a pool of independent advisors to be made available for special
tasks, third party assessments, legal advice, management advice, helping with
analysis, formulation of strategic plans, governance strategies, and codes
related to academic freedom, etc.
49. To offer consultancy to agencies related to university cooperation.
50. To evaluate the institutional impact of university links and collaborative
programmes, independent from the usual evaluation by sponsors to be pointed to
practical and ethical guidelines for collaboration and codes of good practice,
which could serve universities in their interaction.
51. To benefit from academic freedom and institutional autonomy with regard to
the central mission of research and teaching.
52. To assume, in carrying out the tasks, its responsibility to society and to
promote the principles of freedom, justice, human dignity and solidarity.
53. To reduce the tensions arising within the universities between the
requirements of technological and economic globalisation and the specificities
of cultural and national roots.
54. To contribute to the production and dissemination of information and
knowledge concerning facts, trends and developments in higher education.
55. To help contribute to the production and dissemination of reflection,
research and debate concerning the universities.
56. To help clarify, disseminate and refine a vision of the university and of
its value base.
57. To pay particular attention to strengthening solidarity and reducing
inequalities between universities of different backgrounds, resources and
capacities.
58. To express a common voice of the universities, on national as well as global
level, vis-a-vis partners like national and international statutory bodies and
UN agencies as well as the public opinion.
59. To catalyse the cooperation of universities and university organisations
amongst themselves and with other partners, with regard to major questions of
society, which are national as well as international in nature and to which
universities must make an important contribution, such as: the construction of
peace and democracy; sustainable development; the challenges and stakes of
globalisation and accelerated change in society; the commitment to ethical
standards in the conduct of science and technology.
60. To offer to other national and international university and higher education
organisations a preferential platform for information, contacts and networking,
and to participate itself in such international networks.
61. To stipulate the indissociable principles for which every university should
stand, including the right to pursue knowledge for its own sake and to follow
wherever the search for truth may lead; the tolerance of divergent opinion and
freedom from political interference; the obligation as social institutions to
promote, through teaching and research, the principles of freedom and justice,
of human dignity and to develop mutually material and moral aid on both national
as well as international levels.
62. To collect data regarding the new forms of higher education over the ensuing
half century with special reference to the number of universities, of academic
staff, of students, of the emergence of a world economy, of its benefits and its
dangers with a view to locating the required practical nature of the
university's historic and abiding commitment to universalism, pluralism and
humanism.
63. To evaluate whether in the course of the twentieth century, which has seen
an unparalleled growth in knowledge, in research and their diffusion, the
universities have shouldered the responsibilities in the common endeavour of
human development, social, economic, technical and cultural advancement, and in
responding to the major planetary problems such as environmental protection and
poverty eradication, violence and social exclusion.
64. To promote the philosophy that human development and the continued extension
of knowledge depend upon the freedom to examine, to enquire, and that academic
freedom and university autonomy are essential to that end.
65. To urge universities to seek, establish and disseminate a clearer
understanding of Sustainable development - "development which meets the needs of
the present without compromising the needs of future generations" - and
encourage more appropriate sustainable development principles and practices at
the local, national and global levels, in ways consistent with their missions.
66. To utilise resources of the university to encourage a better understanding
on the part of the Central and the State Governments and the public at large of
the inter-related physical, biological and social dangers facing the planet
Earth, and to recognise the significant interdependence and international
dimensions of sustainable development.
67. To emphasise the ethical obligation of the present generation to overcome
those practices of resource utilisation and those widespread disparities which
lie at the root of environmental unsustainability.
68. To enhance the capacity of the university to teach and undertake research
and action in society on sustainable development principles, to increase
environmental literacy, and to enhance the understanding of environmental ethics
within the university and with the public at large.
69. To cooperate with one another and with all segments of society in the
pursuit of practical and policy measures to achieve sustainable development and
thereby safeguard the interests of future generations.
70. To encourage universities to review their own operations to reflect best
sustainable development practices.
71. To make an institutional commitment to the principle and practice of
sustainable development within the academic milieu and to communicate that
commitment to its students, its employees and to the public at large.
72. To promote sustainable consumption practices in its own operations.
73. To develop the capacities of its academic staff to teach environmental
literacy.
74. To encourage among both staff and students an environmental perspective,
whatever the field of study.
75. To utilise the intellectual resources of the university to build strong
environmental education programmes.
76. To encourage interdisciplinary and collaborative research programmes related
to sustainable development as part of the institution's central mission and to
overcome traditional barriers between disciplines and departments.
77. To emphasise the ethical obligations of the university community - current
students, faculty and staff - to understand and defeat the forces that lead to
environmental degradation, and the inter-generational inequities; to work at
ways that will help its academic community, and the graduates, and the
governments that support it, to accept these ethical obligations.
78. To promote interdisciplinary networks of environmental experts at the local,
national and international levels in order to disseminate knowledge and to
collaborate on common environmental projects in both research and education.
79. To promote the mobility of staff and students as essential to the free trade
of knowledge;
80. To forge partnerships with other sectors of society in transferring
innovative and appropriate technologies that can benefit and enhance sustainable
development practices.
81. To devote its activities to the study of systems, institutions and processes
in higher education to specially focus on the historical role of higher
education in society, contemporary policy problems, and how universities and
colleges can change to meet the growing educational, research, and public
service needs of a "knowledge" society.
82. To promote public confidence that quality of provision and standards of
awards in higher education are being safeguarded and enhanced.
83. To help other confederal bodies of universities and higher education
institutions in other countries aimed at providing quality education and at
supporting synergistic ventures in teaching, examination, research and community
service programmes.
84. To seek to make a significant contribution to the understanding of
policy-making, governance and management of universities and other higher
education institutions.
85. To emphasise equity and access and the improvement of educational
experiences of people of all age levels and backgrounds.
86. To include partnerships with other like minded organisations to address a
wide array of problems, drawing upon the insights of academic disciplines and
professional perspectives.
87. To meet the widely felt need in the Indian subcontinent for a centre for
policy research and cooperation in education in the Indian perspective, with the
sole purpose to contribute to policy analysis in education and training, to
carry out evaluation of systems, reforms, programmes and institutions, and to
provide technical assistance and support to all interested actors in this field.
88. To help the member universities in designing new information and
communications technologies for heralding as a revolution for the world of
learning and to fulfil the promise of better and cheaper higher education for
more students.
89. To review the open and distance learning in the context of present
challenges and opportunities, describe relevant concepts and contribution,
outline significant current global and regional trends, suggest policy and
strategy considerations and identify CIU's role in capacity building, national
as well international cooperation.
89. To maintain an inventory of successful strategies to increase the
participation of women in higher education and promote the principle of gender
equity, and to increase access and retention as well as to improve the quality
of education for all women in universities.
90. To serve as a clearing house of information for providing regular
opportunities for the discussion on university development in general and on
academic development in particular with a view to assisting the member
universities in the recruitment and placement of faculty and staff, exchange of
teachers and students and in the development of cooperative arrangements.
91. To establish relations with significant players and opinion makers from
education, business, culture, law, and government sectors in order to facilitate
strategic alliances with other organisations.
92. To support preparation, production and widespread distribution of
educational materials on higher education with a view to strengthen the
employment generation movement.
92. To help promote such new Central and State legislation or amendments as may
be deemed necessary for the development of higher education.
93. To encourage the students of all universities to be active, to emphasize the
personal nature of learning, to accept that difference is desirable, to
recognise student's right to make mistakes, to tolerate imperfection, encourage
openness of mind, to make feel respected and accepted, to facilitate discovery,
to put emphasis on self evaluation in cooperation, and to permit confrontation
of ideas.
94. To promote the hypothesis that learning is primarily controlled by the
learner, is unique and individual, is affected by the total state of the
learner, is cooperative and collaborative, is a consequence of experience, is
not directly observable, is both an emotional and intellectual process, is
evolutionary process, is development oriented, and, is quite sustainable.
95. To collaborate, affiliate and federate with the Central and the State
Governments, agencies and bodies for implementing the projects on higher
education.
96. To raise and borrow money for the purpose of the Confederation in such a
manner as may be decided from time to time and to prescribe the membership fees,
charges, grants in aid etc.
97. To purchase, take on lease or exchange, hire or otherwise acquire
properties, movable or immovable and rights and privileges all over the world,
which may be deemed necessary or convenient for the benefit of the Confederation
and to sell, lease, mortgage, dispose or otherwise deal with all or any part of
the property of the Confederation.
98. To open branches, chapters and constitutent centres in different parts of
the country and get them registered with appropriate authorities if needed and
felt conducive for the attainment of the aims and objects of the Confederation.
99. To invest the money of the Confederation not immediately required in such
securities and in such manner as may be decided from time to time, the money
especially collected through subscriptions, advertisements, sponsorship, sale of
publications, fees, gifts, endowments, donations, grants etc.
100. To finally provide information, knowledge, wisdom, and education that
prepares every body for educational leadership and social responsibility
enabling to think and communicate effectively and to develop a global awareness
and sensitivity for a better global understanding, world peace and unity.
101. And to generally do all that is incidental and conducive to the attainment
of the aims and objects mentioned above.
higher education for employment generation
The generation of productive and adequately remunerated
employment is an indispensable component in the fight against poverty. While
this task presents a major challenge for all the States and the UTs in India, it
is by no means an insurmountable one. However, success depends on a number of
key factors. It requires first and foremost, a restoration of higher and more
stable rates of economic growth. But this will not be sufficient. It also
requires that supporting policies and programmes be put in place to deliberately
stimulate employment in all sectors of the economy which hold the greatest
promise for employment and income generation on one hand, and on the other, the
implementation of strategies which can, among other things, improve the access
of all groups to education and training and income generating activities in a
sustainable manner.
The task of employment generation requires concerted action by several
ministries and departments of government both at the national as well as the
state levels. But it is not a task for governments alone. Employers’ and
workers’ organizations, as well as other members of civil society must play an
increasingly active role in the process. The support of the international
community is also critical, not only in terms of resource flows, but in changing
the rules of international economic systems in favour of poor producers and
consumers.
These suggestions are being discussed with the hope that it will stimulate some
dialogue and serve as a basis for possible action on this very important topic
by bringing out different publications and periodicals both in the print as well
as the electronic media with a view to making everybody aware regarding the
availability of jobs besides the facilities for studies, training and research
in different institutions, schools, colleges and universities.
Strategies for Employment Generation
1. To collect data and information related to the existing publications
including newspapers, journals and periodicals providing information and news
regarding employment opportunities besides facilities regarding academic and
professional training and research in different vocational fields.
2. To bring out daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly, bimonthly, quarterly,
six-monthly and yearly newspapers, journals, periodicals and other publications
related to employment and training with a view to generating employment
specially among the weekers sections of the society.
3. To publish books, encyclopaedias, directories and dictionaries on different
topics with a view to generating employment.
4. To connect the association with the labour market mechanisms and patterns to
give into the pattern and intensity of poverty and into the factors
concentrating it among particular groups.
5. To give prominance to labour market policies, as well as those related to
employment, labour institutions, social protection and human resource
development and poverty eradication strategies.
6. To distinguish between poverty due to exclusion from access to jobs and
poverty associated with the nature of employment and the levels of income which
it generates while attempting to analyze the labour market situation in the
Indian Subcontinent and its impact on poverty.
7. To assess the degree to which labour market exclusion is directly linked to
poverty and the extent to which state or community safety nets or family support
systems exist or whether it affects particular members of households (younger
persons, for example) where there is another income source.
8. To place the creation of employment at the centre of national strategies and
policies, with the full participation of employers and trade unions and other
parts of civil society.
9. To help and assist in the formulation of policies to expand work
opportunities and increase productivity in both rural and urban sectors.
10. To provide education and training that enable workers and entrepreneurs to
adapt to changing technologies and economic conditions.
11. To help generate quality jobs, with full respect for the basic rights of
workers.
12. To give special priority, in the design of policies, to the problems of
structural, long-term employment and underemployment of youth, women, persons
with disabilities and all other disadvantaged groups and individuals.
13. To empower the women for gender balance in decision-making processes at all
levels and gender analysis in policy development to ensure equal employment
opportunities and wage rates for women and to enhance harmonious and mutually
beneficial partnerships between women and men in sharing family and employment
responsibilities.
14. To also empower members of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups through the
provisions of proper and appropriate education and training.
15. To look for a broader recognition and understanding of work and employment
and greater flexibility in working time arrangements for both men and women.
16. To assist in alleviating poverty and unemployment: either by focusing on the
members of economically weaker sections of the society and other groups directly
affected by the economic reform and adjustment policies such as retrenched
workers, or more generally by addressing chronic and structural poverty and
unemployment.
17. To strengthen the social acceptability and the political viability of
adjustment and reform programmes.
18. To help in creating a new approach and culture of social service delivery
based on a flexible institutional mechanism circumventing the bureaucratic
structure and encouraging participatory and decentralized development with the
participation of local groups and associations.
19. To develop strategies to assist the formation and strengthening of
collective action in the informal sector by developing relations with trade
associations.
20. To raise awareness on the importance of good working conditions and social
security by extending workers’ education programmes to the informal sector.
21. To assist in improving working conditions of their subcontractors in the
informal sector with a view to enabling them to create more employment
opportunities for trained and skilled persons.
22. To assist informal sector operators to take part in trade fairs.
23. To assist informal sector operators to organize themselves effectively.
24. To integrate issues on occupational safety and health and social security in
programmes to raise productivity.
25. To assist informal sector self-help associations to integrate awareness
raising on occupational safety and health into their activities.
26. To establish innovative market services for the development of adult
workers, by expanding the role of employers and organized employees in the
planning and delivery of services, including training, retraining, job search,
placement, skills identification and counselling.
27. To increase the capacity of the private sector to perform its role in the
training and development of the young men and women to acquire techno-managerial
as well as entrepreneurial skills.
28. To improve the existing employment market information system.
29. To help adult workers to acquire new skills at the technical and supervisory
levels in order to make them eligible for higher level jobs at higher wages in
occupations essential to economic growth or in their own businesses.
30. To reduce the transition time to new jobs for displaced workers.
31. To accelerate the entry of female workers into skilled technician, master
craftsperson or supervisory positions.
32. To establish a permanent private sector mechanism to fund a variety of
workforce development activities and create a forum for workers and employers to
collaborate in implementing human resource development strategies and programmes.
33. To provide skill and interests assessment and career and employment
counselling to determine the training, placement or business development
support, the employable persons need to acquire the job, promotion or suitable
income generating activity.
34. To provide a comprehensive package of services to include brokering and
referral of workers to jobs, on-the-job training, business development support
services and specialized training at the craftsperson, artisan, supervisory or
managerial level and appropriate entrepreneurial training to place workers in
new jobs, better jobs or self-employment opportunity.
35. To promote the concept of establishing learning laboratories which would
provide computer assisted training e.g. literacy, numeracy and workplace basics
such as problem solving, oral communication and planning and organizing work.
36. To establish Employment and Training Market Services Centres to introduce
innovative approaches in human resource development.
37. To establish the principle of equality between men and women as a basis for
employment policy and promoting gender-sensitivity training to eliminate
prejudice against the employment of women.
38. To eliminate gender discrimination, including by taking positive action,
where appropriate, in hiring, wages, access to credit, benefits, promotion,
training, career development, job assignment, working conditions, job security
and social security benefits.
39. To encourage various actors to join forces in designing and carrying out
comprehensive and coordinated programmes that stimulate the resourcefulness of
youth, preparing them for durable employment or self-employment, providing them
with guidance, vocational and managerial training, social skills, work
experience and education in social values.
40. To cause research on the underlying factors which are most important in
differing national contexts in determining the levels of youth unemployment.
41. To evaluate all types of policies and programmes tried in different
five-year plans with a view to designing a foolproof and long-term strategy for
employment generation.
42. To locate the factors which influence the success or failure of specific
policies and programmes relating to employment and training.
43. To prepare a Policy and Programme Manual for policy makers to aim primarily
at national capacity building for the design, implementation and evaluation of
policies and programmes for countering youth unemployment.
44. To help analyse the national background characteristics, financial
constraints, current educational efforts and effects and present conditions of
societal development in different States and UTs of India.
45. To help the Central Government establish appropriate targets for employment
generation and derive suitable strategies for implementing policies and
programmes to meet the needs of the educated unemployed.
46. To establish a Life and Career Advising Centre - a single point of contact
for student counselling on academic, personal and career issues.
47. To create a learning environment all over the country that encourages
students to become actively involved in their own education.
48. To help reduce unemployment in the country by assisting the Central and the
State Governments and public institutions in the initiation of professional and
job oriented courses and by introducing the urban as well as rural
entrepreneurship programmes for self employment.
49. To encourage an employment policy that is free of prejudice and party
politics which promotes new ideas relating to sustainability.
50. To strengthen the voluntary as well as non governmental organisations in
order to make them available for the organisation and implementation of
programmes having a positive, social, economic and educational content with a
view to having more number of job givers than job seekers.
51. To serve as a centre of ideas and experience and dissemination of employment
and training information on national as well as global job markets and its
availabilities, reach, awareness, policy, law, research promotion, and
preparedness in particular.
52. To help the Central and the State Governments in organising formal and non
formal training programmes in attitudinal and behavioural change for bringing
productivity and efficiency with the help of the trained employers and
employees.
53. To publicize through the media an international network instances of
successful policies, programmes and demonstrations regarding employment
promotion and bring these success stories to the attention of policy makers.
54. To establish a national network of like minded NGOs with the ability to
publicise the activities related to employment generation.
55. To strengthen international scientific research organisations so that they
can play a larger part in shaping and coordinating the research agenda on
vocationalisation of careers.
56. To work closely with policy research centres focusing on global scale
resource and development issues to bridge the gap between basic research and
policy on employbility.
57. To evaluate the existing curricula of the undergraduate, graduate and
postgraduate level courses and propose necessary changes for making these
programmes fit for helping the alumnis to find self employment opportunities by
acquiring entrepreneurial leadership techniques.
58. To address the universal shortage of trained personnel in new and emerging
job oriented areas through a sharp increase in funds to be sanctioned to
universities and institutions.
59. To advise the younger generation for acquiring appropriate knowledge and
technologies from the aged persons and senior citizens and to popularise their
proven ideas and experiences.
60. To use restructured educational and training programmes to reorient
vocational education for creating jobs in the new and emerging fields.
61. To help initiate training cum production cum rehabilitation centres in the
rural as well as urban areas for the benefit of the younger generation.
62. To create employment generation environment by updating the existing
vocational training programmes in the polytechnics, institutions, colleges and
universities.
63. To strengthen with adequate study materials the existing distance learning
programmes for enabling the working persons to strengthen their qualification
and encouraging earning while learning.
64. To prepare instructional texts including audio and video lessons on
employment and training to be distributed through the existing institutions as
well as through the new outfits in the country.
65. To use and popularise the existing and new satellite channels for teaching
and training through the air for the benefit of the citizenry.
66. To aid in organising conferences, seminars, meetings, discussions, debates,
study courses, collection of statistics, exhibitions, shows, tour trips and to
establish different endowments and scholarships for the promotion and
furtherance of the employment generation strategy.
67. To organise employment museums for displaying the available vacancies
besides different types of advertisements in the print and the electronic media.
68. To conduct sponsored as well as non sponsored research programmes with the
support of Central and State Governments and publish such reports and case
books.
69. To arouse in teachers and other educators a full awareness of our
responsibilities in moulding future generations for a peaceful employment and
work culture.
70. To promote that kind of education that will help each individual from
earliest years to develop full human potential for constructive, peaceful living
in the expanding communities in which one grows; family, neighbourhood, school,
local community, country, in fact, the whole human world.
71. To seek to enable individuals through constant educational and career
improvement to deal with and resolve misunderstanding, personal as well as
social, in the spirit of wisdom, charity and duty.
72. To support design, production and wide spread distribution of educational
materials for the furtherance of social progress, international understanding,
and worldly stability.
73. To make the full use of mass media for the cause of education especially in
the proper communication of controversial views and issues, local and global, so
as to maximize cooperation and conciliation.
74. To make everybody aware regarding the need for national as well as
international integration and cooperation.
75. To invite representatives of different countries including the universities,
NGOs and regulatory bodies for discussing issues like labour, employment,
entrepreneurship and education.
76. To seek support of the educational and scientific organisations for using
their facilities and infrastructure for conducting different programmes related
to clean as well as green jobs.
77. To help design courses on subjects and topics generally not covered by
existing institutions but are of great importance viewing the changes in the
societal systems.
78. To continue to be open in ideas, methods, systems, places with no cloisters.
79. To help people through appropriate training to lead a way of life that can
be sustained by our Mother Earth.
80. To justify the creation of organisations by uniting all the professionals of
the country in order to influence the power structure through their function as
counselling centres, and by placing them, whenever possible, in areas of
conflict for equalizing the flow of knowledge, for reducing aggression and for
generating attitudes of fraternization.
81. To suggest to the national and international leaders alternative approaches
to the solution of problems relating to health, education, pollution,
unemployment and peacelessness.
82. To encourage the establishment of institutions for learning that serves the
spirit of employment generation and also by stimulating existing colleges and
universities to implement courses of study related to virtual education for
employment opportunities in the cyber related fields.
83. To cooperate with authorities at various levels in implementing the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and reminding the employers and the
employees regarding their human rights as well as human duties.
84. To collaborate in the work of existing and functional organizations that
have stated goals and purposes similar.
85. To propose to other developmental associations, programmes on peace problems
that are flexible in nature and capable of being adopted and modified according
to cultural background, environment, and changing needs of people.
86. To update educational means for the reciprocal dissemination of culture and
the elimination of illiteracy.
87. To disseminate information in the form of advertisements and/or articles
regarding selection and recruitment in public as well as private sector
organisations in the publications to be brought out from time to time.
88. To conduct periodical analaysis of employment and unemployment data at both
State level and all India level and projections of labour force, workforce, and
unemployment in the country.
89. To suggest strategies and programmes for creating gainful employment
opportunities and to look into sectoral issues and policies having a bearing on
employment generation.
90. To identify gaps and to suggest necessary approach / strategies and the need
based policies and programmes in the fields of occupational safety and health,
skill development, social security, employment planning and policy.
91. To help provide opportunities for individuals seeking a green or
ecologically responsible career available in many diverse catagories on the
international, national, state and local levels; in private, public, and
non-profit sectors; within different fields; and in different job functions.
92. To introduce responsible business practices fostering a competitive edge
through efficiency in production, minimum generation of waste, and a more
productive and healthy work force.
93. To advise the Government of India and the State Governments to constitute
People's Commission on Employment Generation with a view to having immediate
solution regarding unemployment as well as unemploybility.
94. To collaborate, affiliate and federate with the Central and the State
Governments, agencies and bodies for implementing the projects of employment
generations.
95. To raise and borrow money for the purpose of the promoting employment
generation in such a manner as may be decided from time to time and to prescribe
the membership fees, charges, grants-in-aid etc.
96. To purchase, take on lease or exchange, hire or otherwise acquire
properties, movable or immovable and rights and privileges all over the world,
which may be deemed necessary and to sell, lease, mortgage, dispose or otherwise
deal with all or any part of the property.
97. To open branches, chapters and constitutent centres in different parts of
the country and get them registered with appropriate authorities if needed and
felt conducive for the attainment of
the aims and objects with a view to creating employment.
98. To invest the money not immediately required in such securities and in such
manner as may be decided from time to time, the money especially collected
through subscriptions, advertisements, sponsorship, fees, gifts, endowments,
donations, grants etc.
99. To finally provide information, knowledge, wisdom, and education that
prepares every body for leadership and social responsibility enabling to think
and communicate effectively and to develop a global awareness and sensitivity
for a better global understanding, world peace and unity.
100. And to generally do all that is incidental and conducive to the attainment
of the objects relating to employment.
NEED
FOR greening OF
employment and green careers options for the new millennium
Responsible Business practice fosters a competitive edge through
efficiency in production, minimum generation of waste, and a more productive and
healthy work force. Companies that were once vastly more preoccupied with "end
of the pipe" solutions to environmental compliance regulations have changed
their focus. Environmental considerations are now having a powerful effect on a
broad array of professional fields in new and creative ways. Opportunities for
individuals seeking a "green" or environmentally responsible career are
available in many diverse categories on the international, national, state, and
local levels; in private, public, and non-profit sectors; within different
fields and industries; and in different organizations and job functions.
The greening of job sectors
There are many career opportunities available to people who want to help make
the earth a cleaner and greener place in which to live. In careers as different
from one another as agriculture and banking, individuals are applying their
passion and their skills to contribute to a sustainable earth. The following is
a sample of the industries that are currently being affected by environmental
legislation, consumer demands, and environmental management practices. Most of
the jobs and industries intersect, and many of them are rapidly changing, but
all of them are experiencing an increased demand for workers who are
environmentally literate.
Agriculture and food processing: As more people educate themselves about how
environmental health affects their own health and well being, the desire for
petrochemical-free, pesticide-free food and fabrics grows. The result has been
an increase in the demand for organically grown fruits, vegetables, and grains.
The same is true for natural fibres, such as cotton, and niche products, such as
baby food and chocolates made from organic cocoa. Job possibilities in the
agricultural and processing industries range from nontoxic pest management to
the retail sale of organic food and clothing; from entrepreneurial ventures to
non-profit opportunities in research, education, and advocacy.
Banking and finance: Many banks are now making environmental issues an integral
part of their internal operations, investment criteria, and financial services.
In addition, the banking and finance industries, like corporations in many other
fields, are creating corporate environmental policies that promote internal
energy efficiency and reduce waste. They are also carefully factoring
environmental assessments into loan and investment standards. Furthermore,
international banks are beginning to conduct debt-for-nature swaps with
countries that harbour threatened land areas like rain forests, for example and
are offering their investors investment funds and portfolios screened for
environmental performance. Job opportunities are available for people with
credit and finance backgrounds in banks, at nonprofit corporations researching
environment and finance, and in international development organizations such as
the World Bank.
Chemical industry: Because profits within the chemical industry depend on
remaining in compliance with environmental regulations, this one area where top
management officials consistently place a high priority on environmental
sensitivity. Monsanto, DuPont, Dow, Kodak, and others spend millions of dollars
yearly to meet environmental regulations. Nearly all top and middle managers in
the chemical industry have an environmental component in their job descriptions.
Environmental engineers, compliance administrators, and product and marketing
managers who are environmentally literate are in demand by chemical firms.
Communications: As the communications industry continues to expand with huge
growth sectors such as telecommunications, cable networks, and on-line computer
networks such as eco-net and bio-net, there is a corresponding demand for
individuals who can translate environmental information for the general public.
Opportunities for public relations managers, researchers, writers, and
journalists who gather, analyze, and disseminate environmental knowledge are
available in both publication business and in corporations. People with computer
skills, a CD-ROM design background, or electronic publishing experience can put
their talents to use translating technical data and environmental information.
Consulting: Consultants help shape companies in a multitude of ways ranging from
energy use to packaging design to manufacturing processes to employee training
and development. For example, as companies begin to distribute more
environmental information to their stakeholders and to the public, green audits
and full-cost accounting systems need to be developed to quantify and track
environmental management and performance in company operations. Consulting
offers opportunities for people interested in environmental management,
especially for those individuals who possess a technical background and
management skills.
Consumer products: In response to the growing consumer demand for products
developed with the environment in mind, companies continue to look for ways to
make their product lines more environmentally friendly. Therefore, product
managers need to stay on top of new environmental regulations that might affect
the packaged goods industry, such as trends in recycling and package design for
products ranging from laundry detergent to toothpaste. Once again,
environmentally literate candidates are actively sought.
Design and the arts: Architects, industrial designers, graphic designers, and
fashion designers have a wide selection of structures, forms, processes, and
materials available for use in their products. Until recently, many products
were deliberately designed for obsolescence, ensuring an ongoing consumer demand
for replacements. Today, however, designers are emphasizing the creation of more
energy efficient products that require fewer natural resources in their
manufacture or construction. Additionally, many fine artists, architects, and
conceptual artists work with city agencies to offer creative and thoughtful
solutions to urban environmental problems.
Education: Education is, in part, how we came to realize there was an
environmental crisis in the first place. The more we learn, the more we realize
how little we understand of the basic interconnectedness of all living things,
and the more we realize we have yet to learn. By the year 2010, almost all
countries of the world will adopt legislation requiring that environmental
concepts be included in the curricula for kindergarten to twelfth grade. At the
college level, both environmental science and environmental studies are to be
taught. Less formal educational opportunities are also growing, worldwide.
Opportunities for environmentally literate teachers, teacher trainers,
curriculum developers, and librarians continue to grow.
Energy: Environmentally responsible career opportunities in the energy sector
range from energy conservation programmes instituted by public utilities. Energy
industry managers are changing their concept of energy use to include
conservation practices. Job possibilities for communications specialists,
planners, and technical experts continue to grow as our energy needs are
reconsidered for office buildings and commercial real estate, mass transit, and
households. Opportunities for the construction trades and for architectural
design firms to upgrade their energy conservation service to their clients will
also continue to flourish in the coming years.
Entrepreneurs and small business: Environmentally sensitive small firms and
start-ups should thrive, as they will be better equipped to fill niches and
adapt to rapidly changing markets. Individuals are eagerly establishing their
own consulting firms, creating products, and offering services that solve
environmental problems and meet consumer demands for "green" products.
Creativity, access to capital, and good management skills are all critical to
the growth of this sector of the economy. From technology to furniture design,
from retail to health services, job possibilities for environmental
entrepreneurship continue to grow.
Environmental services: Enterprises involved in environmental cleanup offer job
opportunities for individuals with diverse skills, ranging from finance and
water monitoring to testing, accounting, and marketing. Such jobs include
working with the maintenance services of municipalities and privately owned
recycling programmes, as well as in the development of prevention technologies
for industry. From participating in the cleanup of sites for pollution control,
asbestos abatement, and solid waste disposal, the possibilities within both
existing companies and start-ups are abundant.
Health: Health concerns ranging from lead poisoning to reactions of off-gassing
from petrochemicals in office carpeting have forced health officials to examine
more closely the relationship between health and the environment. A plethora of
environmental problems like air pollution in cities, water quality issues;
tainted fish from polluted seas; and chemical hormones forcefed to livestock,
have created the dire need for health professionals to conduct research,
disseminate information, and help create appropriate public policy.
International opportunities: When the borders many countries opened after
globalisation the acute environmental degradation in these geographic areas was
dramatically revealed. Clearly, job opportunities exist here for people who can
provide technical cleanup and waste prevention expertise. This same situation
holds true for many developing countries. International environmental issues
demand assistance from most professional fields like consulting, engineering,
management, environmental services, education, and health. Those with the
appropriate combination of language skills and environmental knowledge will find
opportunities to work in most existing and new markets.
Law: Some environmental issues are regulated nationally on central, state, and
local levels, while others are dealt with internationally. Environmental law is
integral to every functional area of the work force, from accounting, marketing,
finance, and management, to public policy and grassroots organizing. Therefore,
every individual with benefit from a basic understanding of it. Opportunities
range from lobbying on behalf of nonprofit organizations to helping to develop
government policy to working in environmental divisions of national and
international corporations.
Nonprofits: Nonprofit organizations can be as varied as public interest groups,
foundations, think tanks, labour unions, and trade associations. Each of these
groups needs analysts and communicators to study, question, track progress, and
plan strategy on national and international environmental issues. Thousands of
nonprofit groups have come into being since 1970. They are always in need of
well-rounded professionals, including those who offer scientific and legal
skills and those who can market, manage, and control the growth and maintenance
of these organizations. Environmentally literate individuals with talents in
advertising, public relations, administration, and fund-raising often choose to
put them to use in these sectors.
Public sector. The public sector, governmental agencies and departments, employ
key environmental individuals in jobs as diverse as consultants, attorneys,
accountants, public relations managers, information specialists, scientists, and
computer specialists. The Central and State Pollution Control Boards and local
departments of environmental protection, conservation, and sanitation all make
available information on public sector careers opportunities for individuals
wishing to combine their employment opportunities with a commitment to
environmental responsibility.
Challenges for the future
Individuals seeking green employment should remember that there are four
catalysts in finding answers to the current environmental challenges facing
society. These catalysts are empowerment, education, employment, and creativity.
From empowerment we gain courage to speak up, to be self-determined, and to act.
Through education we learn the skills necessary to create an effective work
force and to make informed choices about how our lives and actions affect our
environment. We also learn how the environment affects our lives. Employment
provides a vehicle to share our talents and to enjoy meaning, self-worth, and
dignity. Creativity enables us to turn a problem or question on its head, to
transcend the habitual and the conventional, to create visions, and to growth
toward those visions. The more we dare to do so, the greater our chances of
making a positive impact upon our environment.
Individuals must take responsibility to educate themselves about the environment
by reading, talking to others, taking classes, asking questions, being curious,
and following their instincts. As our environmental problems grow and intensify
their effects upon human health and ecosystem stability, we need all people to
be environmentally literate. As we continue to explore global environmental
problems, we may begin to use the catalysts of empowerment, education,
employment, and creativity to ensure that environmental integrity becomes a
human right.
The word 'environment' became part of every day language in the 1960s. Even
today, its meaning is far from clear. The term has evolved and continues to
evolve. In part this evolution is due to an increase in scientific knowledge.
Even more it is a result of changes in the mood of the general public. During
the 1960s, for example, the word 'environment' evoked mainly concerns about
pollution and the depletion of natural resources, over population, and crowding
— the thousand demons of ecological crisis. In contrast there is greater
emphasis today on the positive qualities of environments — on those things that
contribute to the quality of life.
Let us expect that the Government of India, the State Governments, the
international and national funding agencies and the NGOs will spread the message
of the greener as well as cleaner mind for green education, green employment and
green careers with a view to bringing mental peace in the third millennium.
© copyright
www.prtrivedi.com 2010
Prof. Dr. Priya Ranjan Trivedi
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