The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled “- Plutarch What the famous Greek scholar asserts, proves to be most pertinently true about the aims of education in general and of higher education in particular. Higher education or what is also known as tertiary education or post secondary education refers to undergraduate and post graduate courses imparted in universities and colleges. The aim of higher education is to provide advanced knowledge, offer progressive learning, foster specific skills, develop fundamental thoughts and ideas through research and thereby to lead the nation towards progress. In other words, higher education, seeks not to ‘fill’ the student’s ‘ mind’ -with information but to ignite its innate potentials, to enkindle its intuition and to set in motion the fire of creative passion and zeal lying hidden inside it. In one of its papers UNESCO maintained that social function of higher education is essentially guided by “the pursuit of excellence in teaching, training, research and institutional performance”. Higher education plays a very crucial role in enriching human resources and in providing highly qualified manpower to meet the needs of the government. Higher education therefore helps in the economic growth of a nation by providing quality knowledge workers in the industry and the service sectors of economy. While University Grants Commission (UGC) by designing innovative programmes and implementing various schemes… Read More