“The Indian higher education system is a sort of hybrid with more or less equal participation from Government and private players and would benefit exponentially, if both these players start complementing each other in their respective roles,” Chairman and Managing Director of Skoda Auto India Ltd, Sudhir Rao, said today.

Speaking at the National Higher Education Conclave 2015, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry here on Wednesday, he said Indian higher education system had done a commendable job in creating leaders who now ruled the world.

On the global front it was of paramount importance to ensure the safety and reputation of the country while bringing about development. In this scenario, Government had a legitimate role to play in supporting the stakeholders of the education sector without compromising on quality, Mr. Rao asserted.

“Though regulation is important in keeping a tab on the quality of education, the nature of regulation should vary depending on the institution, keeping in mind the social objectives to be met when compared to the costs of education,” he said.

He pointed out that matured institutions had self correcting mechanisms towards maintaining their quality standards and hence the Government should focus on developing deserving institutes and it students, rather than on the former, Mr. Rao said.

He was confident that with such inclusive measures, the country’s universities could aspire to become one among the top 20 reputed universities in the world.

CII Coimbatore Zone Chairman, K.V. Srinivasan, stressed the importance of developing a strong linkage between industry and academia towards bringing in a transformational change in the higher education landscape.

Delivering the theme address, event Chairman, C.R. Swaminathan enumerated the current trends affecting the higher education sector like, employability of graduates, issues in accreditation and quality standards, policy changes, leveraging technology in course delivery, development of start up ecosystem, etc.

In his inaugural address, Navas Meeran, Past Chairman, CII Southern Region, said that promoting industry-institute interaction was of critical importance in harnessing the demographic dividend of the country.