Kochi: The state will have autonomous colleges by next year itself, and for this, an expert committee is scrutinising the applications forwarded by various educational institutions, chief minister Oommen Chandy said here on Tuesday.
“Kerala is in the midst of finalising the ‘Vision 2030’ mission aimed at creating a knowledge economy. Though the state is ahead of others when it comes to primary and secondary education, it lags behind in the higher education sector.
Providing autonomous status to government and aided educational institutions is the first step towards this,” he said at the ‘University Vice-Chancellors’ Meet’ held here as part of the Association of Indian Universities’ South Zone Conference.
The government is also thinking of setting up a technical university to deal with various matters on technical education.
“Currently, there are various challenges to overcome in the education sector like issues of autonomy, funding, quality of education, competition among universities and non-availability of qualified human resource personnel besides keeping pace with the technological advancement,” the chief minister noted.
Agriculture minister K.P. Mohanan, port minister K. Babu, AIU president Dr Rajendra B. Lal, Kerala University of Health Science VC K. Mohandas and others participated.
