Former IIT Guwahati Director T.G. Sitharam assumes charge as AICTE Chairman

The new AICTE Chairman plans to change 'Towers of Excellence' to a 'Network of Excellence'

Former Director of the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati Prof. T. G. Sitharam assumed the charge as the Chairman of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). 

Prof. Sitharam took over charge from Prof. M Jagadesh Kumar, Chairperson, University Grants Commission, who had the additional charge of AICTE since September 2022. 

With approval of Minister of Education in his capacity as Chairperson of IIT Council, Prof. Parameswar K. Iyer took over charge as Officiating Director of IIT Guwahati from Prof. Sitharam.

While assuming his charge as the AICTE Chairman, Prof. T.G. Sitharam said: “I will work with every stakeholder in Education domain to transform Higher education into large, well resourced, vibrant multidisciplinary providing high quality teaching, innovation, entrepreneurship, research, and community engagement hubs.”

Prof. Sitharam envisions providing transformative education to Indian students to create leaders and innovators, and generate new knowledge for a sustainable society. 

In his new role, Prof. Sitharam aims to make India a global educational knowledge hub with increase in the Gross enrollment ratio in higher education to 50% by 2035 through interventions of AICTE.

As per a statement issued by Prof Sitharaman, he envisions creating 5 types of pathways for competitive, modern and industrialized India:

Technology driven outcome-based education

Job-creator (JCR) mode

Industry solutions provider (ISP)

Innovation, research and startup mode

Education in Indian languages

In addition to this, the new AICTE Chairman has shared his action plan aligning with long term goals of the Government of India underlined in the National Education Policy 2020. These include:

Building capacities of the technical institutions – digital infrastructure, Accreditations and Rankings

Making students Industry ready, increase placements, Increase Internships

Implementing Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan through Higher Education Institutes 

Incorporating PM GATI SHAKTI in academic programs

Improving Public and Private partnership in skilling, employment & innovation

Overcoming Regional/Language Barriers 

Twinning Programmes for collaboration with Foreign Universities

In his previous roles, Prof. Sitharam has worked on multidisciplinary problems addressing diversified societal challenges with many administrative positions at institutions such as IISc, IIT, CIT and involving in many boards along with more than six years of Interaction with AICTE. As a result, he has a rich leadership and administrative experiences in managing academic units, programs and research centers, startup and entrepreneurial activities. 

Focusing on multidisciplinary research areas in collaboration with international institutions and research centres while establishing a industry co-innovation network to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is another key focus area highlighted by the new AICTE Chairman.

Speaking about building entrepreneurial ecosystem and creating job opportunities for India’s young population, Prof. T.G. Sitharam said, “With more advanced research at all institutions, AICTE can create many Innovations and new start-ups as an excellent job creator.” 

AICTE transformation framework proposed by Prof. Sitharam involves addressing the research problems relevant to Society through innovation with SDG focus orientation. This necessitates AICTE to play a role of adviser to the Government and all stake holders through policy advise assessing the sustainable development impact potential with appropriate tools and framework. Further, Students and Faculty shall be empowered with incentives and awards by creating an ecosystem for Co-Innovation and Start-ups by building job-oriented capacities. At the same time, Prof. Sitharam propose to move from creation of Towers of Excellence to a Network of Excellence with Collaborative value positions involving other top institutions.

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