Lalitpur: The eighth meeting of the committee of heads of University Grants Commission (UGC) and equivalent bodies of South Asian Association For Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries kicked off in Lalitpur today.

Inaugurating the meeting, Madhav Prasad Ghimire, Minister for Foreign Affairs, today said good education and economic success were two sides of the same coin. “Thus, we have always placed great importance on producing productive human resources for our economic growth and prosperity,” he said.

He stated the meeting would be a cornerstone in defining necessary ways to make our region dynamic, vibrant and effective and able to compete with other countries and regional blocks by giving us an efficient, just and productive think-tank as envisaged by our leaders in various SAARC summits and other meetings. “It will greatly lessen the problem of brain-drain in our region,” he added.

Dr Ganesh Man Gurung, chairperson, UGC-Nepal and Bhola Pokharel, member secretary, UGC-Nepal reiterated that the meeting would be very useful to strengthen UGC and its activities.

Ahmed Saleem, general secretary SAARC, said the meeting will give new dimension to higher education.

Mutual recognition of professional degrees awarded by chartered universities of SAARC member states, achieving a common regional educational standard, quality assurance and accreditation mechanism, and harmonisation of curriculum of individual member states are some of the agendas of the two-day long meeting.

Heads of UGC of SAARC countries, or equivalent bodies, authorities from universities, professors and experts attended the meeting.

source: the himalayan times, 17 april 2013