Omar Abdullah stresses on importance of Research

SRINAGAR: The University of Kashmir, Islamic University of Science and Technology and University of Delhi today signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in presence of Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah here to further their mutual cooperation for the promotion of academic excellence and collaborate in the areas of research, training, faculty and students’ exchange, sports and extracurricular activities.
Vice Chancellor of University of Delhi, Professor Dinesh Singh, Vice Chancellor of Kashmir University, Professor Talat Ahmad and Vice Chancellor of Islamic University of Science and Technology, Professor Abdul Rashid Trag signed the MoU at a function at SKICC.
Among others Minister for Higher Education, Abdul Gani Malik, Commissioner Secretary Finance, Sudhanshu Pandey and various faculty members of the three universities were present on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, Omar Abdullah highlighted the significance of the memorandum in expanding the orbit of research and said that the collaboration in this field by the three universities would go a long way to benefit the higher education sector in the State and provide opportunities to the students and research scholars to interact and share their experience.
The Chief Minister underlined the importance of implementing the provisions of memorandum in letter and spirit. He said the areas of collaboration and obligations should be fulfilled in full and the aims and objectives of the agreement between the three universities realized in its right perspective.
Omar Abdullah said that the MoU will open doors for the students of the State to undertake educational trips to University of Delhi, share their experience and get benefited by the academic excellence of Delhi University. “This would also help University of Delhi to get advantage of the talent available in Jammu and Kashmir”, he said and expressed the hope that the exchange of faculty and students would be a regular process under the MoU.
The Chief Minister said that research is the backbone of progress and excellence of higher educational institutions and the collaboration between the three universities in this field would yield positive results. “I expect incredible benefit to the students and faculties in the three universities by this MoU”, he added.
The MoU provides for access to the faculty and students to their libraries, archives, research laboratories, high-end instruments and equipments, talent promotion programme, knowledge sharing, information and publication, utilization of service of each others’ students and faculty.