| | 8 December 2016HIGHERReviewIN MY VIEWWhat is required to make a "Global University"?By S.R. Shankapal, Vice Chancellor, M.S. Ramaiah University of Applied SciencesA country's scientific capability is quite commonly gauged by some key demonstrated achievements. In the present knowledge era, countries are vying each other to position at least a few of their own in the list of Top 100 Universities in Global Rankings. It is widely believed that the number of universities appearing in global rankings is a reflection of the intellectual capabilities of the academic, talent pool in that country. As a country which has set its ambitions to be a world player, India needs to focus on some of its energies into the education sector so that some of its universities will elevate themselves to global university status. A university that aspires to be recognised as a global university may have to adopt systems and practices that are globally acceptable and have global relevance. As a start a global university may need to induct, into its governing body, eminent educationists of different nationalities to reflect the international positioning and outlook. A global university, requires having access to sufficient financial resources and attracting global human talent to attain the global status and have international appeal.With time a university that provides an environment that attracts global talent to teach, draws students from across the world to its campuses and whose education methodologies and systems are comparable to the best in the world will attain global recognition. By so positioning itself such Universities will, in time, be recognised as international brands. Global universities address global issues. The purpose of education is to make humanity more intelligent, knowledgeable and wise enough to address global challenges. To list a few: achieving sustainable development while addressing global climate change; provide access to sufficient clean water without conflict for everyone; balancing population growth and the demand for resources; replacing authoritarian regimes with genuine democracy or other collaborative forms of government through change processes that are accepted by all; make information and communications technologies benefit the lives of everyone; establishing ethical market economies that help reduce the gap between the rich and poor; combating the threat of new and re-emerging diseases and micro-organisms; drawing up new security strategies to reduce ethnic conflicts, check terrorism He started his career as a lecture in the year 1984 at M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology-Bangalore. His subject areas of interest are Thermodynamics and Energy Conversion, Automotive Power train, Control Systems Engineering and Vehicle Dynamics. He has been teaching for the last 30 years and considered to be a very good teacher. He has conducted hundreds of training programs for practicing engineers of leading automotive and engineering companies all over India. S.R. Shankapal
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