New Delhi: India's Vice President Hamid Ansari said it was imperative to defend universities as open spaces as independent and critical repositories of knowledge and as a source of renewal of liberal values that Offer ways of social mobility and equality to people.
He delivered today the 66th Symposium at Panjab University in Chandigarh. The Governor of Haryana, Kaptan Singh Solanki, Vice-Chancellor of Panjab University, Prof. A.K. Grover and other dignitaries were present.
The vice-president said that a university must be more than just a polytechnic. Even in disciplines with obvious professional connections, the university must first aim to build a deep understanding of the discipline, he added.
The Deputy Chairman stated that a university had the dual responsibility of providing courses on intellectual matters and conducting research on the same issues. He also stressed the important role of social research in the questioning and deconstruction of the "social and cultural mythologies" that circulate and proliferate in every society, especially during phases of change and uncertainty.