HYDERABAD: Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Chairman D.P. Agrawal on Friday said that universities bogged down with administrative work were unable to evolve new areas of academic pursuits, new models of educational deliveries and develop tools for knowledge management.

Delivering the convocation address at the first convocation of JNTU Hyderabad here, Prof. Agrawal felt that most universities managed a large municipality in terms of students, faculty, staff residences and support system for them and a large proportion of time was used for this work pushing academic activity to the background.

He said universities abroad had very large student enrolment and it lowered the unit cost of education apart from making full use of existing infrastructure. The student population was also mixed with fresh students and those with work experience. Moreover, a seamless arrangement existed between vocational education and university education helping in improving the employability of the pass outs. He felt similar environment in India would help the students immensely.

Despite all this, Prof. Agrawal felt that Indian youth had a great chance of success as they hailed from multi-cultural and multi-lingual society.

Degrees presented

Earlier, Chancellor N.D. Tiwari presented Ph.D degrees to 231 candidates apart from gold medals to students.   JNTUH Vice Chancellor D.N. Reddy presented the university achievements over the last two years.