kannur raising concern about the quality of higher education in india president pranab mukherjee has said there is a scarcity of good teachers in our universities the challenge before us is twofold fill up vacant teaching positions and attract the best talent he said while addressing the first convocation of the central university of kerala in kasaragod on friday innovative measures like appointing eminent resources on shortterm basis from research institutions industry or from abroad have to be adopted to reduce vacancies without dilution of standards the president also opined that the quality of faculty has to be transformed by providing them encouragement to attend seminars and workshops undertake collaborative research and contribute to research publications needless to say boosting faculty standards is crucial for upgrading our higher education sector he said pointed finger towards the failure of our universities to reach the global standards he said indian universities are absent from the top two hundred ranks in the world as per reputed surveys though our institutions are placed in higher brackets amongst asian or brics nations or in some specific disciplines we are yet to convert these micro developments into macro successes with greater impetus being provided to the ratings process now i am confident of finding a few indian institutions amongst the frontranking universities in one or two years time said pranab mukherjee according to the president the academic development has to be through a multipronged strategy modern physical infrastructure like smart classrooms has to be made available ict networks have to be leveraged for sharing of ideas and knowledge and academic cooperation econtent through such networks has to be suitably integrated into the regular curriculum he opined further he also said a school of medicine and public health has also been planned in the central university to help the endosulfan victims in the context of the unfortunate endosulfan tragedy at kasaragod this is a welcome initiative this school should be a platform for higher learning and research in all systems of medicine with particular emphasis on community healthcare and affordable medical treatment said pranab mukherjee in the maiden convocation ceremony a total of 567 students in the four batches of the post graduate courses held so far in the university were awarded the degree