Prestigious educational experts announced as keynote speakers at higher education conference at Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology

Professor N. V. Varghese, director of the Centre for Policy Research in Higher Education, is the keynote speaker at Times Higher Education’s (THE) India Universities Forum 2023, which is taking place at Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, on Thursday 23 February.

The event also sees Professor Achyuta Samanta Founder of KIIT University and Alison Barrett MBE, Country director for the British Council in India providing opening addresses to the conference.

The forum brings together key voices from the Indian higher education sector, including Nirmala Rao, Vice-chancellor, Krea University and KIIT’s Vice-chancellor, Sasmita Samanta with influential international speakers including Amarjit Singh, Founder and CEO of India Business Group as well as senior figures from global higher education organisation THE, to discuss how the country recovers from Covid-19.

THE’s Chief data officer Duncan Ross and Dr Shubhra Dutta, Regional customer consultant (South Asia) for Elsevier, will be running a data masterclass to explain India’s position in higher education in a global context.

Other sessions will look at how universities across India are forging their 21st-century identity under the National Education Policy (NEP) and another looks at whether the NEP will reduce inequalities across Indian higher education. The forum will be closed by THE’s new Chief global affairs officer Phil Baty. This will be the first in-person THE event in India in three years.