“Government of Maharashtra is committed to bring reforms in higher education and this conference ‘Brand Maharashtra the Destination for higher education’ organized by COME is a manifestation of the dream of the government “ , said Shri Rajesh Tope,Hon’ble Minister for Higher and Technical Education, Government of Maharashtra while addressing a Seminar on ‘Brand Maharashtra: the Destination for Higher Education – Concept and Output”, organized jointly by Consortium of Management Education (COME) and Directorate of Technical Education, State of Maharashtra in Mumbai on April 13, 2012.
While taking stock of all the remedial measures taken by the Government to increase the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) to 30% by 2020,he said that there was a need to bring in more flexibility in the admission process of private management institutes The Minister said that while quality is the key concern in higher education today, there was a “need to bring flexibility in the admission process of private management institutes to increase the gross enrollment ratio in the state.” He said the state has the potential to be a favorite destination for higher education, but “There is an urgent need to emphasize on quality of higher education to create output which is relevant, futuristic and globally competent. India being the third largest country in terms of enrollment in higher education after China and USA, it is still lagging way behind with a GER (Gross enrollment ratio) of 16 per cent,” Talking about few initiatives by the state government he added that , “Our target is to make more research opportunities available to the youth by offering 3000 fellowships of Rs 6500 each per month”

Other distinguished speakers who highlighted different aspects of ‘Destination branding’ and ‘Potential of Maharashtra to be hub of Higher Education’ included Dr. S. K. Mahajan, Director, Technical Education, Maharashtra; Dr. Uday Salunkhe, Group Director, Welingkar Education; Dr Apoorva Palkar, President, COME; and Mr Damodar Mall- CIO Future Group. In her thought provoking welcome address, Dr. Apoorva Palkar, Director-SIMCA touched upon many of the points and issues of concern and appealed to the Minister for Higher and Technical Education to increase the promotion period for educational institute up to three months, to increase the admission enrollment of the PGDM programs in private management institutes. “The reducing numbers of OMS students as well as the reserved category are a cause of concern and we could work jointly for organizing the systematic enrolment of students and improve the status of admissions especially in those newly approved institutes that are struggling to attract the required number of applicants. Similarly regarding the dates of the commencement of the course needs to be postponed to the month of September as against the current date of July 1. The management institutes need to have flexibility where fees are concerned in order to provide quality learning .In addition to these, we must Endeavour to offer differential and location specific MBA programs and make every effort to move away from a fee-based model by forging strong industry-academic alliances “She added

Dr. Uday Salunkhe, Group Director of WeSchool said, “We are working towards the objective of developing the state of Maharashtra as a world class hub for education by nurturing ‘Value creators’. we must use this opportunity to create a platform for collaboration, as co-creation is the need of the moment .These kind of alliances will bring excellence in our educational systems”

Other industry representatives who addressed the seminar included Dr F.C Kohli, Founder of TCS and Chairman of College of Engineering, Pune; Dr. Abhay Bongirwar- MD and CEO, IDBI Capital Market Services, Mr Damodar Mall- CIO Future Group among others .While Mr. Abhay Bongirwar deliberated on “Role of Industry in fostering partnership with Educational institutes” , another panel of experts consisting Dr. F.C. Kohli – Founder TCS & Chairman, College of Engineering, Pune; Dr. Suresh Ghai – Director, K. J. Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research; and Mr Amit Agnihotri, Chairman, MBAUniverse.com discussed the issues & challenges in building institutions of excellences. The speakers also highlighted the different aspects of ‘challenges & opportunities facing education sector as a whole in Maharashtra’, ‘strengths of Maharashtra to be India’s Leading Education destination’ and ‘need of a better regulator in Higher education, especially MBA education’.

‘Brand Maharashtra’ a souvenir containing the deliberations on the theme in the form of papers highlighting the thoughts of directors & deans from top management from Maharashtra, on the different aspects of current MBA environment and ways to bring in best practices to achieve excellence in Management Education.