Khanapara, July 1: Prof Gauri Dutt Sharma, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Science and Technology Meghalaya (USTM), has become the President of the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) on Friday evening at a function held at the AIU headquarter in New Delhi.
Prof GD Sharma is a distinguished scientist and a reputed academician of the country who held various positions such as former Vice Chancellor of Bilaspur University; Founder Vice Chancellor of Atal Bihari Vajpayee Viswavidyalaya; former Vice Chancellor of Nagaland University and the former Pro Vice Chancellor of Assam University. Being a renowned intellectual from the field of life sciences, he has been the editor of seven Journals; has more than 261 research publications to his credit, apart from being a member of different Academic Societies in the country and abroad.
Prof Sharma has taken over the charge from the outgoing President of AIU Prof Suranjan Das, Vice Chancellor of Jadavpur University.
Speaking on this occasion, Mahbubul Hoque, Chancellor of USTM stated, “It is a proud moment for the entire family of the northeastern universities as a Vice Chancellor of a university from the North East has been selected and given the responsibility of leading the Indian universities as the President of AIU”.
The Association of Indian Universities was established in 1925 as the Inter-University Board (IUB) of India. The IUB acquired a legal status with its registration as a Society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, on September 29, 1967 and was renamed as Association of Indian Universities (AIU) in 1973. It is the biggest and the second-oldest university association in the world. It has 954 University members including 20 foreign universities. It gives equivalence to degrees of foreign universities and recognition to private boards, on behalf of the Government of India.
Its earlier presidents were Dr S Radhakrishnan, Dr Zakir Hussain, Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, etc. It organizes five zonal and one annual meeting cum conference on higher education. Besides it organizes sports at regional, national, and international levels including Khelo India for youths and similar youth cultural festivals, research innovation, etc.
