Chennai, Apr 22 (PTI) The forthcoming annual conference of leaders of higher educational institutions was a ‘carefully planned and organised’ event held in April every year and it was being organised since 2022 by Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi, the Raj Bhavan said on Wednesday.

Eminent leaders of academia and Industries from Tamil Nadu and across the country participate and share their ideas and experiences with leaders of our higher educational institutions.

“Participants to the conference deliberate over the emerging challenges and opportunities for our students and also the newly unfolding frontiers of science and technologies and devise ways and means to prepare their respective institutions to remain competitive and ahead of the changing curve to the benefit of our state and the students,” a release from the Raj Bhavan said.

Positive outcomes of these conferences were increasingly visible in measurable parameters.

“Earlier our institutions, especially the state universities never interacted with each other and functioned largely in their respective silos to the disadvantage of our students and was detrimental to the growth of our institutions,” it said.

Preparations for each year’s conference begin several months in advance. Meetings with the Vice-Chancellors and eminent experts of academia and industries were held to design the structure of the conference, select the topics and themes for deliberations and identify the eminent resource persons across the country who are then approached well in advance to ensure their participation.

This year too the preparations for the conference began in January and several meetings were held to make it more productive.

“Some misleading media reports regarding the forthcoming annual conference have appeared in recent days as if it is a power struggle between Raj Bhavan and the state government. These reports are entirely erroneous and mischievous,” the release said.

It was unfortunate that some ill-informed media reports gave this well intentioned academic exercise aiming for achieving excellence in teaching, learning, innovation and enterprise a ‘political twist,’ and ‘wrongly linked’ it with the recent court judgment and tried to project it as a power struggle between the Raj Bhavan and the State Government. “These are scandalous and far from truth,” it said. PTI JSP ROH