University of Kashmir Vice Chancellor of Prof Talat Ahmad Friday said that the focus of academic institutions must be to help address societal needs and challenges alongside imparting regular education to the students.

Addressing as chief guest the valedictory function of a four-day training programme for women entrepreneurs of Kashmir, Prof Talat said: “Imparting regular education is indeed the prime mandate of educational institutions, but it's their responsibility and obligation to see how best they can help address varied societal needs because we all come from the same social setups and owe it to the society.”
The training programme, organised by the varsity’s Department of Social Work (DoSW), was sponsored by Usha International under its Usha Silai School initiative to enable empowerment of women at grassroots.
Prof Talat said such outreach programmes are important for students of social work to attune their mindsets towards such welfare initiatives.
“I compliment DoSW for organising this training programme and assure our university’s full support to such public welfare initiatives,” he said.
Registrar Dr Nisar Ahmad Mir, who was a guest of honour, emphasised the importance of holding such training programmes as part of the university’s outreach through extension education.
“Extension education enables people, who cannot undertake formal education, to live their lives in a dignified manner by learning a set of skills to earn their livelihoods,” he said.
Dr Mir said the University of Kashmir is contemplating to have a dedicated space at its Zakura Campus for such training programmes and enable exhibition of products thereof for the general public to see the kind of work that’s being carried out in the university vis-à-vis addressing societal needs.
“As an institution, we have to be ever-alive to the societal needs and requirements. We will continue to do our best to amplify our academia-society linkage,” he said, assuring the DoSW of the university administration’s all-out support to its public welfare activities.
Coordinator DoSW Dr Aadil Bashir highlighted aims and objectives of the training programme, and thanked the Vice-Chancellor and Registrar for encouraging such initiatives on the campus.
Dr Saima Farhad, Assistant Professor DoSW, delivered a vote of thanks