President Pranab Mukherjee has said government's effort to increase quantity in higher education must be matched with commensurate efforts to improve quality.

Inaugurating the conference of Directors of National Institutes of Technology (NITs) in New Delhi today, Mr. Mukherjee noted the government is investing huge amount of resources in higher education and country's biggest strength in the coming years is going to be its demographic dividend. He said more than 50 percent of the population is under 25 and soon one-fifth of the world's population in the working age will be in India.

Underlining the successful launch of country's Mars mission, he said the model set by ISRO scientists must be emulated in other areas as well.

On this occasion, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh said UPA government has laid special emphasis on education and the last 9 years have witnessed unprecedented expansion of education system at all levels. He said that during the 11th Plan, 65 new Central Institutions were established and enrollment in higher education grew from about 166 lakh to about 260 lakh. Dr. Singh said the growth of enrollment in Engineering saw a phenomenal 25 percent increase during the Plan.

He said that during the 12th Plan, the government is focussing on expansion, equity and excellence with a greater emphasis on quality of higher education, while consolidating the gains of the 11th Plan.

The Prime Minister also asked the Directors of NITs to address the massive challenges that lie ahead in Science and Technology education in the country. Dr. Singh said India’s research output as global share of scientific publications was a mere 3.5 percent in 2010 whereas China's share was 21 percent in 2007.