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As India prepares to allow entry to foreign universities, a joint task force with stakeholders from the US and India has recommended the creation of dedicated offices within their respective diplomatic centres. These offices will assist international universities in establishing branch campuses in each other’s country.
This interim recommendation is one of the outcomes of the Joint Task Force, whose efforts and suggestions were acknowledged in the joint statement released on Friday after the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden.
The American members of the committee were represented by Penn State President Neely Bandabody, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Robert J. Jones, University of California San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla, University of Buffalo President Satish K. Hopkins University Dean and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Sunil Kumar (who is set to become president of Tufts University on July 1). According to the joint statement, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) were on the Indian side. This committee was tasked with exploring new areas of cooperation between US and Indian institutions, and “new models of engagement”.
Building the front doors
The task force suggested that both countries need a coordinated approach to attracting and retaining international students. The time has come for a coordinated international strategy for education. A new era of academic partnership will require both countries’ embassies to “build front doors” for their countries. Each diplomatic outpost should establish a liaison office dedicated to assisting foreign universities in overcoming the many legal hurdles required to establish non-profit academic centers or satellite campuses in the country — alleviating the need to operate through private consultations,” the interim report states.
Establishing joint research institutes focusing on societal and scientific “grand challenges”, and increasing people-to-people exchanges between institutions of higher education in India and the United States are among the interim recommendations made in the joint statement by White. house on Friday.
The statement welcomed the proposal to establish the “Indo-American Global Challenge Institutes” that will help increase cooperation between researchers in the United States and India on challenges of concern to the two countries, including the areas of semiconductors, sustainable agriculture, clean energy, and health and pandemic. Preparedness and Emerging Technologies.
The two governments, through their respective scientific agencies, will issue a funding call to the aforementioned institutes. They will receive equal funding from government and private sources in each country, according to the proposal. The goal is to create core institutes for each Grand Challenge in both countries.
record increase
The announcement comes amid a record increase in the number of Indians moving to the US for higher education. The statement noted that the Indians are set to soon displace the Chinese and become the largest international student group in the United States, adding that their numbers have increased by 20 percent in the past year alone.
This task force’s interim report, released Thursday, includes nine recommendations. Other than joint research institutions, it recommended expanding student-based research collaborations, expanding training and apprenticeship opportunities for Indian and American undergraduates and graduates, as well as for post-doctoral researchers.
It also suggested that Indian students, scholars, and exchange visitors should be given multi-year, multiple-entry visas with an opportunity for renewal by the state to help kick-start faculty exchanges, enhance participation in meetings, and expedite student enrollment.
“As envisioned by our leaders, @EduMinOfIndia will establish Indo-US Global Challenge Institutes to deepen research partnerships and people-to-people exchanges in areas such as semiconductors, sustainable agriculture, clean energy, health, pandemic preparedness and emerging technologies,” Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan tweeted on Friday.
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