New Delhi: In a move to further expand educational ties, Australia is exploring the possibility of setting up offshore campuses of its premier universities across India and considering mutual recognition of degrees.
The issues were discussed in a meeting between Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ and Australian Education Minister Dan Tehan on Friday, as reported by the PTI.
The move assumes significance as various media reports suggest that the Narendra Modi government is mulling giving a green signal to foreign universities to set up their campuses in India. The issue has been long debated in India.
Presently, the University Grants Commission (UGC) allows foreign universities to operate in India only in collaboration with Indian higher educational institutions.
“We discussed whether we can promote offshore campuses of Australian universities and set up their campuses in India,” said Tehan, who is on a three-day visit to India that ends on Friday.
“We have begun the conversation on setting up of offshore campuses in India and this is something both sides want to explore considering the fact that Australia, through its offshore campuses, educates nearly a quarter of our international students,” Tehan said.
“We are interested in making a progress on this, but there has to be reciprocity,” he said. “We have also said this to the Indian side that if they want to explore an offshore campus in Australia, we will be prepared to look into that,” he added. At present, there are 1.9-lakh Indian students in Australia.
Exploring a ‘France-like’ agreement, Tehan said, “We discussed mutual recognition of qualifications by the two countries. India has an arrangement with France and we want to put in place the same framework which will enable us to more freely exchange students or fellows.”