NEW DELHI: Union Minister for Education Dharmendra Pradhan, during a meeting with a high-level delegation led by Ronald J. Daniels, president of Johns Hopkins University (JHU), Baltimore, Maryland, USA, discussed establishing an offshore JHU campus in India. The discussion also focused on strengthening academic and research collaborations between JHU and premier Indian Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).
The delegation also included officials from Gupta Klinsky India Institute (GKII), an internal unit of JHU with a mandate to bring the JHU community with Indian partners through research, education, policy and practice.
Secretary, Higher Education, K. Sanjay Murthy and senior officials of the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Ministry of External Affairs also attended the meeting.
Academic collaborations
Pradhan highlighted the transformative opportunities enabled by the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, saying that it had paved the way for academic collaborations and advancing India’s education sector.
He appreciated the university’s commitment towards building robust partnerships with Indian HEIs, contributing to the global exchange of knowledge, particularly in the areas of dual and joint degree programmes, two-way mobility of students and faculty, and research partnerships in emerging fields such as data science, artificial intelligence, and futuristic technologies.
He emphasised the potential for these collaborations to foster innovation and entrepreneurship among the students of both the nations.
India-US educational cooperation
The visit by Mr. Daniels and the delegation highlights the growing significance of India-US educational cooperation.
As part of their multi-city tour of India, the delegation will visit various Indian universities and engage with key government officials, academic leaders, and embassy representatives to strengthen the JHU’s operations in India.
The 12-member delegation included distinguished academicians and administrators such as Fritz W. Schroeder, Senior Vice-President for Development and Alumni Relations; Alexander Triantis, Dean of the Carey Business School; Judd Walson, Chair of the Department of International Health at the Bloomberg School; Sridevi Sarma, Vice-Dean of Graduate Education at the Whiting School of Engineering; Jon Goldstein, Senior Associate Director of Development for International Programs; and Amita Gupta, Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins University and Co-Founder of the Gupta-Klinsky India Institute (GKII).
Prominent Indian-origin faculty from JHU, such as Mathuram Santosham, Professor of Paediatrics and International Health, and Chirag Parikh, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Division of Nephrology, also participated. The delegation included GKII officials and members of its advisory board, including Raj and Kamla Gupta, Deepak Raj, Kunal Pal, and Neetisha Besra.