India and US agree to further enhance cooperation in the field of higher education

Updated on: Thursday, June 27, 2013

India and US on Tuesday agreed to further enhance cooperation in the field of higher education with visiting secretary of state John Kerry emphasizing the need for more exchange programmes and partnerships which will allow students in both countries to face future challenges .

"We need to make sure that next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs have the skills and training," Kerry said at the India-US Higher Education Dialogue here.

Those who work in government and private sectors need to join together in order to focus and meet the challenges in education, he said. HRD minister Pallam Raju and Kerry co-chaired the India-US Higher Education Dialogue.

Raju said based on the US' experience of community colleges, India has embarked to develop community colleges. Talking to reporters, he, however, said, "We are only borrowing the concept and not going to replicate what is happening there in the US" as the economic condition of the two nations are different.

In continuation of the educational partnership between the two nations, the US announced eight institutional partnership projects for the second round of Obama-Singh 21st Century Knowledge Initiative awards.

This initiative seeks to strengthen collaboration and builds partnerships between American and Indian institutions of higher education in priority fields, US officials said.

Each project will receive an award of approximately $250,000 that can be utilized over a three year period, with the objectives of cultivating educational reform, fostering economic growth, generating shared knowledge to address global challenges, and developing junior faculty at Indian and American institutions of higher learning.

During the dialogue, both sides took up Research and Innovation Partnership under Singh-Obama Knowledge Initiative, Institutional Partnership and skill development as well as promotion of community colleges in India and technology enabled education including massive open online courses.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Barack Obama announced the Obama-Singh Initiative in November 2009 as an affirmation of their commitment to building an enhanced India-US partnership in education.

India and US agree to further enhance cooperation in the field of higher education

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