Of tie-ups and joint ventures

Updated on: Monday, February 08, 2010

With the UK keen to have close cooperation with India in the field of education and HRD Minister, Kapil Sibal wanting to have tie-ups with the top varsities in the world, it seems that things are looking up for tertiary education in India.

Visits to the UK and Scotland by Sibal saw him attend the Learning and Technology World Forum and the second UK-INDIA Education Forum recently. A press release from the Ministry of Human Resources said that Sibal held talks with Lord Mandelson, British Secretary of State for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and with Douglas Alexander, the British Secretary of State for Department for International Development, UK.

British universities, which face deep budget cuts, have been increasingly turning to foreign students from India and China for revenues. Some estimates suggest foreign students bring in 8.5 billion pounds to the British economy each year, say IANS reports.

India needs $400 billion of investment in education over the next decade because it views the sector to be as important as economic growth in moving the country forward, Kapil Sibal told British ministers and university Vice Chancellors.
Outlining India’s plans in the education arena, Sibal said that collaboration with British varsities would be a key strength area. A number of agreements formalising partnerships between the two nations’ academies were signed, including links between the University of Glasgow and IISER Pune; a University College London-Keele University consortium and Pune; the Glasgow Research Partnership in Engineering and IIT Ropar; and Imperial College London and Ropar.

“The role of Britain, which along with the US is a world leader in education, will be to help deliver “quality” to Indian institutions,” Sibal told a roundtable of VCs of key British universities.

“Our young people need access to higher education. The quality of education is strongly linked to economic growth, which is why we are reaching out to other countries,” said Sibal after signing seven agreements for collaboration with British higher education institutions.

Sibal also assured ministers

overseas that legislation guaranteeing foreign institutions a level playing field with the “unaided Indian private sector” would be passed this year.

Of tie-ups and joint ventures

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