UK education leaders’ collaborate with Indian academics to qualitatively boost professional courses – Times of India

The main focus is to improve the access of these courses to a wide range of students in India by upgrading the existing infrastructure related to these fields which is a major challenge. As part of this educational delegation visit from the UK, discussions on offering dual degrees, joint courses and twinning degrees will also take place. Education leaders from the UK will meet senior university leaders from 10 Indian states in New Delhi, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Kolkata.

Several scholarships have been announced for English teachers from India so as to enable them to complete Masters in English from universities in the UK. Emphasis would be laid on teaching the language through the use of educational technologies. The focus will also be on discussing migration, mobility partnership, mutual recognition of higher education qualifications and more initiatives for the internationalisation of higher education. Translation of good works from vernacular Indian languages into English would also be encouraged.
Speaking to
Education Times, Barbara Wickham OBE, director India, British Council, says, “The largest-ever delegation of higher education university leaders from the United Kingdom is in India. They have had conversations with the Education ministry officials and various apex bodies. The delegation is in India with a focus to initiate transnational education that includes partnerships and collaboration opportunities with the Indian universities in sync with the regulations coming out of the University Grants Commission (UGC) and National Education Policy 2020.”

“The main focus of our educational collaboration with India is directed towards identifying the main challenges that exist in the world and how we as cultural relations organisations work with our Indian partners so as to respond effectively. For instance, last year we launched the ‘British Council Scheme for Going Global Partnerships’ with an aim to encourage, and facilitate transnational education partnerships between India and UK. We have 107 Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) in both countries collaborating on a wide range of programmes like creating a framework for Masters degrees in disaster-resilient infrastructure and in many other domains. Hence, there is a need for young bright minds from the world to be working on this,” adds Wickham.

Earlier in the day, Delhi CM was present at the signing of the MoU between the newly established Delhi sports University with the University of East London which would encourage two-way mobility of students and faculty, further adds Wickham.

Balvinder Shukla, vice chancellor, Amity University (UP), says, “We are exploring with various UK Universities to collaborate for joint degree programmes, dual degree programmes and twinning programmes in the area of Management, Engineering Technology, Life Sciences, Bio Technology and Science & Technology. We would collaborate with UK Universities for researches, student exchange programmes and Post-Doctoral research programmes as well.”