In news that will surely delight the international education community, India is set to greenlight dual and joint degrees awarded by Indian universities with international partners, as part of its internationalisation plan being pushed forcefully since its inclusion in the decade spanning National Education Policy, last year.
India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman mentioned the change in her budget speech given on 1st February, stating. “To promote enhanced academic collaboration with foreign higher educational institutions, it is proposed to put in place a regulatory mechanism to permit dual degrees, joint degrees and twinning arrangements.”
This encouragement has opened the door to foreign universities looking to partner with Indian institutes, with it being noted that there is interest in India from leading institutions in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Concurrently, interest from India for tie-ups with foreign universities has increased as Adrian Mutton CEO of Sannam S4 an international business consultancy that brings companies and universities seeking tie-ups in India together with Indian partners has noticed. “One of my top surprises is that we are now getting calls from good private universities in India regarding overseas relationships.”
The rise in interest seems to stem from a realisation caused by the pandemic which showed that Indian universities were not prepared for online learning, as faculty couldn’t adapt as easily. So, many universities now hope to use partnership exchanges as a way to exchange knowledge and improve infrastructure.
How this is implemented in practice when things start to settle down from the pandemic, remains to be seen. It will certainly be an intriguing step forward.
International Higher Education 