Archive for the ‘Australian Universities’ Category
Indian students to benefit from Australia’s new visa regime
The new Australian government is set to announce a series of steps to make its student visa regime simpler to attract more foreign students, including those from India, and revive the billion dollar higher eduction industry.
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison and Education minister Christopher Pyne jointly announced that the new coalition Government were keen to revive the industry by undoing the damage done by the former Labor government, according to an official media statement.
The two ministers announced that steps would simplify student visas through a streamlined assessment-level framework (ALF) and by extending streamlined visa processing arrangements to low-risk non-university degree providers.
“The changes will assist all providers, but particularly the vocational education and training sector, making access to Australia’s education system more attractive for overseas students,” Morrison said.
“Assessment levels under the ALF would be reduced from five levels to three, while financial evidence for AL3 students would reduce from 18 months to 12 months, provided funds were from a close relative of the student applicant.
This would mean students from a number of key markets would be able to apply for a student visa with up to 40,000 Australian dollars less in the bank.
Streamlining of the visa application process that Morrison announced last week would benefit up to 22 low-risk non-university providers for students enrolled in Bachelor, Masters or Doctoral degree courses or an eligible exchange programme.
Pyne said the measures would attract more overseas students to Australia, benefit our education system, create Australian jobs and stimulate our economy. “The non-university sector is an important contributor to our overall education exports,” Pyne said.
“These changes would allow the vocational training sector to contribute more freely to our plan to restore Australia’s tertiary education system to its former peak of almost 19 billion dollars in export income for the nation.
Source: The Economic Times (Online Edition), October 31, 2013
Australia wants more Indian students in universities, not vocational training
To get highly skilled Indian workers, Australia is planning to encourage postgraduate and doctoral students. The focus is on what it needs to do to boost labour gaps, especially in medicine, engineering and accountancy, and cut down its focus on vocation education, a favourite with the majority of Indians. Australian High Commissioner to India Peter Varghese said in an interview that his nation has no problem in giving residency to highly skilled workers. Edited excerpts:
Australia has emerged as one of the top education destinations for Indian students. How has this happened?
Of the top 100 universities in the world, we have four in Australia. And of the top 500 universities in the world, we have 19. Across the board our university sector is a high-quality sector. The internationalization of education in Australia is also very strong. We have on an average 25% of our university students international students.
Is there a particular category of students that you are looking to attract to Australia?
We would like to focus the education relationship to Indians coming to Australia much more on the university and higher education sector. If you look at the profile of the Indian students in Australia at the moment, it’s dominated by vocational education. I am not in any way suggesting that is inappropriate. But what we would like to see is broadly a strategy, Indian students coming to Australia to focus on the university sector and that the vocational skills’ training is done more and more in India.
And I think that makes sense for both countries. We want to see more collaborative research work done between Australian and Indian universities; we would like to see more Indian students come to Australia for postgraduate work. We want to get away from the language of numbers and more talk about an education partnership. On the vocational side, I think it’s really finding the right model that works for India. In Australia we have a high-expense, low-volume model. India needs the opposite—high-volume, low-cost model.
Why are you not focusing on numbers when your country gets sizeable revenue from education?
What I am talking about is finding a model that better meets India’s requirements. India wants to upscale 500 million people. You are not going to upscale 500 million people by sending them off to Australia. The best way of doing that is to do more vocational training in India. I am not saying that education as a services export is not important to Australia. Clearly, it is. It is the third-largest source of export revenue. But my view is you cannot treat education simply as a commodity. It is more than a trade in services. You need to design a strategy that meets the needs of the country that you are focusing on. And that is why the vocational training focus in India and the higher education focus in Australia make better sense.
Is the change in strategy in the vocational training sector due to the attacks on Indian students in 2009-10?
I wouldn’t see the changes as being driven by the unfortunate events in 2009-10. What’s happening here is a much bigger story. We are shifting the migration programme from a supply driven model to a demand-driven model and that means what we are going to do is we are going to identify what our skills gap in Australia are and then go after people who have those skills rather than people self nominating on the basis of list that maybe out of date very soon.
So there is a bigger shift in our policy settings here, which is then reflected in the way in it translated to how an education pathway and a labour market pathway come together. Partly what we saw in 2009 and in 2010 was a complete fusion of an education and labour market pathway. What we want to do is to separate the two more clearly not to hermetically seal them. We want to make it clear that you choose to come to Australia to study then that is your primary objective and that your primary objective isn’t a backdoor means to the labour market.
Which are the areas where you would like to see Indian students come to study?
The areas where we will need are healthcare, age care, accountancy, information technology, medical sciences, engineering. Bear in mind, we are going through an infrastructure mining project boom so all of the skills that you need to bring that half trillion dollars of pipeline investment in the resources and mining sector to fruition are the skills that we are going to have a shortfall.
Do you think Australian institutes are capable of providing the skills to Indians knowing that the focus of both the countries is different?
I don’t think it will be problem in terms of the skills that are required because the skills you would require are the skills of the modern economy. The issue is how you scale up… the issue is how do you deliver the skills in such a large scale. And it’s going to require a very different model than what we do in Australia.
Just to take the Australian model and transplant, in my view is unrealistic. I don’t think we are going to set up bricks and mortar, 100% Australian-owned and operated vocational education system in India. What we will probably do is to have joint venture between Australia and India with the Indian vocational training institutions would draw on Australian course, quality control, train the trainer programs…there are many permutation and combinations.
Indian has started opening up its higher education space. If not in skill education, can we see some Australian university setting up a campus here?
Some of our universities have campuses in other countries—in Southeast Asia and Africa. They have a mixed experience. They have to make a judgment on whether they want to come to India. I don’t get a sense from talking to our university chancellors that they are going to rush into anything. My feeling is that they are watching the development of the Indian policy carefully.
When you came to India, it was a difficult time following attack on Indian students. Do you think Australia has been able to leave behind that image of unsafe student destination for India?
It was a very intense period of negative publicity. That’s going to leave a certain legacy. I don’t see it as an insurmountable legacy. I see it as a diminishing legacy. That’s going to be reflected what I see as a rebuild in applications from India. On the tourist side there is very strong growth.
In 2012—two years or so after the peak of this very bad publicity for us—India has been the No. 1 in terms of permanent migrants, No. 2 in temporary skill market, India coming in No. 2 in terms of international students. I think what we went through is a very unfortunate phase in relationship. What I am keen to do is to convey a better sense of contemporary Australia… particularly on issues of race and multiculturalism.
Source: Mint, August 6, 2012
Top Australian and Indian scientists to collaborate
Top scientists in India and Australia will receive funding for cutting-edge research in fields that include environment science, materials science, stem cells and vaccines as part of a joint multi-crore rupee program. The Australian and Indian governments will support thirteen new collaborative projects and seven joint workshops through the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund. From a total Australian commitment to the Fund of AU$64 million, the Australian government has committed Rs. 23 crore (AU$ 4.37 million) to these new projects and workshops. The Government of India will fund the Indian teams’ participation.
The Australian High Commissioner to India, Mr Peter Varghese, said, “This program brings together leading scientists in both countries for truly world-class research. This is Australia’s largest science fund with any country and one of India’s largest sources of support for international science. This commitment is a measure of our strong belief in the quality and future of the science relationship, which we see as an important element underpinning the overall Strategic Partnership.”
Participating institutions in India include, but are not limited to, Banaras Hindu University, National Chemical Laboratories, National Centre for Cell Science, IIT-Mumbai, IIT-Roorkee, Immunology Laboratory Institute of Microbial Technology Chandigarh, and Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. The partner institutions in Australia include the University of New South Wales, Melbourne University, Southern Cross University, Australian National University, Queensland University of Technology, CSIRO and Deakin University.
The research to be supported includes development of new batteries for electric vehicles, developing an approach for recycling hazardous e-waste to reduce harmful emissions and coming up with a process to manage wastewater discharged from ethanol distilleries.
The areas cover new tools for identification and purification of stem cells in the human liver, pancreas and oesophagus, identifying the molecular pathways in ovarian cancer as potential therapeutic targets to prolong survival time and improve the quality of life of women with this cancer and designing new vaccines against tuberculosis using a novel delivery system. Other projects supported by the fund are in the fields of renewable energy, marine and earth sciences, food and water security, biomedical devices and implants, and bio energy.
Source: The Economic Times (Online Edition), June 26, 2012
Australia varsity, Gujarat NRE Coke in pact for campus
Australia’s University of Wollongong is planning to set up a campus in India. The university has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Mr Arun Jagatramka, Chairman of the Gujarat-based entity, Gujarat NRE Coke Ltd. According to the pact, Mr Jagatramka “will assist the university and liaise between it and the Government authorities in the State”, said Mr. Craig Peden, Director, Corporate Relations, University of Wollongong.
In talks
He said, the university is exploring the possibility of setting up our campus in Ahmedabad in Gujarat. “A concrete decision on this is yet to be made. Due diligence is underway,” he said. However, according to sources, the university is advanced in stages of discussion with the Government authorities there and very close to finalising the location in Ahmedabad. If this works out, this will be the university’s second campus outside Australia. It currently has one in Dubai, said Mr. Peden.
Lures Indian offices
At a press conference, organised by the Australian Trade Commission in Chennai today, he said the university’s Innovation Campus invites Indian businesses to set up their Australian offices and facilities on the campus. The campus would offer a steady source of well-trained graduates and research and development partnerships, all within a modern campus environment in south of Sydney, he said. The university’s research institutes work in fields such as advanced IT, nanotechnology, intelligent materials and super-conductivity.
Indian investment
Addressing the press earlier, Mr. Michael Carter, Trade Commissioner and Consul-Commercial for Australia to Southern India, said Indian investment in Australia has now reached an estimated Rs. 50,000 crore (Rs. 500 billion). The investments are concentrated around the mining and resources, information technology, infrastructure and the financial services sector.
A spokes person of Gujarat NRE, which owns and operates two coking coal mines with estimated reserves of over 650 million tonnes of coking coal, said the company is currently producing 1.5 million tonnes of coking coal a year and it is set to increase it to six million tonnes a year by 2015.
Source: The Hindu Business Line, February 8, 2012
Australian varsity planning campus in Gujarat
Australia’s University of Wollongong (UOW) is planning to establish a 72-acre campus in Ahmedabad, an official of the varsity said Monday. “Indian students have a major presence in our country. So we thought why not establish a campus here which will allow them to get the Australian flavour of education without having to leave their shores,” Mr. Craig Peden, Director Corporate Relations, UOW, said in Kolkata. The facility will be the UOW’s second international campus alongside Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
Mr. Peden, however, refused to comment on the amount of investment involved in the project, saying it was only in the planning stage and anything concrete can be said only after the end of 2012. A memorandum of understanding was earlier signed by UOW Vice-Chancellor Gerard Sutton and Jagatramka in Mumbai.
Mr. Peden also said the university was mulling to establish a branch of Innovation Campus (IC), a technology and research precinct developed by it. “With a view to forge partnership with India in the field of R&D in areas like advance manufacturing, energy storage etc, we are looking for a suitable place here to establish a branch of the IC,” said Mr. Peden.
IC’s brand ambassador and Australian cricketer Adam Gilchrist visited the Indian cities of New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore last year scouting for suitable place for the Indian branch.
Source: The Hindu Business Line, February 8, 2012
Australia eases student visa rules
Mired in negative publicity from the alleged racial attacks on foreign students, Australia has decided to make changes to its visa programme for students. This includes cutting down on financial requirements for some categories of visas. Fiona Richard, COO at Oceanic Consultants, described the changes positive. “We are sure that the reforms will encourage genuine students and will see the return of Australia as a favoured desitination for education.”
The first phase of changes were announced on November 5. These focus on improving the competitiveness of Australia’s education sector among foreign students. According to the release, the changes flow from the recent strategic review of Australia’s student visa programme Further changes, including streamlined visa processing arrangements for participating universities, are due to be implemented in 2012.
Aslo, student visa applicants will need to include a confirmation of enrollment (COE), issued by their intended education provider, as part of their student visa applications. This will improve processing time as students will no longer need to wait for a pre-visa assessment (PVA) letter to be issued by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) before arranging their COE.
Australia’s High Commissioner to India, Peter Varghese, said, “I strongly support these changes which will make Australia a more attractive study destination for high-quality students from India seeking to gain international education. Australia is a quality education destination and these changes will further strengthen that reputation.”
A new temporary entrant criterion has also been put into efect. This will assist Australia to ensure that students are intending a temporary stay only for the purposes of education.
Source: The Financial Express, November 10, 2011
6,500 Indian students deported from Australia due to Visa irregularities
A recent report in Australian media about the cancellation of a whopping 15,066 visas of foreign students has caused a flutter in India. The largest number of students – around 6,500 – who now face deportation, are Indian. While the media report, which appeared in Australia’s The Daily Telegraph, is based partly on annual figures for 2010-11 published by the Australian government’s Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC), educational consultants and experts in India are not pressing the panic button yet.
Most of them feel that genuine Indian students who comply with the requirements of their visa have no reason to be concerned about deportation. The crackdown by the Australian government, which resulted in a 37% increase in student visa cancellations over the previous year, are part of series of steps being taken to benefit international students and weed out low-quality education service providers.
Many Cases of Visa Expiry
“The visa cancellations have primarily hit Indian students in vocational education training (VET) in Australia who have violated their student visa terms. In some cases, the visas had expired rather than being cancelled. Many Indians joined courses only as a means of getting permanent residence in Australia and were not genuine students,” says Harmeet Pental, Regional Director (South Asia), IDP Education, the largest organisation representing Australian universities.
It appears that around 8,000 of the cancelled student visas were cases of visa expiry when the time period ran out. “Students need to ensure they don’t get into such a situation. Among the visas which were genuinely cancelled by DIAC, over 2,200 occurred because the students withdrew from their courses,” Pental adds.
Even as the DIAC is trying to spruce up the student-immigration process, reforms are also targeted at making things smooth for genuine students. A recent review by former New South Wales minister Michael Knight focuses on a easier visa policy for foreign students.
The Australian government has accepted all the recommendations of the Knight panel that will kick in from the first half of 2012. These include the end of mandatory cancellation of student visas for unsatisfactory attendance, unsatisfactory progress and working in excess of hours allowed. This will allow DIAC to decide cases on individual merit.
Source: The Economic Times (Online Edition), October 30, 2011
UNSW: ‘Want to partner Indian varsities, not compete against them’
University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia, is exploring partnership opportunities with top Indian educational institutions and businesses. While it does not intend to open an India campus or offer tailored corporate degrees, it is looking at research avenues in collaboration with centres of academic excellence in the country. On his recent visit to India to meet leading institutions and government representatives, UNSW President and Vice-Chancellor, Fred Hilmer, spoke to Piyali Mandal & Nivedita Mookerji about student safety on Australian campuses, competition from other countries in the race for being a popular overseas education destination and visa reforms, among other things. Edited excerpts:
Do you think the recent incidents of attacks on Indian students in Australia have had an adverse impact on the latter as an education destination?
The media reports were quite damaging. They were based on relatively few incidents. The negative sentiment is unfortunate. When you are here, Australia is invisible. You see it as one place. However, in reality, it is a very big and diverse country. At our campus, we have had no issues regarding students’ safety. A word-of-mouth from the people who have been at our campus is very important. You know, these things happen and you have to live with them. We will have to continue telling our story.
The number was certainly higher earlier. Earlier, India was number four in terms of students’ enrollment. It has now slipped to the fifth spot.
What initiatives have you taken to instill confidence in people vis-à-vis education in Australia?
We are talking to educational institutions, agents and the government here. I hope they will get a better sense of things and realise that Australia is a good place to study. We are working with different government organisations regarding the flow of students back and forth. We have had anumber of conversations. During this visit, I am meeting the secretary of higher education and representatives from the University Grants Commission.
We have worked very closely with the Australian government on the student visa programme. The new recommendations will support high quality students. A favourable student visa programme is a critical part of the Australian policy. There is nothing stronger than the students studying in Australia going back to their country and vice versa.
What is the proportion of Indian students studying in your university on full fee? Do you propose to increase the number of scholarships?
Usually, most students from India are on full fee. Yes, we are looking at increasing the number of scholarships. We would moderately increase these for research programmes.
The US and the UK remain among the most favoured destinations for Indian students. Where does Australia stand in comparison? In addition, do you see any threat from Asian countries like Singapore?
Australia fell back a little after the bad publicity. I think we are seeing strong interest again. Every country has its own problems. I just came back from the UK, which is very troubled. In the US, funding for a number of universities is being cut. Australia has a relatively strong position. Our government is increasing funding for education. Moreover, when you pass out of college, you can get a job in the country. The Australian economy is good; they (students) will not find it difficult to get a job. As far as Singapore is concerned, we do not see it as a threat. Asian students like the experience of studying in Australia. It gives them a truly international experience.
We are an MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) style university. So, the bulk of our collaborations would be in science and technology. We have a collaboration with the Prasad Rao Eye Institute. We are meeting officials from the Indian Institute of Science and expect some collaboration there. We are also working on a Masters of Public Health programme in collaboration with the Christian Medical University, Vellore. We had a number of discussions with Kapil Sibal, the education minister. We are also in talks with the IITs and IIMs. We are at an initial stage of discussion with IIM-Ahmedabad, for partnership around our flagship MBA programme.
We plan to start such programmes in the next two-three years.
We will hold discussions with corporate India in November. Our team is setting up a series of meetings with top-end corporate and industry leaders here. We are looking at building internship models. Under these, our students will have access to the corporate across India. However, we will not do any tailored corporate degree. It is very unlikely. We might conduct such courses in partnership with Indian educational institutes, but not with a corporate entity.
We believe in the partnership model. Universities, by nature, are local and we do better when we work with other universities like partners. It is mutually beneficial. Education is not a business. It is not a business market. The sector is generally very heavily regulated. We want to collaborate with universities and not compete against them to get more students.
These are still early days. India and Australia had been a bit off each other’s radar for some time. There is enormous opportunity in the information technology and energy sector, among others. The build-up will come from the history of engagement in education.
If you look at the benefits of pursuing these (competitive reforms) aggressively and holistically, they are very significant. In the late 80s and early 90s, Australia had lower economic growth than the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Then, if you look at growth in the early 90s and through the early part of this century — the period we did all the competitive regulation — we grew above them consistently and had inflation below the OECD rate. So, the virtue is dual, that of good growth and low inflation.
You have to have a longterm view. Even as we started the process of reforms in the late 80s, we were able to bring in a lot of the laws only in the early 90s and it took some years. But, if you look back, if you have a 15-20 years’ view, this is probably one of the most significant areas of economic reforms we have undertaken.
The lesson for India is to be patient and stay on course.
Source: Business Standard, September 26, 2011
Australian universities reach out to India
As the dust settles on the furore surrounding attacks on Indian students, which has strained bilateral relations and threatened Australia’s multi-billion dollar education export sector, Australian universities are going all out to engage with Indian educational institutions.
This isn’t all that surprising considering that the number of offshore applicants from India fell from 18,514 in the 2009-10 financial year to just 6,875 in 2010-11, a drop of 63 per cent. From setting up joint academic and research collaborations to offering scholarships and exchanges, universities are keen to re-build Australia’s reputation as a convivial and safe study destination.
“As countries, we have so much to offer each other when it comes to education and knowledge partnerships. The University of New South Wales (UNSW) like many Australian universities is investing human and capital resources in deepening, strengthening and broadening our engagement with a cross-section of universities in India”, says UNSW’s Pro-ViceChancellor (International), Jennie Lang, who is in Delhi with the UNSW Vice-Chancellor Frederick Hilmer, to discuss long-term engagement strategies for partnerships.
UNSW has recently announced a joint Master’s degree in Optometry with the LV Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad, and set up a Nehru Chair in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Earlier, the Australasian Legal Information Institute, a joint facility of UNSW and the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Faculties of Law, helped develop the Legal Information Institute of India.
“Academic engagement is an important stepping stone towards rebuilding trust and creating a stronger relationship between the two countries,” says the University of Sydney’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor International, Professor John Hearn. Between 2007 and 2010, the University of Sydney’s International Programme Development Fund has allocated AU$ 98,788 to initiate research collaboration with Indian institutions in the fields of agriculture, medicine, science, engineering and Information Technology.
Macquarie University in Sydney on the other hand has initiated a number of cooperative partnerships with some of the top Indian business universities including the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) and Calcutta (IIM-C), Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI), NarseeMonjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), and the SP Jain Institute of Management and Research.
Karthik Kesavan, who hails from Chennai, arrived at Melbourne’s LaTrobe University when the students’ attacks issue was at its peak two years ago but has experienced little of the upheavals that were reported at the time. “I find generally people are warm and friendly. I have not experienced any of kind racism. Although, when I speak to friends back home, a vast majority still feel Australia is not a safe place”, says Kesavan, who is in the final semester of a Bachelor’s degree in Animal and Veterinary Bio-sciences.
He has been working as a Livestock supervisor in a Poultry Farm to pay for the nearly AU$ 60,000 three-year course fee and he would like to stay on in Australia. “There are plenty of jobs available in my field of study here, but tougher immigration rules pose a challenge”, adds Kesavan. Changes to the Australian skilled migration programme, tightening of student visa rules and financial stability requirements, closure of dodgy private colleges and a surging Australian dollar have all contributed to low enrolments from India.
There are 61,549 overseas Indian students enrolled in Australian educational institutions as at year-to-date July 2011 out of a total of 487,704 international students from nearly 200 countries. Education is Australia’s third largest export after iron ore and coal and the largest services export worth AU$ 18.3 billion.
Still, a range of initiatives are being taken to foster higher education links between the two countries. For example, the Australia-India University Shadowing Pilot, funded by the Australian Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), will provide full support for up to five Australian and up to five Indian university executives in a particular administrative or academic discipline to undertake acapacity building shadowing exchange in 2012. In July, the India Australia Vice Chancellors’ and Senior University Executives’ Workshop held in Delhi agreed to promote greater institutional collaboration, credit transfer, student and staff mobility, and joint research.
Flinders University has exchange and research links amongst others with Madras Christian College, Manipal University, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore, and Indian Institute of Horticulture, Bangalore. The University of Adelaide has research partnerships with Indian institutions on wheat and rice breeding, weed management in rice, and evaluation of genetically modified cereal crops.
Top scientists have benefited from the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund (AISFR), a joint initiative of the Australian and Indian governments. Until June 2011, more than 90 joint research projects and workshops, valued at over AU$ 30 million, have been awarded AISFR grants.
The deepening engagement with Indian researchers is in part facilitated by the Australia India Institute (AII) at the University of Melbourne, with founding partners UNSW and LaTrobe University where a Masters level International Relations course is jointly taught by the three universities to all students, including the ones in Delhi.
Starting in 2012, 10 top scholars from India will be awarded AUD$ 90,000 each to do a PhD at one of Victoria’s nine universities under the new Victoria India Doctoral Scholarships Program launched by the State Government of Victoria and the AII. The State Government has also sponsored a Chair in Contemporary Indian Studies at the University of Melbourne for three years.
Source: Business Standard, September 23, 2011
Australia keen on upgrading education ties with India
Australia and India are moving towards a collaborative framework in education, under which universities from both countries will award joint degrees, recognise each other’s qualifications and have mutual transfer of academic credits. At the same time, Australia is keen on leveraging its vast experience and expertise in vocational training to fill the huge gap in the availability of skilled personnel in India.
Australia’s Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations, Christopher Evans, who visited the country in the past few days, mainly in connection with the first meeting of the Australia-India Education Council (AIEC), feels that his country’s engagement with India in the education sector is not just about Indian students studying in Australia but also about Australians pursuing part of their academic programme in Indian institutions.
“One of the barriers has been the lack of recognition of each other’s education and credit transfers. So, if someone comes from India and studies in Australia for six months, they may not get recognition for their Indian degree and vice-versa. We have identified this as a key thing we have to fix, because increasingly universities are interested in joint degrees,” Mr. Evans told The Hindu in an interview in Chennai.
“I am very keen on getting Australian students to study for about six months abroad, as it will open their eyes to the world. That is why, credit transfer is important. They will come if they know it counts for their degree, but not if their six months’ work is not credited,” he said. Citing the example of The Energy and Resources Institute of India (TERI), New Delhi, and Deakin University, Australia, establishing a BioNanotechnology Research Centre in Delhi, he said the two institutions had a successful joint programme, and more such partnerships were in the offing.
Skills transfer
Mr. Evans, who came with an academic and business delegation for the first AIEC meeting, said there was a lot of interest from the government and businesses in the field of vocational education. Leighton, an Australian infrastructure major, was running training programmes for Indian technicians in Delhi. “They are training Indians to [acquire] international and Australian qualifications for work, but don’t guarantee them a job. But the good thing is, it is a skills transfer involving industry — real skills valued by employers looking to meet international standards. That’s a great example of what we are doing in the vocational space.”
He did not see much scope for Australian universities to set up campuses in India, but felt that they would rather be looking for partnership models that would help Indian students get an international qualification. “A lot of Australian institutions provide qualification assessment, credit-rating and accreditation.”
A problem of scale
Mr. Evans did not see any great divergence in quality between the best Australian and Indian universities, but the problem in India was one of scale. It was a major challenge to meet the huge demand for skills and for education from such a large population. “Yours is a challenge of scale, not of quality; it is about spreading that quality across 500 million people who need to be trained.” On the importance Australia gave to education collaboration, he said: “We are very serious about making education one of the key pillars of our strategic partnership.”
Source: The Hindu, August 6, 2011
Higher Education News and Views 
You must be logged in to post a comment.