Stage set for new India-US education partnership

Starting this year, as many as 200 American students will come to India’s Central universities and the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) as part of a novel ‘Connect India’ programme planned by the two countries. The University Grants Commission (UGC) will also award 300 Raman Fellowships to Indian students for post-doctoral studies in the US.

The moves aim at deepening the engagement between the two countries as part of the Second Indo-US Higher Education Dialogue. India and the US will also join hands to set up a cyber security cell, education testing services, twinning arrangements and meta-university format engagement with the US varsities. These are among the set of 15 concrete outlines of the Second Indo-US Higher Education Dialogue starting in October this year.

Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal led a 14-member delegation of academicians for participation in talks that were held on June 12 in Washington for a formal approval for the ‘Connect India’ programme which will be coordinated by the UGC and the Central universities. The Vice-Chancellor of JNU will be the key authority handling this project from the Indian side.

Waking up to the real threats that could come from the virtual world, India will later this year set up a Cyber Security Centre with the IIT-Delhi handling it along with the Ministry of Home Affairs. A few US institutions are also expected to assist in the project.

Aiming to boost institutional-level collaboration, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has already got the UGC to approve regulations to facilitate twinning arrangements between Indian and foreign educational institutions. These will enable tie-ups with foreign institutions without any need for a legislative backing. That apart, the UGC will also initiate the second round of the Manmohan Singh-Barack Obama fellowships and collaborate in education testing services along with the IIT-Kanpur and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

The MHRD will identify ‘Grand Challenge’ areas for research and innovation related collaboration besides in the area of E-learning — a subject highlighted by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — support a US-India Higher Education web portal, host an international seminar on community colleges.

Source: The Indian Express, August 16, 2012

US to help Indian students make informed choice: Hillary Clinton

The US is expanding its advising services for Indian students to make sure they do not fall for “misleading offers” from dubious institutions and is also keen to encourage more American students to enroll in varsities in India, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said today.

Addressing the first ever India-US Higher Education Summit at the prestigious Georgetown University here, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US wants the relationship between the two “great democracies” to be as interconnected as possible at every level and not just at the government to government level, which is just the beginning and “clearly not the most important and lasting collaboration that we seek.”

While 100,000 Indians are currently studying at various US universities, “we want to see more American students enrolling for academic credit at Indian institutions. The US government is fully committed to enhancing this academic cooperation,” she said.

Clinton said the US is also expanding its EducationUSA advising services for Indians and families to provide accurate information about opportunities to study here and help students “sort out misleading offers that come over the Internet.”

She said those offers flood into homes across India giving young Indian students the idea that certain approaches will work for them when in fact it is a “dead end”. “We don’t want to see that happen. We want to see real exchanges with credible institutions and we will do everything we can to support that.”

Early this year, the Tri Valley University in California shut down after an alleged immigration scam, putting the future of a large number of Indian students in jeopardy.

Source: The Economic Times (Online Edition), October 13, 2011

>U.S. students on a discovery of India

>To learn more about Indian culture and experience it first-hand, a group of 15 students from the U.S. landed in New Delhi on Monday. During their 12-day stay in the country, the students from California’s Mount Madonna School (MMS) will visit places like Haridwar, Amritsar and Dharamsala besides meeting U.S. Ambassador Timothy Roemer and some Lok Sabha Members of Parliament.

The trip, known as Vidya Dharma (Path of Knowledge) project, is part of the school’s two-year ‘Values in World Thought’ programme, an innovative high school social studies curriculum developed by MMS faculty member and trip leader Ward Mailliard.

“For each student, it will be a significant outer journey to another culture where they will experience a civilization that is far older and significantly different in almost every way from what they know — different in language, history, values, food, religion and social customs. At the same time, it will be a unique inner journey for each student to discover something about themselves as they engage in the many unique experiences of the journey,” said Mr. Mailliard.

In Haridwar, the Mount Madonna students will meet children at the Sri Ram orphanage and school. Later, they will go to Amritsar to visit the famed Golden Temple and also the Jallianwala Bagh. Their next destination will be the Tibetan Children’s Village School at Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh where they will also meet the Dalai Lama. The journey will culminate in Gurgaon where they will meet students of Heritage School.

“It is impossible to predict what each student will learn on this journey, but it is a surety that they will learn more about themselves and about another culture on this trip than they ever could from years in the classroom. This journey is part of a continuing experiment in what can happen when we create open context for learning, in which the student simply learns what they are ready to learn,” said Mr. Mailliard.

Informing that a significant aspect of the journey process is the “return” which will be held at Mount Madonna School on May 20 when parents and friends can hear first-hand from the students about their experiences, Mr. Mailliard said: “This project is intentionally designed to prepare students about the larger journey of life, and to provide a context for them to develop skill sets that will be useful in negotiating the ‘unexpected turns in the road’ that are part of the human experience.”

Source: The Hindu, April 19, 2011

>American students here to learn business tricks

>With a view to interact with business leaders and acquire new insights into the regional economy, over 150 students from the United States-based Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business are now in New Delhi. The group is part of the Duke MBA-Cross Continent programme which takes students through Fuqua’s six global locations in India, China, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and Duke University’s campus in Durham, North Carolina.

The 16-month programme is designed for full-time working professionals and aims to provide a global perspective on business through immersing students in international business and cultural experiences and balances classroom and experiential learning.

Acknowledging the need to give students an exposure to social, political and economic environments in important countries of the world, the course recognizes that “India is one such geography” and is “one of the most important cultural and industrial hubs and will continue to play a central role in the world’s economy through the 21st century”.

The residency includes corporate classroom lectures, corporate visits and meetings with business leaders. The university also plans to set up a full fledged campus in India.

Source: The Hindu, April 16, 2011