India and the United States have agreed to expand their education partnership in order to explore models for 'educational institutions for the 21st Century'. India has announced its intention to set up an India-US higher education platform as the two sides agreed to strengthen educator enrichment and exchange programmes to promote development of human resources.
The Indian government also indicated its intention to sponsor initially up to 1,500 faculty and junior scholars to leading universities and research institutes in the United States for this purpose. The two sides also agreed to further strengthening programmes for student and faculty enrichment and exchange, and development of leadership in academia at all levels.
These goals were outlined in a US-India Joint Statement by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and India's Minister of Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal issued at the end of a day-long 'historic' US-India Higher Education summit co-chaired by them.
Both the nations have also endorsed the idea that a periodic interaction should be maintained regarding the ongoing exchange programmes and educational activities. The summit was attended by over 300 participants, the two sides agreed to continue expanded US-India Higher Education Dialogue with representatives from government, academia, and business.
The two sides also welcomed the involvement of the private sector in the two countries to support and deepen collaboration with the higher education community, faculty exchanges, skills development, and institutional partnerships, the joint statement said.
The proposed strategic institutional partnerships are aimed at further strengthening and expansion of collaboration in the priority areas of higher education, including science and engineering, social sciences, and humanities, and addressing societal challenges in areas such as cyber security, energy, environment, health and agriculture.
Other key goals include encouraging expansion and deepened collaboration in research and development in agreed areas between academic institutions of the two countries through existing initiatives and fostering partnerships in the areas of vocational education and skills enhancement to meet the needs of today's world.
Sibal and Clinton, the statement said, emphasised that access to and the development of technology and skills are cross-cutting requirements to meet the challenges that their two countries face and stressed the need to enhance their fruitful collaboration in the areas of education, research, and innovation.
The expanded US-India Higher Education Dialogue as an annual bilateral event to be held alternately in the United States and India to map out strategies for partnership in the field of education between the two countries.
[Source: Sify]
