Dharmendra Pradhan, the Union Education Minister, has invited Australian universities and various skilling institutions to set up their campuses in India and explore opportunities to collaborate with Indian institutions. Pradhan is on a four-day visit to Australia where he co-chaired Australia-India Education Council’s (AIEC) sixth meeting along with Jason Clare, the Minister for Education and Youth of Australia. The meeting was held at Western Sydney University (WSU). To strengthen the partnerships between institutions, and create new collaboration opportunities, both, Pradhan and Clare, agreed to form working groups on transnational education.
Pradhan took to twitter to announce “We had fruitful discussions on further strengthening our cooperation in education, skill development, research collaborations, innovation and entrepreneurship.” He further said “I am glad that both Australia and India recognise the value of education and innovation in the growth, development and prosperity of our societies.” He also broached the issue of pending visas of Indian students who are planning to study in Australia. On that, he said “Appreciate the keenness of the Australian government in expediting visas to Indian students and also towards establishing university-to-university collaborations for offering dual-degree programmes to encourage two-way student mobility and to boost people-to-people linkages.”
The education ministry also said in a statement “In the 6th meeting of the Australia-India Education Council, Shri Pradhan said that AIEC is a highly effective forum to further advance ties and boost engagements in education, skill development and research priorities. He invited Australian team to hold the 7th meeting of the AIEC in India next year.” It further went on to say “Shri Pradhan stressed on the research collaboration between the two countries in the areas of Ayurveda, Yoga, Agriculture, etc. He called for collaboration in skill certification and areas like mining, logistics management, etc. He further said that India has set up Digital University and Gati Shakti University for which the two countries can work together to develop curriculum and other aspects.”
