UGC's Twinning Initiative : 48 Foreign Universities Have Shown Interest

In an effort to internationalise Indian higher education, 48 foreign universities have responded to new regulations and guidelines from the University Grants Commission (UGC) for twinning, joint degree, and dual degree programmes between Indian and foreign universities. This is a significant boost to the government’s efforts in this area.

The University of Glasgow in Scotland has stated its interest in discussing the potential for academic collaboration with Deakin University in Australia. In its communication to India’s higher education regulator, Deakin University has described the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 as progressive and said that it would help the university establish new relations with Indian institutions. In fact, many higher education institutions have expressed interest in setting up satellite campuses in India in response to UGC reaching out to them.

Representatives from The University of Queensland in Australia will be meeting with officials from the University Grants Commission (UGC) with the intention to establish potential collaboration. According to sources within the UGC, a university from France has already committed to setting up a satellite centre in India in the near future. The University of Tokyo has stated that the proposal is attractive and should not be restricted to just their university, but rather should be taken up as a common interest among all universities and institutions in Japan.

The University of Cambridge has written to the UGC, expressing interest in the developments of the new Education Policy. They are looking for new partnerships, in addition to existing ones, in order to further their involvement.

M Jagadesh Kumar, chairperson of the University Grants Commission (UGC), is going to meet with ambassadors from next week onwards in order to further discussions. “There has been a lot of discussion between the prime ministers of India and Australia recently, and education is one of the important topics,” said Kumar.

Bangor University in Wales stated that it’s a good time for further collaborations, while SOAS University of London said it is looking forward to collaborations under the new regulations. Officials from the University of Manchester visiting India this week proposed a meeting with the UGC head “to discuss UGC policy and support for twinning arrangements.”

“Students from our educational institutions who had gone abroad have done extremely well. So foreign universities know that we impart high quality education. So that’s one of the reasons why many countries have high respect for the educational system in India. The other reason is, we have responses even from universities like Stanford and MIT too. One advantage for these top universities coming and setting up campuses here, because we are also saying that they have to offer undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, is to train students so that they can join PhD programmes either in India or abroad” Kumar said.