Stating that India and Australia "will sign an agreement tomorrow to recognize the university degrees in both countries," Australian Education Minister Jason Clare said here on Wednesday that the University of Wollongong is also hoping to open its campus in Gujarat, a first by any Australian varsity in the country.
In an exclusive interview with ANI, Clare said, "Tomorrow India and Australia will sign an agreement to recognize the university degrees in both countries. And that will make it easier for Indian students who want to study in Australia to have their degrees recognized here in India and for Australian students who study in India to have their degrees recognized in Australia."
On being asked if Australia plans to open universities in India, Clare said, "At the moment, Australian universities offer lots of courses in many Indian universities. The next step is to open campuses and one of the first universities to do that will be the University of Wollongong, represented today by the cricket legend Adam Gilchrist. And they're hoping to set up a campus in GIFT City in Gujarat later this year."
To promote the internationalisation of Indian education, National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 stipulated various measures, including facilitating selected universities -- those from among the top 100 universities in the world -- to operate in India, setting up of International Student Office at each Higher Education Institution (HEI) for welcoming and supporting students arriving from abroad, and promoting courses and programmes in subjects, such as Indology, Indian Languages, AYUSH systems of medicines, yoga, arts.
Speaking about the courses, Clare said, "There are lots of different courses offered in lots of different universities in Gujarat. In the economic zone that is a GIFT City, there is a focus on finance and economics in particular. But Australian universities have a lot to offer in terms of expertise in water and agriculture, in climate science, And that is a big part of the discussion that all of the university Vice Chancellors who are with me on this trip are talking to Indian universities about over the course of the next few days".
Talking about if there will be any student exchange program, Clare said there are already 70,000 Indian students in Australia studying in various universities.
"We would like to see more, we want to see more Australians come and study here in India as well. Because the world is getting smaller, and we can learn a lot more from each other," the minister added.
( With inputs from ANI )
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