
Internationalisation of education in India

Since India launched the new National Education Policy (NEP) in July 2020 the internationalization of higher education in India has gained importance and seen an increase in new partnerships, projects and cooperation globally. The document sees education as a fundamental stone for further growth of the country nationally and globally through enabling access to quality education.
The collaborations have appeared not only among the institutions but also between countries. India and the UK have had a history of collaborating in many ways in the educational sector and Indian students have been a contribution to the country and they are welcomed by many universities and higher education institutions in the UK.
In December 2020 Dominic Raab, UK Foreign Secretary and Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Minister of Education, India, agreed during their meeting to work towards mutual recognition of academic qualifications. The process will start in 2021 and will first look at master’s degrees.
The above news was positively welcomed by UKCISA with the Chief Executive Anne Marie Graham saying that the mutual recognition of academic qualifications, particularly at Master’s level was essential to help ensure the longer-term success of Indian students graduating from UK institutions and helping them achieve the ambitions of the International Education Strategy.
Furthermore, in Europe, Indian research institutions are establishing partnerships with universities and higher education organisations to prepare to bid for projects of EU’s research programme – Horizon Europe. The European Union and India have agreed to allow Indian researchers supported by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) under the education ministry to join the European Research Council (ERC).
The first time the collaboration between India and ECR was established in 2017 targeting scientists in the field of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).
This partnership in research and innovation is going to contribute to social sciences in the future and allow the mobility of students and academics.