India has experienced exceptional levels of economic growth resulting in rapid change, increased foreign investment, greater employment opportunities, and heightened demand for education at all levels. In addition, for higher education and research, new international partnerships – covering research co-operation, joint degree delivery, student and staff exchanges and professional programme development – are in demand.
Within a new five-year plan the Indian government has made a commitment to significantly increase funding allocations to education, and to develop a large number of high-quality higher education institutions across India.
What are the implications of the changes and new strategies? What might be the implications for foreign institutions and foreign partnerships? What might we learn from previous experiences? This session provided delegates with a clear understanding of the economic, educational and political context for the new developments and also the implications for India, its people and the international community.
In addition the session presented experiences to date of delivering the innovative UK–India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI), a £26 million jointly funded programme, initially agreed for five years. As part of this, a practical example of a continuing UKIERI-funded co-operation was presented – a ground-breaking partnership between the University of Delhi and the UK’s Open University to support the education of 180,000 Delhi University ‘correspondence course’ students by new approaches to distance learning.
