India in Discussion with Top US Universities to Establish Joint Campuses

India and the United States are exploring new ways of bringing together institutions and building joint campuses, in order to strengthen the relationship between India and the US in the education domain.

India, being the second-highest source country of foreign students in the US colleges, the establishment of new joint campuses would assist in building the next generation for the knowledge economy in the country.

Further, the areas of bilateral ties provided by the robust people-to-people relationship are the counterbalance against the strategic and economic ties.

According to the Open Doors Report 2018-19, nearly 2 lakh Indian students enrolled in different bachelor's, master's, non-degree, and optional practical training courses in the United States, specifically in the areas of STEM.

Taranjit Singh Sandhu, Indian ambassador to the US, said that they have been continuously organizing regular interactions to bring together educators and experts from both India and the US.

Further, the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 will help the cause. Interaction between the US state governors and university presidents who are excited about the India-US partnership is also being done, he added

Sandhu said that the interaction between youth in both India and the US is extremely vital, given that it determines the future of US-India bonds along with the future of both these countries on the whole.

Among the universities being targeted by Indian authorities include the University of California, Los Angeles; Georgia Tech; Howard University; the University of California, San Diego, and University of Houston.

In the presence of representatives from the University Grants Commission (UGC) and secretary, department of science and technology, Sandhu had interacted with the 10 India-origin university presidents in hybrid mode.

During the interaction, they spoke about the ways to expand the collaboration in the education areas by establishing and introducing new joint campuses of centres of excellence in Indian institutions, in the areas of common priorities such as Healthcare, clean energy technologies, quantum information sciences, and next-generation telecommunications network.

Recently, the University Grants Commission wrote a letter directing all the central universities to consider “rationalizing” courses, which are offered based on the “demand of students” and the number of students attending the course.