Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, at Mumbai University on the first day of his visit to India, launched Canberra’s New Colombo Plan to enhance student exchange and collaboration between the universities of the two countries. Fourteen memorandums of understanding (MoUs) were signed between the universities at the event on Thursday.
The plan involves a scholarship programme for study up to one year, internships or mentorships and a flexible mobility grants programme for short- and long-term study.
It mainly aims to lift knowledge of the Indo-Pacific in Australia by supporting Australian undergraduates to study in India. The plan will be implemented from the next academic year.
“Both the countries have so much to learn from each other and I am sure that we will shine bright all along the world because of such programmes,” Mr. Abbott said. He said more Australian students would come to India in the coming years after the launch of the plan.
Mumbai University, the University of Hyderabad, the University of Calcutta, Jawaharlal Nehru University and the IIT, Madras, were among those which signed the MoUs with Deakin University, the Swinburne University of Technology and the University of Queensland, Melbourne among others. While the Australian government will bear half the funding for the programme, the University Grants Commission will pay the rest. “We are targeting a two-way traffic from this plan.
