Australia's Minister for Tertiary Education Senator Chris Evans announced a host of new measures to further higher education linkages including setting up the new Australia India Higher Education Exchange that will meet regularly to consider collaboration proposals from the higher education sector and provide advice on the best ways to achieve successful partnerships in country.
During his recent visit to India, the Minister said that there were currently more than 300 collaborations between Australian and Indian universities, business and industry which involve sharing of knowledge and expertise, and these will be expanded. He said the Energy and Resources Institute at Deakin University will offer scholarships for Indian students to study at TERI-Deakin in India and Deakin University in Australia.
The Australia-India University Shadowing Pilot 2012, funded by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), will provide full support for up to five Australian and up to five Indian university executives in a particular administrative or academic discipline to undertake a capacity-building shadowing exchange in 2012. The Minister also announced a new programme to showcase Australia's universities to the heads of Indian university colleges and foster closer cooperation between the nations' higher education sectors. The Australia-India College Principals' Programme 2011-12, funded by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations and the Australia India Council will allow heads of leading colleges to visit Australia and see the state-of-the-art facilities at the universities.
R. Ravikanth Reddy
