UGC’S outreach for tie-ups with foreign varsities
NEW DELHI: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has approached Indian Ambassadors to 63 countries seeking support to facilitate academic collaborations between universities in those respective countries with Indian ones, the body’s chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar said on Monday.
The commission has identified 529 foreign and 229 Indian universities eligible for collabopolice rations, UGC officials said.
In April, the UGC announced amended regulations for academic collaborations between Indian and foreign higher education institutions (HEIS). The new rules allow eligible universities to offer three types of degree programmes in collaboration — dual (where both colleges award the degree, albeit in the same subject), joint and twinning (where part of the course is completed overseas with the upper limit being 30% in twinning programmes, and the lower limit being 30% in joint programmes). “I am writing this to you with the hope that the Indian High Commission will disseminate the information related to the UGC Regulations and encourage the foreign HEIS (in the country under your purview) to collaborate with the well-performing Indian Universities by organising promotional events. I solicit your kind cooperation in this regard,” Kumar wrote in his letter to the 63 ambassadors sent last week. The 63 countries include Spain, Thailand, UAE, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, South Africa, Qatar, Oman, Lebanon, Lithuania, Greece, Cyprus, Iceland, Turkey, UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Russia, South Korea, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, and Taiwan.