New Delhi: India and Australia on Thursday signed a Framework Mechanism for Mutual Recognition of Qualifications that will help ease the mobility of students and professionals between the two countries.
While the two countries will recognise the degrees, professional registrations of engineering, medicine and law pass outs will remain outside the framework's ambit.
The agreement was signed following a bilateral meeting here between Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and his Australian counterpart Jason Clare, who is on a five-day visit to India.
At least 11 institutional-level memorandums were also exchanged between India and Australia's university sectors, which will promote research and academic collaborations between the two countries in several key sectors.
The Australian government will also be contributing 1.89 million dollars for running skill development programmes in India in the area of agriculture which is a critical sector for the country.
"Australia and India are aligned to making the knowledge pillar a key aspect of the bilateral relationship. Both the countries agreed to create new frameworks of partnership to take our bilateral relations to new heights," Pradhan said at a joint press conference.
"The developments today will create more opportunities for two-way mobility of students and professionals for the purpose of education and employment, and pave the way for making education the biggest enabler in taking India-Australia bilateral relationship to greater heights and realise shared aspirations," he added.
The minister informed that the scope of Australia India Education Council (AIEC) has been widened to also include cooperation in skill development.
Clare said the agreement signed on Thursday will make it easier for Indian and Australian students to study in each other's countries and also provide recognition to various levels of education and skill qualifications.
"The National Education Policy is breath-taking in scope and will transform India by giving a big push to jobs, businesses, economic productivity and creating opportunities in all areas.”
"India has set the target of providing 50 per cent of its youth with either higher education or skill education by 2035 and Australia would be privileged to partner with India in this program," Clare said.
The two sides also discussed issues like promoting student mobility and enhancing research and academic collaborations between Indian and Australian universities through the mechanism of joint, dual and twinning degrees that have been introduced recently under the NEP.
Meanwhile, a delegation led by Clare also visited the University Grants Commission (UGC) here, along with a 30-member team consisting of vice-chancellors of more than 10 Australian Universities and other higher education officials.
"We had a detailed discussion on how reforms are being implemented in the Indian higher education system. We also discussed the UGC draft regulations on foreign university campuses in India. We agreed that these regulations provide a great opportunity for India and Australia to work together in not only training the students but also working on joint collaborative research work," UGC Chairman Jagadesh Kumar said.
"We also discussed the need to use digital technology in higher education and India's effort in establishing a National digital university to provide high-quality education to Indian students in emerging areas," he added.