SYDNEY/MELBOURNE,22 August 2022: Australian Universities should set up campuses in India, is India’s Minister for Dharmendra Pradhan’s message to the Australian education sector. The Minister was addressing the 6th meeting of the Australia India Education Council (AIEC) with Australia’s Education Minister Jason Clare at the Western Sydney University (WSU) today. Mr. Pradhan also raised the issue of visa backlog on students in India that are hoping to come to Australia for international study.
The move to have foreign university campuses in India takes a cue from a step taken by China 30 years back. In fact, many universities in China offer international degrees and there are numerous Sino-foreign venture universities. The number of overseas Indian students in Australia is once again going up in the post-pandemic period. But the move to have Australian campuses in India could make Australian degrees cheaper and easy to obtain in India.
Watch l Education Minister @dpradhanbjp interaction with Australian Counterpart @JasonClareMP during 6th meeting of the Australia-India Education Council at Western Sydney University!@EduMinOfIndia pic.twitter.com/YK9VMsiMBI
— Prasar Bharati News Services & Digital Platform (@PBNS_India) August 22, 2022
Jason Clare, in a media release, says, ” Today, in the Council, we agreed to finalise the mutual recognition of education qualifications work that the Council has been doing by the end of this year, and I’m very hopeful to be able to visit Minister Pradhan in India by the end of the year for the conclusion of that work. We also are happy to announce today the establishment of the Australia Research Collaboration Hub, a half-million dollar investment to assist in the collaboration between Australian and Indian researchers online.
We’re also announcing today the Australia-India Research Student Fellowships Program, worth about $600,000, that will provide fellowships for 70 students and young researchers from India as well as from Australia, worth up to $10,000 each, to assist in the work that they do and in working in India and Australia. And then finally, the establishment of the Research Collaboration Grants Seed Funding for Australian researchers to collaborate with Indian counterparts.”
Answering to a journalist’s query about the Indian student’s backlog, Minister Jason Clare said, “It’s a serious issue. Indian students have paid up. They’re keen to come here. We want them here in Australia to be part of our higher education system. It’s why the Department of Home Affairs has put an extra 140 staff on to help speed up the visa processing task.
And we’re already seeing results. We’re seeing double the number of Indian students having their visas processed and approved in July as happened in June, but there’s still a backlog. There’s still more work that we have to do, and I’m working closely with Clare O’Neil, the Minister for Home Affairs on that task.”
Minister Pradhan also visited the Institute of Applied Technology at Meadowbank and Homebush West Public School. He will be in Melbourne on 23 August, with a busy schedule. Mr.Pradhan will visit the Kangan Institute & Deakin University in Melbourne, meet academics & leaders of Australian education & skilling ecosystem & the Indian diaspora in Melbourne
