India and UK hold hands in education sector
Till now, it was always trade and investment or fighting terrorism that led India and UK to share the same path. But now, both the countries have joined hands to work in their education sector. During his high level visit to the UK last week, India’s Human Resource Development Minister, Mr. Kapil Sibal said that UK wants to “push forward” its relationship with India in the education sector and British universities are increasingly interested in coming to the country to collaborate like never before.
With Education as the key theme of his visit, the Minister gave a keynote address to an audience including dozens of education ministers from around the world at the Learning and Technology World Forum in London. He then also met the university vice chancellors and set out his vision for the expansion of India’s education sector.
On this issue of student visa laws being stringent, he said that the UK government has shown concern on this matter. He also said that the Indian delegation has been quite frank in putting their opinion on the visa case forward. He said that the UK government understands that if it doesn’t allow students to work in the UK, then it will lose its attractiveness.
On the issue of comparison between Indian and UK universities, Mr. Sibal said that it was very unfair to compare the Indian universities with that of UK. He said universities like Oxford and Cambridge were set up hundreds of years ago. Also, in India, premier institutions like IIT’s and IIM’s are government sponsored, whereas universities like Oxford and Cambridge have been set with private endowment. In context of the IIT’s, he said “Give it fifty years and it will be on top.”
The Minister also made a visit to the University of Surrey and the Imperial College of London. He said he felt both the institutions were ready to collaborate with India. He also ensured that UK universities will very much have a physical presence in India once they collaborate with their Indian counterparts. One thing that the Minister is keen on learning from the UK system is education for the disadvantaged. He made a special visit to the schools to understand better the school education system in the UK.