Scotland seeks better collaboration with India in higher education

October 12th, 2009 NEW DELHI - A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) and its Scottish equivalent, Universities Scotland, to promote cooperation between Indian and Scottish higher education institutions. Highlighting the significance of this occasion to both countries, the signing of the MoU was witnessed by Ashok Thakur, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India and Michael Russell, Minister for Culture, External Affairs and the Constitution, Scottish Government.

October 5th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Education should be a liberating process, not something "which constricts you", president of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations Karan Singh said here Monday. Singh was delivering a lecture on The Four Pillars of Education to mark the collaboration between IILM, a management institute and a Kolkata-based think tank, Global India Foundation.

September 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Public Private Partnership (PPP) model is being looked at for some of the Innovation Universities that are to be set up by the Government (the 11th Five Year Plan proposes the establishment of 14 such universities aimed at world class standards). The Government is already in the process of involving a PPP model in school education, said Union Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal while meeting with Minister for Trade, Investment and Business of the United Kingdom, Lord Mervyn Davies.

September 1st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Australia's Deputy Prime MInister and Minister of Education, Ms Julia Gillard launched an ICT Enabled Diploma of Primary Education at the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in New Delhi. Developed as a result of a 12-month collaboration between IGNOU and Australia's Queensland University of Technology, the diploma program will provide an understanding of the primary school curriculum, and the skills required to implement it effectively.

August 31st, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Centre has called upon States for support and partnership to ensure educational reforms in the country. Addressing the inaugural session of the 56th Central Advisory Board on Education (CABE) meeting in the national capital on Monday, Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal underlined expansion, inclusion and excellence as the three underlying principles for educational reforms.

July 24th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal on Friday asked all state governments to provide a detailed report of their objectives in the field of higher education by 2020 within a three month deadline. "In the next three months...each state must give its vision as to what it wishes to do by 2020 in the filed of higher education," he said at a conference here attended by higher education secretaries of states," Sibal said.

July 24th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal will inaugurate a one-day meeting of principal secretaries/secretaries of higher education and technical education of State Governments and Union Territories here today. This annual conference has on its agenda different subjects within higher and technical education such as the National Mission of Education through ICT and matters related to polytechnics under coordinated action for skill development.

July 16th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor Thursday said India needs to have more institutions of higher education. "Union Minister Kapil Sibal made a spirited speech defending higher education in the country in the parliament.

June 24th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Stating that the government was committed to improve and reform education standards in India, Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal said Wednesday an apex panel on higher education will be formed soon. The autonomous National Commission for Higher Education and Research, which will encompass in itself the existing professional councils and regulatory agencies, including the University Grants Commission (UGC), the Medical Council of India and the AICTE, will be formed within the first 100 days of the new government, Sibal told reporters.

June 24th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Saying the government was committed to improve education standards in India, Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal said Wednesday a new apex panel on higher education will be formed soon. The National Commission for Higher Education and Research, which will encompass in itself the existing professional councils and regulatory agencies, including the University Grants Commission (UGC), the Medical Council of India and the AICTE, is likely to be formed within the first 100 days of the new government, Sibal told reporters.

June 19th, 2009 NEW DELHI - At a time when scores of foreign educational institutions are queuing up to woo Indian students, leading industry lobby Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Friday said it will showcase Indian higher education and its rich variety at Kuala Lumpur. The CII, with the support of the high commission of India, is organising the India Education Fair 2009 during June 20-21, the industry lobby said.

June 17th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Knowledge Commission Chairman Sam Pitroda on Wednesday stressed on the importance of a single regulatory body to decide matters pertaining to higher education. "I think in higher education what we really need is now some kind of a higher education commission, council, regulatory authority to create level playing field.

June 12th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The United Arab Emirates Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan met the Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Farooq Abdullah on Friday, for collaboration in the renewable energy sector. "Since ages, India has had good relations with UAE.

June 11th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India and the US will set up a joint working group to boost bilateral relation in the field of education, it was announced Thursday after a meeting between Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal and the US Under Secretary William J. Burns. The group will be headed by Sibal and US Secretary of Education, and it will meet once a year alternately in India and the US.

June 5th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Promising jobs with partnering industries, Scottish universities have managed to triple the number of Indian students heading there for higher education in the last five years, university representatives said here Friday. Enrolment in Scottish universities by Indian students has tripled over the last five years, said Caroline Boddie, senior international officer for southern and central Asia at the University of Glasgow.