British Council under the aegis of UKIERI has been actively working towards building sustainable partnerships in Education across India and the UK institutions through its various partnership initiatives. The success of these partnerships was reiterated during the recent visit of Pat McFadden, Minister for Department of Business, Innovation & Skills, UK who was in India on a four day visit from 13 February till 16 February and visited New Delhi , Chandigarh and Ropar.

Visit to Delhi University

Minister McFadden visited the Campus of Open Learning (COL), University of Delhi on 13 February to see the progress of Delhi University 's (DU) collaboration with Edinburgh 's Telford College , Scotland to develop & deliver a programme to increase educational opportunities in Media and Animation. The university is also working with Open University to improve teaching methods in science and vocational education by maximizing the use of technology. The visit included a roundtable discussion with key stakeholders on ‘India UK Partnerships in Education with specific focus on skill Development'. The participants included Joint Secretary-Ministry of Human Resource Development, Subhas Khuntia; Vice Chancellor-University of Delhi, Deepak Pental; Director Education, British Council, Sally Goggin; Director-Campus of Open Learning, Savita Datta; Faculty, Pearl Academy of Fashion, Rekha Dar; CEO, Learning Links Foundation, Anjlee Prakash; Vice Principal, South Delhi Polytechnic for Women, A M Banerji; Coordinator, Campus of Open Learning, Mamta Bhatia and Assistant Professor, University of Delhi, Veena Ghuriani . The panel unanimously opined the need for more initiatives like UKIERI to offer courses in skill upgradation of urban and rural youth in India to address the huge skills gap.

Minister Pat McFadden interacting with students at the Campus of Open Learning, University of Delhi and IIT, Ropar

The discussion was followed by Mr McFadden visiting labs on the campus for various skills based courses delivered at COL like medical transcription, automotive, retail management, computer animation, etc. This gave an opportunity for student interactions where students expressed their views on foreign education and value addition to their degrees. He also acknowledged the efforts made by Delhi University on all the work it is doing with its UK partners. He quoted “ As India embarks on a huge expansion of HE provision and skills development there is enormous potential for UK institutions to work with their Indian counterparts. It is too limited a view to think of the educational relationship between the UK and India as being purely about Indian students coming to study in the UK, important though that is for the students who do and for many of our universities. The greater potential is really for work between institutions and I am sure this will be a growing field in the coming decade”. In his keynote address, Mr McFadden reiterated the success of UKIERI in facilitating linkages between educational institutions in India and the UK . “Through the free movement of people, the free interchange of ideas, through mutual collaboration we can make sure people have the right skills to succeed in future. It was a real pleasure to meet and talk to the Indian students and their hunger for learning was tangible.”

Visit to Chandigarh

Minister Pat McFadden visited Chandigarh to attend a panel discussion on “India UK Partnerships in Education” on 16 February. The panel discussion highlighted the work that is being done by British Council through programmes like UKIERI, Connecting Classrooms, International Inspirations and Chevening scholarships etc which are working towards closer links between the two countries. The panel comprised of K B S Sidhu, Principal Secretary, Higher Education, Punjab who gave his opening remarks on the importance of international collaborations education with a focus on UK . Chevening Scholar Gautam Singal shared his view on how the international exposure which he gained through the scholarships helps in personal and professional grooming of an individual.

The collaboration experiences of working in a UKIERI partnership were shared by Ms Rashmi Vij, Police DAV School and Dr Moray Newlands, University of Dundee who shared views on best practises for working in a partnership with UK schools and institutions and the benefits that are accruing to faculty, students and school in working on a collaborative partnerships. Dr Sharda Kaushik, Director Regional Institute of English emphasised that learning English language helps in employment enhancement and makes an individual more employable. The Minister discussed the impact and outreach of collaborative efforts undertaken by the two countries in field of education across Higher education, schools and vocational education.

Minister Mr McFadden applauded the efforts that are being undertaken by the British Council.

The students & faculty of partner schools & institutions put up a striking display of their engagement with UK and enthusiastically shared their experiences and learning on collaborations.

Visit to IIT Ropar

The Minister also visited IIT Ropar to take forward the discussions from the recent Ministerial visit to UK on collaborations across a range of areas like faculty and student exchanges, joint research and academic collaborations, student internships etc. IIT Ropar has signed 2 MOUs with 3 UK universities- Imperial College London, University of Glasgow together with University of Strathclyde ( under the Glasgow Research Partnership in Engineering (GRPE)) to foster collaboration in research and research training, and in the development of research facilities, based on UK's experience.

Minister commented “The work IIT will be doing with our universities will open opportunities for students in India as well as in UK that would include student exchange programmes”. IIT director Prof MK Surappa acknowledged that this visit would further the engagement with UK universities and certainly benefit both faculty and student fraternity. The Minister and his team along with Ropar Deputy Commissioner Mr Priyank Bharti took a round of Computer, Electrical and Mechanical laboratories and interacted with students. Bhavi, a second semester student, said, “The establishment of IIT will certainly pull more multi national companies in the region that would simultaneously provide job opportunities to the students.”

The Minister later told media persons that he was excited about the steps being taken by India for expansion of higher education and he was taken with the “hungry to learn” attitude of students, with whom he interacted during his visit. His concluding remarks summed up the visit as extremely useful and productive- “Collaborations between the two countries are bringing in mutual gains and we both are ready partners in Education.”