A move is afoot to make degrees awarded by Indian universities more acceptable by foreign universities and the international job market, by making admission procedures for students uniform and streamlining selection criteria of faculty members.
"Discussions were held in this regard between top academicians of the country and their counterparts in the US and Europe at a conference of educationists held in Washington DC in May 25-30," vice-chairman of the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) M D Tiwari told PTI.
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Tiwari had led a high-powered Indian delegation to the annual conference of Association of International Educators (NAFSA). "At the conference, issues like mutual recognition of degrees and providing facilities to students of India and the partnering nations of NAFSA, which has its network spread across over 150 countries, were discussed while keeping in view the objectives of AIU," Tiwari, who is also the Director of Indian Institute of Information Technology Allahabad (IIIT-A), and is likely to take over as the Chairman of AIU shortly, said.
"A consensus emerged for strict adherence to the principle of uniformity in maintenance of requisite qualifications in the selection procedures for teachers, particularly in the fields of medical and engineering. Besides, the need for bringing uniformity in fee structures was discussed," he said. "Educational experts were in favour of uniformity in fee structures as huge difference in fees charged from foreign and domestic students by universities was hampering proliferation of education," he added.
"This was the first instance of AIU, in its history of sixty years, having attended the NAFSA annual conference. Undoubtedly, this is an indication of the growing recognition of Indian education system," Tiwari said. "If the keen interest shown by representatives of top ranking universities of Europe and America in developing a database of efficient workforce for academics is any indication, we are on our way to achieving greater recognition for our universities and acceptability for our students. The negotiations will also go a long way in overcoming the dearth of qualified teachers being witnessed by the centres of excellence world over," Tiwari added.