Australian varsities keen on setting up campuses in India: UGC

Australian universities are interested in establishing their campuses in India, the University Grants Commission (UGC) said on Thursday.

Two Australian universities have already decided to set up their campuses at the GIFT CITY in Gujarat. Now campuses of Australian universities might come up outside Gujarat as well. These proposals were discussed during a meeting between the Australian Education Minister and UGC officials here on Thursday.

Jason Clare, Minister of Education, Australia, and Barry O'Farrell, Australian High Commissioner to India, visited the UGC office on Thursday along with a 30-member team comprising vice-chancellors of more than 10 Australian universities and other high-ranked education officials.

After the meeting, UGC Chairman Jagadesh Kumar said, "We had a detailed discussion on how reforms are being implemented in the Indian higher education system. We also discussed the UGC draft regulations on foreign university campuses in India. We agreed that these regulations provide a great opportunity for India and Australia to work together, not only for training the students but also for joint collaborative research work.

"The vice-chancellors were very appreciative of the scale at which these reforms are being implemented. We also discussed the need to use digital technology in higher education and India's effort in establishing a national digital university to provide high-quality education to Indian students in the emerging areas."

Clare showed keen interest in the possibility of establishing Australian university campuses in India. Both sides decided to enhance India-Australia collaboration in the field of higher education, Kumar added. (KB/IANS)