Sibal, Hillary likely to co-chair Indo-US education summit

The two-day event seeks to explore opportunities and address concerns in the field of higher education.

The summit is part of the US-India cooperation on education which was agreed upon by the two countries in November 2009 during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh state visit to the US.

"The summit is scheduled to be held on June 15-16, 2011 in Washington with the HRD Minister and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expected to co-chair," said a HRD Ministry official as the Ministry held a round table meet here today in the run up to the meet.

The Prime Minister had disclosed plans to hold the summit during US President Barack Obama's visit to the country last year saying, "Cooperation in the field of education sector holds great promise because no two other countries are better equipped to be partners in building the knowledge economy of the future".

The HRD Ministry has announced constitution of five working groups, from among the industry leaders and academia, to identify specific areas of interest and avenues for cooperation with the United States.

Chairing the round-table meet here today, Sibal said the groups would work in the fields like 'building environment for institutional partnership', faculty development initiatives and academic leadership and in the field of 'academic-industry collaboration (institutional & research)' between both the countries.

Besides, the working groups would seek to develop mechanisms for knowledge partnerships, academic-industry collaboration and vocational and skill development.

The meet was attended by industry bodies like CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM and heads of various higher education institutions, with officials from the Ministry of External Affairs also joining the discussions, said a statement released by the Ministry.

The round table appreciated various initiatives already underway between the two countries like the Obama-Singh Knowledge Initiative, Yale-India Leadership Programme, Fullbright scholarships etc.

It favoured taking such partnership programmes further through an institutional bilateral mechanism with active participation of the Industry, the statement said.