JOIN US
The contours of the council were discussed on Thursday in a meeting between Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal and visiting United States Under Secretary for Political Affairs William J Burns.
Sibal is supposed to visit the United States next week and meet with policy makers, educationists and representatives from private institutions to discuss investment opportunities in education sector.
He will also approach them for collaboration in setting up 14 World Class Universities, one of which would be in Mysore. The Indo-US Council will comprise of industry leaders and academicians and will work on how to facilitate investment and collaboration of American institutions with Indian universities.
Stating that the United States was keen to set up an Indo-US council on education Burns said the American universities were enthusiastic to start their campuses in India and they want that the roadmap for their entry should be expedited.
The Foreign Education Service Providers’ Bill would be introduced in Parliament in the November session. Sibal said he will lead a delegation of industry leaders and university people to the United States on October 24.
He is scheduled to visit a number of institutions, including Harvard University, Yale University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and George Washington University. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is also scheduled to visit the United States in November.
Areas of preference
The preferred areas of collaboration are distance education, vocational training, research, skill development, setting up new universities, private-public-partnership and faculty exchange. There are a number of private players and universities from the US which are keen on investing in India, Sibal said.