A MoU was signed between IIT Delhi and University of Nebraska of USA for colloboration in cyber system. Second one was signed between IIT Mumbai and edX, USA on massive open online courses (MOOCs). The third MoU was signed between All India Council of Technical Education and American Association of Community Colleges for setting up of community colleges in India. The fourth MoU was signed between ITM Group of Institutions and Montgomery College for cooperation in capacity building.

“We have begun the process of setting up community colleges in India. In Pune in Maharashtra one such college is functioning. Community colleges are design to impart vocational training to younsters in skill to help us to reap rich demographic dividend. We have taken this concept from US and adopted to our conditions, “ said the Indian Minister for Human Resources Development Dr MM Pallam Raju after co-chairing the third ndia-US Higher Education Dialogue alongwith the visting US Secretary of State John F Kerry here on Tuesday.

Raju informed that plans afoot to facilitate setting up of 200 community colleges.

Opening the dialogue process alongwith Secretary Kerry, Minister Raju emphasized the need to look for and work upon new avenues for collaboration so that the two countries could grow together as two leading knowledge societies in the world.

He emphasised his vision to transform the country’s educational institutions into hubs of knowledge creation and promoters of innovation as also provide opportunities to its youth for their skill development and employment.

The Minister said : “Overall during the XII Five Year Plan 2012-2017, we intend to achieve an additional enrolment capacity of 10 million students in higher education including one million in open and distance learning so as to raise the country’s Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in Higher Education from 18.1% at present to 25.2% by 2017 and reach the target of 30% GER by 2020.”

Raju also said that skill development and vocational education should be, in his view, an integral part of Indian education system and the role of business and industry would be of great relevance.

He expressed deep satisfaction at the initiatives taken recently and hoped that the Dialogue would provide more opportunities for mutual engagement.

Secretary Kerry in his opening remarks said the two countries need to focus on providing education, skills and cultural values to the children who form the most valuable part of the future world population.

He remarked that technology should be used as a tool to instill values in children so that they are able to use the information and education they receive for the betterment of the society and nation building.

Secretary Kerry also outlined the contours of the broad relations between the two countries upon which the Higher Education Dialogue need to be carried forward.

The India-US Higher Education dialogue has been very instrumental in strengthening educational collaborations between the two countries. President Obama and Prime Minister Dr. Singh have termed the collaboration between India and US as “defining partnership of the century” and have outlined that knowledge sharing is an important component of it. The major initiatives include enhanced two-way student mobility, research collaborations, faculty development, collaborations for establishment of Community colleges, collaborations for Cyber Systems, and Technology Enabled Learning including Massive Open On-Line Courses (MOOCs).

The major announcements made during the Dialogue include eight Joint Research partnerships under Singh-Obama 21st century Knowledge Initiative; announcing the final list of 126 Raman Fellows, supported by the University Grants Commission (UGC), who are ready to travel to US Institutions for Post-Doctoral research and “Connect India”

Programme aimed at inviting students from US institutions for short term courses in India.

Six students from US and India who are beneficiaries of Passport to India and Fulbright-Nehru Scholarship Programmes also shared their experiences.

The Dialogue, which has now become an annual event along with the India-US Strategic Dialogue, will be taken forward in the coming years for improved relations between India and the United States.

Earlier, before start of the India-US Higher Education Dialogue, Raju also had a very fruitful bilateral one-on-one meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry.

Both India and US agreed to deepen educational relations on a sustainable basis in the areas of skill development, learner centric technology integrated education, building human capital for meeting skill requirements at all levels from elementary to tertiary liberal education and establishing stronger and larger people and institutional linkages, Raman Fellowships should encourage more students for their post-doctoral studies.

A single-point nodal agency in select institutions would be created to meet the needs of international students and facultyto upgrade infrastructure.

Workshops should be conducted to promote twinning arrangements between Indian and US institutions as per UGC Regulations.

Best practices should be shared through joint workshops in the collaborative domains of community colleges, vocational education, MOOCs and other models of online education, UGC and AICTE to develop frameworks for using MOOCs.

UGC and AICTE should work with their counterparts in US to embed mechanisms for standard setting and quality assurance mechanisms and vocational education and skills.

There should be greater involvement of industry in both countries to develop strong industry-academia linkages.

Both sides should develop better understanding of mutual strengths and leverage them to mutual advantage for sustainable relationships across the three major themes discussed working sessions, namely on research collaborations and student-scholar mobility; community colleges; and technology enabled education.