India, US to hold dialogue on higher education

India and the United States will hold a summit on higher education next week aimed at fomenting two-way students' mobility from India to US and vice-versa, a statement from the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (HRD) said Saturday here. It said the HRD minister M M Pallam Raju and visiting US Secretary of State John F. Kerry are to co-chair the dialogue on June 25 in New Delhi in which both sides will take up research and innovation partnership under Singh-Obama Knowledge Initiative, institutional partnership and skill development as well as promotion of community colleges in India and technology enabled education including massive open online courses. "The intended outcome also includes two-way students' mobility from India to USA and vice-versa. India and US will also take up linkage between industry and academia and faculty development. They are also expected to take up issues like post-doctoral research and co-operation in training for the school teachers," the statement added. Raju had visited the US last month for forging linkages and collaborations in the field of higher education. The educational relations have intensified between India and the US after the visit of the Prime Minister of India to USA in 2009 and reciprocal visit of the President of US Barack Obama to India in 2010. The first India-US Higher Education summit was convened in Washington, DC in October, 2011. Under the program, five community college principals/leaders will be sponsored for a visit to community colleges in the US for the leadership development. The two sides may also agree to promote cyber networks through IIT Delhi and University of Nebraska in the US.