Ministry of HRD has allowed collaboration between A-grade Indian institutes and foreign educational institutes for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.
The government has now allowed Indian universities and colleges, with the highest grade of accreditation/ threshold accreditation, to have collaborative arrangement with quality foreign educational institutions (FEI).
The collaboration can happen for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. The degree will be awarded by the Indian educational institute with the name of the collaborating FEI indicated on the degree. However, the logo and primacy will be of the Indian institution. The Ministry of HRD has clarified that joint degrees will not be permitted.
“Credits from collaborating FEI when jointly signed by the IEI shall form part of the transcript. FEI may also sign the transcript/credit issued by the IEI,” a statement from the Ministry of HRD said.
An official communique from the Ministry of HRD says that this step has been taken by the UGC to promote foreign collaborations and increase synergy between Indian and foreign academic institutions. The objective is to offer students additional choices, improve curriculum and the delivery of knowledge and educational content.
The UGC has superseded its 2012 regulations with its new regulations for promoting and maintaining standards of academic collaboration between Indian and foreign higher educational institutions. The regulations will be notified shortly by the Ministry.
The amendments respond to a felt and aspirational need expressed by students to engage with FEIs of repute, study in part in these institutions and acquire a formal recognition of this in the degree and related transcripts.
For students who wish to study abroad, this will come at a much lower cost and also get the experience, exposure and academic benefits.
The HRD Ministry is of the view that this will offer unprecedented academic mobility through acquiring of credits and study at reputed institution abroad.
However, the regulations will not cover technical institutions, for which AICTE will leverage and bring out similar methodology and facilitative regulations.
The Ministry has also set a bench mark for quality for these collaborations. To maintain academic credibility and seriousness, a minimum duration of collaboration has been specified under one semester for postgraduate degree and 2 semesters for undergraduate degree.
Besides, the Regulations stipulate that only IEIs with ‘A’ grade or threshold accreditation (or IEIs other than governing institutions) should have experience of 6 years or at least 2 batches passed out will be allowed to collaborate with similar ‘A’ grade foreign institutes or threshold level accreditation.
The UGC will examine complaints relating to academic collaborations being run in violation of these regulations and appropriate penal action will be taken against the violators.
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