On the EU India Cooperation on Higher Education
Opening of the Conference
on the EU India cooperation on Higher Education
Thursday 29 September 2016, 9am, India Habitat Centre (Stein Auditorium)
Hon'bl Deputy Chief Minister, Ambassadors, Hon'bl Vice Chancellors and dear friends from Indian and European universities.
I am very happy to be here and see old and new faces who have made, are making, and will make and reinforce further the rich institutional cooperation between India and the EU and its Member States in the field of higher education.
Cooperation between institutions of higher education and the exchange of scholars and students play a crucial role in enhancing mutual knowledge and better understanding of India and the EU, and of its people. I hope that today's conference and tomorrow's fair will strengthen this further.
The history of EU - India Education Relationships
EU and India have a long history of cooperation in education
Since the early nineties, the EU has been a partner in successive flagship programmes of the Ministry of Human Resource Development starting with the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP, 1993).
Today, cooperation in higher education and research is at the heart of our relations. At the last EU-India Summit in Brussels a few months ago, Prime Minister Modi, European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Juncker underlined that higher education is an important area of cooperation. It was agreed to strengthen such cooperation and increase exchanges.
Today's conference is an important step to promote better and deeper understanding of our higher education systems. And this conference comes at an important time of change for higher education especially here in India; with growing numbers of students, demands for quality and affordable higher education, the creation of centres of excellence, and new openings for international partnerships with top universities.
Europe offers many opportunities in this context. Let me mention the main ones.
Institutional cooperation through Erasmus+ programs
On the EU side, there are opportunities for
- student exchanges
- institutional partnerships amongst universities
- research partnerships
You will get detailed presentations about these programs and the funding opportunities later today by my colleagues, but let me just give you a few inspiring numbers about the achievements of these programs:
- Since their creation: about 4000 Indian students and scholars have received mobility grants and almost 1700 Indian researchers have benefited from grants since 2007.
- The EU has financed 15 projects of "EU/India study centers" that benefited directly 14 Indian universities and 12 European universities, which gave to thousands of students a better mutual understanding of India and the EU, as well as academic opportunities.
- Under the new Erasmus programs of international cooperation, the EU also finances Capacity Building projects, at the start in 2015, 6 Indian institutions received Erasmus grants for two projects. In 2016, already 36 Indian institutions from 12 states participated in 10 different projects, partnering with 37 European universities from 18 European States.
- The most recent Jean Monnet grants have recently been given a few months ago to distinguished Indian universities and professors from JNU and Manipal. Both are here in the room today and I wish to congratulate you on behalf of the EU!
In order to increase the number of Indian participation to these programs, the EU has partnered with the Association of Indian Universities in 2015 to organize a series of ERASMUS+ workshops aiming at informing higher education stakeholders institutions, including their staff, on funding opportunities for India-Europe mobility and cooperation, in particular on the objectives and modalities for the new application round (October 2016 to February 2017, the total budget earmarked for this call for proposals is estimated at 1,871 million euros). Last year we held workshops in Delhi, Chennai and Pune, and we are again beginning this year with a series of workshops in Chandigarh on 3 October & Jaipur on 4 October, then later in Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata and Ranchi.
But these are only the European Union tools, there are also numerous cooperations, exchange programs and financing opportunities between the individual 28 EU Member States and India and its 29 States, as well of thousands of agreements of different sorts directly between European and Indian universities. Hopefully, this conference and the fair tomorrow will bring more of such agreements.
But there is much more than these programs, and let me just mention 3 independent additional points that can bring some complementary and coherence to the EU / India overall cooperation on higher education, 1) our cooperation on research and innovation, 2) our informal policy dialogue and 3) the partnership with FICCI at their Higher education summit this year
Other aspects of Institutional cooperation
A) Research and Innovation:
I fully realize that the organisation of the Higher Education represents already a complex challenge of quality and quantity. I would add to that the importance for the Universities to fully consider the research and innovation dimensions, as it is important that professors and students get good possibilities to engage in research and get the time and credit for their research work.
For this it is important that the Universities put research high on their agenda. That they design a policy on which role they want to play in the society and contribute to addressing the societal challenges we face.
In Europe most research is produced by our Universities and the Universities that put research high on their agenda; specialise in research areas such as health, energy efficiency and mobility are the most successful universities in our research and innovation programme Horizon 2020.
India is a strategic partner for the European Union and this is reflected in our research programme Horizon 2020 which is open to participation of all Indian research universities and institutes.
B) On the higher education policy dialogue side, the EU and India have had regular informal dialogues on the reform agenda for higher education, which is as relevant as ever in India today.
Just one example: the EU is sharing with India its experience of building a more comparable, compatible and coherent system for European higher education in Europe. This is called the Bologna process, which is voluntarily implemented since 1999 in the wider European region (the 28 EU Member States plus 20 of its neighbours)
The Bologna process aims to create a system of academic degrees that are easily recognisable and comparable; promote the mobility of students, teachers and researchers; and ensure high-quality learning and teaching. It also supports the modernisation of education and training systems to make sure these meet the needs of a changing labour market. The Bologna reforms helped to make European universities and colleges more competitive and attractive to the rest of the world, and we offered to share our experience and lessons learned in India.
C) EU and FICCI: Another example of our institutional cooperation is the partnership of the European Union with FICCI, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, for the EU to be the main partner of its 2016 FICCI Higher Education Summit, one of the most important institutional meeting in India on higher education. The EU will bring a high level delegation from Europe, for there will be visibility for the EU at the ministerial opening ceremony, an EU-themed plenary session and workshop, and a large EU exhibition booth open to all EUMS wishing to strengthen institutional cooperations. This will be Thursday 10 to Saturday 12 November 2016, at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.
Let me end with a quick word on the European higher education fair
(4) Introduction to the EHEF fair
The education fairs are very useful tools to enhance the visibility and branding of European higher education institutions amongst the youth, academia, Indian Higher Education Institutions and the press. We are also increasingly organizing virtual fairs to reach out to more Indian students who are interested to study in the EU but cannot come to the physical fairs.
The last series of physical European Higher Education Fairs took place in New Delhi, Bengaluru and Kolkata in 2014, and the next one is tomorrow and Saturday in Pragati Maidan. It brings to Delhi more than a hundred universities from 26 out of the 28 EU Member States, and I know many of you will be there, amongst the thousand-plus expected visitors.
With this Conference and the fair, we hope that we can strengthen further rich cooperation of the European Union and India in the field of higher education.