New Delhi: India and the UK on Tuesday agreed to deepen their ties in the field of education with increased collaboration between academia and discussed about proposed innovation universities. Chairing the fourth UK-India Education Forum, both HRD Minister Kapil Sibal and UK Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts reiterated their support to the UK India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) buoyed by its success.
Both sides said that the key strands for UKIERI are to be jointly funded and these include leadership development, innovation partnerships, skills development and enhancing mobility, said an HRD Ministry official.
UKIERI also announced a total of 161 awards for 2011-12. Out of these, 67 are higher education partnerships involving over 135 institutions across the UK and India and 7 skills partnerships involving over 14 institutions. The ministers also acknowledged the work done by the `UK qualification recognition task force` under UKIERI and noted that credit transfers and mutual recognition is a key area of work and recommendations made by the task force will be supported on either side, the official said.
The ministers also discussed about the proposed innovative universities, a venture which the UK is keen to partner with. PTI