Australia is exploring the opportunities to set up offshore campuses of its universities in India and considering mutual recognition of degrees by the two countries. The main aim of the move is to further the expansion of already close educational ties between the two countries.
In an interview, Australian Education Minister Dan Tehan said that the two issues were discussed in his meeting with the Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ''Nishank''.
The move is being considered as a significant one as the Indian government is mulling to give green light to the foreign universities for setting their campuses in India.
"We discussed whether we can promote offshore campuses of Australian universities and set up their campuses in India," said Mr. Tehan, who is in India on a three-day visit that ends on Friday.
"We also discussed whether we can look at the establishment of Indian universities'' offshore campuses in Australia so that it is a mutually-beneficial approach," the minister said.
The idea has been proposed in the Higher Education Commission of India Bill (HECI) and will be placed before the cabinet soon.
"We have begun the conversation on setting up offshore campuses in India and this is something both sides want to explore because Australia, through its offshore campuses, educates nearly a quarter of our international students," Mr. Tehan said.
"We are interested in making a progress on this, but there has to be reciprocity," he said. "We have also said this to the Indian side that if they want to explore an offshore campus in Australia, we will be prepared to look into that."
As per the official statistics, there are 1.09 lakh Indian students in Australia at present.