Efforts on to boost varsities' tie-up with foreign centres

After the notification of the Regulations in May, 2022, UGC wrote to all the Universities requesting them to enter into academic collaboration with eligible foreign HEIs. Response to the Regulations has been overwhelming and so far, 48 Indian Universities have shared that they have either engaged in academic collaboration with foreign HEIs or in the advanced stage of finalising the collaboration agreements. Out of these 13 Indian HEIs are offering Twinning, 8 HEIs are offering Joint Degree and 9 HEIs are offering Dual Degree Programmes.

26 Central Universities figure in the list of eligible Indian HEIs. So far, 8 Central Universities have responded to UGC sharing information on academic collaboration. These CUs are: Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University, Tezpur University, Jamia Millia Islamia, Central University of Haryana, Banaras Hindu University, Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Pondicherry University.

The MoU agreement for collaboration shall include provisions related to student obligations, fees and other financial arrangements, intellectual property rights, student's attendance patterns, duration of stay for the study programme in both the HEIs, joint supervision arrangements, language of thesis and examinations, admission and evaluation process and graduation procedures.

Currently, 230 Indian HEIS and 1256 foreign HEIS fulfil the eligibility criteria, as per the Regulations. The Regulations provide for Twinning, Joint Degree and Dual Degree Programmes. Twinning is a collaborative arrangement whereby students enrolled with an Indian HEI may undertake their programme of study partly in India and partly in the Foreign HEI. But the degree shall be awarded by the Indian HEI only.

Under Joint Degree programme, curriculum shall be designed jointly by the collaborating HEIs and degree shall be awarded by the partnering HEIs with a single certificate. Students must earn at least 30 per cent of the total credits from each of the Indian and Foreign HEIs. Under Dual Degree programme, degree shall be conferred by the Indian and Foreign HEIs, separately and simultaneously, upon completion of degree requirements of both the institutions.Students must earn at least 30 percent of total credits from the Indian institution.

The Regulations provide for transfer and recognition of credits. Buts credits earned by the students shall not be from overlapping course contents/curriculum. Programmes offered under these Regulations shall not be allowed in online and ODL mode. No franchise arrangement shall be allowed.

The Tata Institute of Social Sciences formally launched the 2022-2023 academic session of two new international dual degree programmes on September 12, 2022.

One dual degree is in collaboration with Monash University, Australia in the field of International Development Practice. The other dual degree is in partnership with Queen Mary University of London, UK, in the field of Social Entrepreneurship and International Business.

Not only are the two dual degree programmes the first of their kind to be offered in India, they are also aligned with the objectives of the National Education Policy 2020.

Universities are required to enter into academic collaboration with eligible foreign HEIs as per the provisions of the UGC Regulations only.

Eligibility

S Any Indian Higher Educational Institution which is accredited by NAACor any other Agency authorized in this behalf, with a minimum score of 3.01 on a 4-point scale at the time of application or which figures in the top 1000 of Times Higher Education or QS World University ranking or which figures in the top 100 in university category of NIRF.

S Any Foreign HEI figuring in top 1000 of Times Higher Education or QS World University ranking.