New Delhi: University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) have issued regulations/guidelines on collaboration between Indian and Foreign Universities with a view to increase synergy between Indian and foreign academic institutions; to offer students additional choices and; to improve curriculum and the delivery of knowledge and educational content.
The UGC has notified the UGC (Promotion and Maintenance of Standards of Academic Collaboration between Indian and Foreign Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2016 in the official gazette on 11th July, 2016. As per the Regulations, Indian Universities and Colleges having the highest grade of accreditation/threshold accreditation, and conforming to other eligibility conditions as laid down in the Regulations, can apply online to the UGC for starting twinning arrangements with reputed Foreign Educational Institutions (FEIs) having the prescribed quality. The Regulations provide for time-bound processing of the online applications received by UGC. Other details of the Regulations are available at www.egazette.nic.in /www.ugc.ac.in .
AICTE has issued guidelines on Collaboration and Twinning Programmes between Indian and Foreign Universities / Institutions in the field of Technical Education, Research and Training. As per the guidelines, accredited FEIs and AICTE approved IEIs with prescribed quality can enter into a bipartite agreement/ Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) after getting necessary approvals from AICTE and fulfilling other conditions as laid down in the guidelines. Eligibility parameters, conditions and approval procedure for such collaboration, as contained in the AICTE Collaboration and Twinning Programme Guidelines, are available at www.aicte.org.
Seven Twinning/ Foreign Collaboration proposals have been approved for the Academic Year 2016-17. List of Institute-wise AICTE approved Twinning/ Foreign Collaboration proposals for the AY 2016-17 is as under:
| Sl. No. | Indian Institute | Foreign University |
| 1. | Gandhinagar Institute of Technology, Ahmedabad | DE Montfort University, Leicester, U.K. |
| 2. | Daly College Business School, Madhya Pradesh | DE Montfort University, Leicester, U.K. |
| 3. | Universal Business School, Maharashtra | Cardiff Metropolitan University |
| 4. | Institute of Hotel Management, Maharashtra | University of Huddersfield, U.K. |
| 5. | GMR School of Business, Telengana | Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto, Canada. |
| 6. | S.R. International Institute of Technology, Telegana | University of Massachusetts |
| 7. | Ansal Technical Campus, Uttar Pradesh | Valiparaiso University, USA. |
A Task Force was constituted under the Chairmanship of Prof. M. M. Sharma vide this Ministry’s Order dated 22nd March, 2005 with regard to assess scientific research in Universities. The Terms of Reference (ToR) of the Task Force were to (i) assess the status of basic scientific research and training in universities, (ii) suggest solutions and strategies to retrieve and enhance the excellence of the universities and (iii) assess resources required to implement the recommended solutions along with their modalities. To re-assess the present status of basic scientific research and training in universities, the Task Force has been reconstituted under the Chairmanship of Dr. Anil D. Sahasrabudhe, the then Director and Professor, College of Engineering, Pune on 25th November, 2014.
This information was given by the Minister of State (HRD), Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey today in a written reply to a Rajya Sabha question.
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