Offices In Diplomatic Outposts To Help Global Varsities Set Campuses In India-US

At a time when India is preparing to admit international institutions into the country, a joint task force comprised of stakeholders from the United States and India has recommended the construction of specialised offices within their respective diplomatic outposts. These offices will help international universities establish branch campuses in each other's countries.

This preliminary advice is one of the achievements of the joint task team, whose efforts and suggestions were acknowledged in a joint statement made Friday following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with US President Joe Biden. Pennsylvania State University president Neeli Bendapudi, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign chancellor Robert J. Jones, University of California San Diego chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla, University at Buffalo President Satish K. Tripathi, and Johns Hopkins University provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs Sunil Kumar (who is set to become Tufts University president on July 1) represented the American members of the committee. According to the joint declaration, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) were on the Indian side. This group was entrusted with investigating new areas of collaboration and "new models of engagement" between US and Indian institutions.

The establishment of joint research institutes focused on societal and scientific "grand challenges," as well as increased people-to-people exchanges between higher education institutions in India and the United States, are among the interim recommendations mentioned in the White House's joint statement released on Friday.