INDIA - NEW ZEALAND EDUCATION COUNCIL MEET

India and New Zealand signed five Memoranda of Understanding in the different fields of education. The MoUs were signed in the presence of Union Human Resource and Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal and New Zealand's Minister for Tertiary, Education, Skills and Employment Steven Joyce during the first meeting of the India-New Zealand Education Council. The Council has been constituted to draw up a framework and devise mechanisms of co-operation and set the agenda for improving educational relations between the two countries. India and New Zealand expressed their commitment to earmark US $ 1 million annually to enhance the cooperative activities through specific programmes designed by the India-New Zealand Education Council. The programmes will include joint research, student mobility, faculty development, qualifications framework as well as vocational education and training, among others. Six MoUs of cooperation between different institutions were signed during the meet: a) MoU between the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports of the Government of the Republic of India and Sport New Zealand of the Government of New Zealand on Cooperation in the field of Sports. The objectives of this MoU are to encourage and promote an exchange of programmes, experiences, skills, techniques, information and knowledge. b) Educational Partnership Agreement between University of Delhi, India and Massy University New Zealand. The MoU covers: Joint teaching (Including online, blended and distance education); Joint Quality Enhancement (Including benchmarking and academic development); Exchange of publications, academic material and students. c) Memorandum of collaboration between Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), India and the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand. Objectives of the partnership are: I. To establish a network of partnership for vocational education through distance education II. Sharing of experiences through communication of faculty III. Develop strategies for design development and implementation of Under Graduate and Post graduate programmes with entry and exit point. IV. Develop joint R&D project collaborations V. Create avenues for ICT enabled education VI. Establish interface learner space d) MoU between Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand and Jawahar Lal Nehru University of India to  Exchange of faculty members, students and conduct Joint Research activities and Joint Cultural Programmes. e) MoU between Waiariki Institute of Technology of New Zealand and Punjab Technical University, India for developing opportunities for fee paying  students to pathway onto Waiariki qualifications and/or obtain credit for courses towards a qualification at the Punjab Technical University The members of the Council recognized skill development, especially catering to the needs of the industry and keeping  pace with the exponential growth in global mobility of workforce, as one of the major challenges facing the two countries and pledged further collaboration. The mobility of students and workforce also necessitates parity in qualifications between various countries and therefore, the Council suggested early recognition of each other’s educational qualifications by India and New Zealand. The Council also noted the need to set up more institutions of excellence, for which enhancement of the quality of faculty is a key challenge. It was also agreed to collaborate in the Tribal Studies and preservation of languages, culture and traditional crafts.