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PU working on twinning, joint degrees with foreign universities
The move of PU initiating the process for twinning and joint degree courses with foreign universities comes after the UGC in may notified its 2022 regulations
Looking to facilitate students’ study abroad, Panjab University (PU) has initiated the process for academic collaboration with the foreign universities.
The varsity recently asked its departments to identify and forward names of any two foreign universities with which they would like to collaborate to the office of the dean international students. The departments were told to indicate their interest in offering a degree or qualification in collaboration with a foreign university.
The move comes after the University Grants Commission (UGC) in May notified its UGC (Academic Collaboration between Indian and Foreign Higher Educational Institutions to offer Twinning, Joint Degree and Dual Degree Programmes) Regulations, 2022.
Twinning courses encouraged
PU’s dean international students Deepti Gupta said the UGC has begun a long-term improvement process for higher education by permitting and encouraging Indian universities to join hands with foreign varsities for twinning programmes.
“Twinning and semester abroad programmes will definitely raise the bar of Indian education. PU has already initiated twinning courses with its overseas partners and they should be firming up soon,” she said.
The regulatory body allowed academic collaboration between the Indian and foreign colleges to offer three different types of degree programmes — dual, joint and twinning degree programmes — to students from India and abroad. The UGC’s step is in line with the recommendation of the National Education Policy (NEP-2020).
Praising the initiative, Panjab University Teachers Association (PUTA) president Mritunjay Kumar said the departments could benefit from it, adding, “The departments can collaborate with good institutions of higher learning abroad and can attract good students also. it will also be a good step to improve the perception of the University.”
What are the UGC’s regulations?
The instance marks the first time that joint degrees are being permitted, but regulations allowing some of these initiatives were first announced way back in 2012 and modified in 2016. The previous versions, however, failed to attract many takers.
Under its new regulations, the UGC has also set eligibility criteria for Indian and foreign higher education institutions for collaboration. Any Indian higher educational institute must have a minimum National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) score of 3.01 or figure in the top 100 in the university category of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) or the top 1000 of Times Higher Education or QS World University ranking.
The foreign universities, meanwhile, should be in the top 1000 of Times Higher Education or QS World University ranking to be eligible.
