Speaking at the inaugural session of Emerging Directions in Global Education (EDGE) 2010 conference on March 3, Mr. Kapil Sibal, HRD Minister, Government of India, informed the gathering that the Foreign University Bill has been cleared by the Cabinet and the discussion on the Bill for National Commission on Higher Education is expected to conclude by March end.

In his speech he stressed on the need for giving freedom to the universities and education institutions for them to develop ability to collaborate globally and find solutions to global problems. Mr. Sibal said, “Education through global collaboration can provide solutions to the global problems. But we will have to reform the structure to allow it to happen, and for that we need to give freedom to our universities and educational institutions.”

Dr. Martha Kanter Under Secretary, US Department of Education was the ‘ Guest of honour’. Other dignitaries present were Dr. Sam Pitroda, Advisor to the Prime Minister of India, Dr. V.S Ramamurthy, Director, NIAS, Prof. V.N Rajashekharan Pillai, Vice Chancellor, IGNOU, and Mr. Anand Sudarshan, MD & CEO, Manipal Education amongst many other prominent names in the education sector.

Dr. Kanter said that it was a time for both – US and India – to act and lead avenues in higher education. As the two largest democracies in the world it is their duty to educate maximum number of people. She said both the countries have common challenge to ensure access to education and improving quality. US was committed to work towards internationalizing education, she added.

Mr. Pitroda, in his lecture said that it was a time to question fundamental issues and a time to change in big way the education sector. He advised the gathering to stop talking and start taking acting now.

Expressing concerns over declining quality, he said in 90 per cent of our universities the quality was not up to the mark and needed to be improved substantially. He said expansion was also a key issue and the government was committed to open 14 universities of innovation and 400 new colleges. He said diversity was critical to innovation.

Elaborating on National Knowledge Commission’s ongoing programmes, he said it is focusing on tagging 100 billion people in the country as well as tagging establishments, places and programmes. With this “we will get better handle on better delivery systems,” he added.  

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