New NEP to help provide affordable, quality education to students: Pradhan

Several provisions outlined in the new NEP which are aimed at internationalisation of education will help in providing students affordable and quality education, Union Education Minister said

Several provisions outlined in the new NEP which are aimed at internationalisation of education will help in providing students affordable and quality education, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Thursday.

"Lot of students from India are interested in going for higher education overseas, famous destination is US, UK or Australia. The new National Education Policy (NEP) has provisions which focus on internationalisation of education and multidisciplinary education," Pradhan said in his address during the US-India Business Council (USIBC) India Ideas Summit.

"Under the new NEP, we want to invite global education institutions, some of our Indian institutions can collaborate with prestigious US institutions. In that way number of students will be benefited in a bigger way," he added.

Pradhan said when foreign universities will come to India, they will have to tie up with an Indian university or they can open up on their own as well.

"That will create new scope for our Indian students by giving them affordable and quality education. Personally I am very impressed about research capability of American universities which is a driving factor in its economy," he added.

The Education minister said India and the United States are very "dependable" and "reliable" strategic partners but time has come to scale it up.

"We are open to exploring academic partnerships and the NEP is giving policy framework for that only. We also have to catch up with the rapidly changing job natures and requirement of skills.

"We have a robust number of higher education students who need skilling, reskilling and upskilling to compete in the global job market and be in the ecosystem," he said.