Bridge course for Indian students completing masters in UK

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Ahead of British Prime Minister David Cameron's visit to India, the HRD Ministry has approved a six-month bridge course programme which an Indian student has to pursue after completing his masters degree in UK universities.
Master degree programmes in UK universities are of one-year duration and therefore not accepted in India where there is a system of offering two-year post graduate programmes.
The UK has been raising this issue with India for long, demanding equivalency of degrees as close to 26,000 Indian students pursue master's degrees there.
The bridge course has been evolved keeping in mind the difficulties faced by students taking up higher eduction in India or enrolling into PhD programmes, sources in the HRD Ministry said.

Both the countries had hammered out a solution in the form of a bridge course earlier this year which an Indian student would take before applying for any government job, sitting for National Eligibility Test (NET) or doing Phd.
The contours and the duration of the programme were finalised on October 30 at a meeting chaired by Higher Education Secretary Ashok Thakur and attended by UGC Chairman Ved Prakash and senior ministry officials.
HRD Minister M M Pallam Raju had, during his visit to the UK earlier this year, assured of an early resolution of the issue. The Association of Indian Universities is understood to have strongly suggested the bridge course programme as the best alternative.