Melbourne: At the Australian International Education Conference here, Union Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, emphasised India's growing role in global education, highlighting its transformative National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. In his speech, he celebrated the deepening ties between India and Australia, especially in the education sector.
Australian Education Minister Jason Clare pointed out that by 2035, one in four people globally earning a university degree will receive it from India.
Pradhan underscored the importance of preparing students for a future where they are creators and managers of technology.
Clare highlighted the longstanding presence of Australian universities in India, such as Deakin University, which has been operating in India for over 30 years, and more recently, the establishment of a campus by the University of Wollongong.
During his visit, Pradhan held bilateral meetings with his Australian counterpart, focusing on early childhood care, teacher capacity building, and potential school twinning initiatives.
Both ministers expressed their commitment to further strengthening this bilateral partnership in emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, renewable energy, and other critical technologies, an official statement said.
Pradhan’s visit to various Australian educational institutions, including the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) and Monash University, further solidified these ties. At RMIT, he explored the Discovery to Device med-tech facility, which fast-tracks ideas into products, showcasing the type of innovation that India’s NEP aims to foster, it said.
Similarly, at Monash University, which has welcomed Indian students since the 1960s, Pradhan engaged with the university’s research ecosystem and discussed plans to enhance educational cooperation with India through the institution’s New India Plan, the statement added.
