Sibal-Burns talks focus on India-US education council

NEW DELHI: US under secretary of state William Burns on Thursday called on minister for human resource development Kapil Sibal to firm up the proposal for setting up an India-US Education Council. The HRD minister is generally not even a whistle stop for senior officials of the US State department. However, with the government signalling its keeness to open up the sector to foreign players, Mr Burns��� second visit in the span of four months is significant.

The meeting focused on the proposed Council. It will include representatives from industry and the education sector and will coordinate bilateral relations in education sector. Mr Sibal will be travelling to the United States later this month, ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh���s visit in November.

The areas of collaboration include research, distant education, vocational education, skill development, exchange of faculty, models of public private partnership and also expertise for the setting up of universities. The ministry is keen to tie up with the world���s leading universities to ensure that its ���innovation universities��� are a class apart from the pack. Mr Sibal would would like to firm up MoUs with leading US universities to collaborate with the proposed innovation universities. Among the American universities that are being approached are Yale, Standford and MIT. the proposed Council is expected to play on a role in helping such collaborations.

During his visit, Mr Sibal will meet with American policy makers which include senators and congressmen, government officials, and university officials. The framework of the proposed India-US Education Council is to be finalised in this visit.