Australia must identify new strategies like developing showcase projects of collaboration to increase its current share of five per cent in the Indian market forinternational students, a think tank here has said.
The Australia India Institute (AII)in a policy paper on 'engaging with India's higher education sector: pathways to improved the market access' said Australia urgently needs new strategies to increase its five-per centshare in the Indian market forinternational studentsby expanding areas of collaborations, developinga faculty teaching initiative programme onIndia in Australia and exploring opportunities of developing campuses in India.
The paper identified seven key initiatives for Australia to adopt in a bid to tap the Indian overseas student market.
It said therecommendationswouldserve as a game changer in India-Australia higher education relationship.
The Australian government and universities must develop showcase projects of collaboration,establish a set of faculty champions across India-Australia boundary, develop a faculty teaching initiative programme on India in Australia and propagate a philosophy of reciprocity and respect to underpin concrete initiatives, it said.
The papersuggested sendingdelegations to India to foster collaboration, develop a new system of qualifications recognition paralleling the British example and intensively investigate opportunities to develop campuses in India.
The paper said that unless Australia actedquickly in these and related spheres, it would lose ground to competitor countries such as the UK and the US.
It further noted that so far thecollaborations in the education field have been limited toscience, technology and engineering fieldsbut similar collaborations could be developedin the arts and social sciences.
Citing bottlenecks of the under-developed relation, it said thatdespite a plethora of MoUs between various Australian universities and Indian institutions,most of them lacked follow-up actions.
"Indian universities often hold Australia with suspicion, considering their motives to be purely economic," it said adding, "it is important to highlight Australia's interest in fostering a more robust set of relations within the university space, including research collaborations, sharing access to resources and working on global challenges."
It suggestedthat Australiangovernment should work with AII,Universities Australia and research-intensive Group of Eight (Go8) to develop a series of 'What Works' case studies, building on the recent successful experience of top universities likeDeakin, Monash, RMIT, Sydney and University of Melbourne, for example, in different spheres.
It also asked to identifyFive 'India champions' from within Australia and five 'Australia champions' within India whocould work alone and together to publicise the value of collaborating across the Australia-India space in terms of higher education.
