The union cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in its meeting held on Wednesday granted ex post facto approval for the memorandum of understanding with the government of the United Kingdom on mutual recognition of academic qualifications signed on 25 April 2022.
Mutual recognition of qualifications between India and UK aims to promote academic collaboration and student mobility.
The MoU grants recognition to request from UK side to grant recognition to UK’s one year Masters programme. The meeting between the education ministers of the two countries held on 16 December 2020 in New Delhi had taken a decision to set up a joint task force for this purpose. The first meeting was held on 4 February 2021 and subsequently, after detailed deliberations and negotiations, both sides agreed on the draft MoU.
The MoU aims to facilitate the mutual recognition of educational qualifications, periods of study undertaken, documents related to academic degrees/qualifications and accreditation by educational institutions within the two countries. It will also facilitate establishment of joint/dual degree courses between higher education institutions, one of our objectives under NEP 2020 for internationalisation of education.
Professional degrees like Engineering, Medicine, Nursing and Para-Medical Education, Pharmacy, Law, and Architecture are out of the purview of this MoU.
This MoU will promote bilateral exchange of information about educational structure, programmes and standards and increase mobility of students and professionals between the two countries. It will also encourage other areas of cooperation in education sector, development of study programmes as mutually agreed upon by the parties.
This MoU recognises equivalence in accordance with parity with regard to acceptability of qualifications as approved under national policy, law, rules and regulations of the two countries.