Press conference - India
SHRI DHARMENDRA PRADHAN: Welcome friends from media. Let me introduce my colleagues, Mr Honourable Minister Jason Clare, Minister for Education Government of Australia. To my right, Mr Andrew Giles, Honourable Minister for Skill and Training, Government of Australia. This is Julian Hill to my left, Assistant Minister for International Education, and two of my important colleague, Mr Jayant Chaudhary, Minister of State Education and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, and Mr Sukanta Majumdar, Minister of State in Education Department.
Friends, today we have successfully completed the third Australia‑India Education and Skill Council. Previously it was known as Australia‑India Education Council. Since last two meeting, consciously both the governments decided to expand the scope of our bilateral discussion up to skill, because we believe for the new age economy, I quote Prime Minister Narendra Modi-ji, "Degrees are important, but competence is much more than that".
Looking into this spirit both of our main conscious decide our bilateral discussion with the framework of education and skill. Today, we have a very successful meeting since morning. As you can see, the high-level delegation led by Minister Clare, Minister Andrew Giles and Minister Julian Hill; many Vice‑Chancellors, many Deputy Vice‑Chancellors; educationers and senior bureaucrats of Government of Australia as a part of this bilateral discussion. From our side, [indistinct] three important officials from our Government, Secretary School Education, Secretary Higher Education and Secretary Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Department and [indistinct] department. And Department of [indistinct] Ministry and Department of [indistinct] statutory and regulatory body of Government of India, they link to later to education and skills.
Firstly, I will highlight few important outcome of this meeting from the education side and my colleague, Mr Chaudhary will highlight few important outcome of the skill set. Then both our colleagues from Australia will also respond to some of your queries. Let me put some points.
First, one of our important outcome to this delegation was in the early childhood care and education area, the collaboration between the Government of India's academic bodies, CBSE, and Australian Qualifications Framework in the area of teachers for early education and childhood education, professional development of augmenting of competency of teachers between. Another outcome was agreement between NCT and Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. These are two important outcome we have delivered today, completed today.
And I'm pleased to say that we're also exploring the possibilities of setting up few more CBSE-affiliated schools in Australia pertaining to our growing India diaspora and demands of CBSE syllabus in school system due to STEM education across the world. Because nowadays the CBSE is getting traction due to STEM education in all parts of the globe. So, Australia is also - we're entering the Australian education ecosystem.
Friends, today we have hand over the letter of intent to one of the prestigious institute – a university of Australia. If I could, this is not only limited to Australia. This is the world’s twentieth ranked university, the New South Wales University of Australia, from Sydney, which is my colleague Minister, Mr Jason Clare is alumni of that prestigious university. That university is very soon coming to India to [indistinct] campus at Kharnatak in Bengaluru city.
This is seventh, [indistinct] Already, there is six universities already open there ‑ two of them are already open their campus in India - Wollongong and Deakin in GIFT City of Gujarat. Four more universities with five campuses in the different part of country have opened - they have taken LOI from our system. And seventh one, the prestigious one, the University of the New South Wales, today we hand over the LOI in the presence of my colleague Ministers, and that university campus will offer industry focus undergraduate and post‑graduate program in business, media, computer science and data science, and cyber security.
This program aligns closely with the needs of the future‑ready India and the globe.
Friends, today also we discuss about sports curriculum. Australia is good at sports. Today we decided to collaborate in the area of sports curriculum from school to higher education level – sports technologies, sports techniques, and curriculum in the school areas – because of both of us have a common aspiration. Australia is going to host 2032 Olympics in Australia, and India is pitching for 2036 Olympics, and India is again going to organise 2030 Commonwealth Games.
So, Prime Minister Modi has a vision to massive capacity-building on sports, [indistinct] India, [indistinct] India, [indistinct] program, now became a mass movement in Indian system within youngsters. Australia is a natural partner in this area, so that today in our Education Skill Council meeting, we have deliberated in detail about the future investment area of sports.
And the two important schemes, SPARC and [indistinct] these are the ongoing research exchange program between the both the countries, as you all witnessed this important program just few minutes before. Indian academia will go to important Australian university and institutions for the purpose of study and research. This will be funded in a [indistinct] for around 100 crores spending will be there on these schemes from the Government of India side, and the Australian Government to host these [indistinct] university, to host these programs in Australian facilities.
Friends, in conclusion, I will say two things. Both the leaders, Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Albanese have a very excellent cordial relationship and mutual trust and understanding to create a special relationship between India and Australia. I'm thankful to my colleague, Mr Clare, Mr Giles and Mr Hill for participating in this discussion, and I'm thankful to my own colleagues, Mr Chaudhary and Mr Majumdar and all my senior colleagues from both the sides for this successful third AIESC meeting organised at Delhi, and today one of the important decision we have taken, foundation has been laid. Now, the meetings that deliver us [indistinct] goal twice and more specific outcome will be expected from our deliberation. Thank you friends.
JAYANT CHAUDHARY: Thank you. My Senior Minister just outlined some of the specific outcome that have come out of today's deliberations, and I would just like to state that this forum, the third such meet, is a signal of the warmth and trust of relations between our two countries and our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
In our day‑long deliberations today, apart from our engagement just before this press engagement was, we also held bilateral meetings, and a lot of free‑flowing conversation and ideation also happened.
But I would also like to thank officials from both side that have regularly worked in between these events to ensure that these engagements are productive, and things that get literally decided, there is a date of expiry and we're able to work together and achieve those outcomes.
In the space of skills, those skills is not, as Honourable Minister Pradhan just said, in view to be separate category, it is part of our education framework and it is a mandate given to us by National Education Policy, NEP 2020, that we do not look at skills in isolation, but in fact look at it from school, higher education and then a vocational ecosystem. But I would still like to point out that today remarkable achievements have been made by both sides coming together and having deliberations.
Firstly, our institution‑to‑institution mapping and creation of a collaborative network is a significant achievement. Three MOUs between our Skill Council, between higher education institutions, between the relevant trading partners in Australia have been exchanged in front of you.
Also on Mutual Recognition Qualification Framework, which was agreed to in 2023, and I think that has now served as a great example where we are able to work with other governments where we have agreements in place and partnerships that we are looking to improve upon, where we posit this achievement between India and Australia as a way forward.
So I think on the MRQ, we are both in agreement that we need to operationalise it [indistinct]. Already in the space of agriculture, our Skill Council and the Joint Working Group between the two countries has been able to create a number of occupational standards, and now it is time for the education training partner ecosystem to really take those courses up and ensure that the students have a flexible pathway to utilise the qualifications that are in place.
An important agreement on both sides that I think both sides are of the view that sports is a strategic area, an important area to focus on, with a positive impact on youth development, with India's young demography, with both countries looking to host key global marquee sporting events. There's a lot of learning that both countries will have to undergo and will experience in the hosting of such events.
In the Indian context, recent studies have pointed out that the sports and physical wellness industry has a potential in the next two decades to grow up to about two per cent of our GDP. So there's immense economic potentialities, immense potentialities for workforce development, for skilling, for education, and therefore starting from school to higher education – and even viewing sports as a skill, whether it's a trainer, whether it's the hosting economy, the gig economy, the event management, whether it's sports science – all of these different verticals and subjects need intervention. And therefore I think both sides are of the view that our collaboration on sports and education framework must be strengthened upon.
Also, the whole issue of employability skills, creating a joint research, understanding the employability metric as it applies to different industry verticals, that is a core issue that we discussed. And then facilitating exchange programs between teacher training for our young students and our [indistinct], to go to Australia to experience how the TAFE education system works, and similarly to open our ecosystem up for opportunities for Australian students to come in and look at what industry, Indian industry looks at employability and how it approaches the actual vocational skills.
All of these deliberations have been very fruitful, but like our Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan has said, these are all discussions that will yield even more outcomes going ahead.
This is indeed a unique platform, as Minister Clare also pointed out in our meeting, that perhaps no such mechanism or platform or interaction or high‑level meeting or engagement exists for India with any other country. I think that's a sign of how deep our relationship is, and also a sign of the great potential we have to work together.
Thank you.
PRADHAN: Dear friend, Australian Minister Jason Clare to say a few words.
JASON CLARE: Thank you, Dharmendra. This is unique. Australia doesn't have this sort of relationship when it comes to education with any other country in the world, full stop.
And to give you evidence of that, you just need to look at the stage. Three Education Ministers who have come to Delhi for this meeting, but bringing with us a delegation of half a dozen Vice‑Chancellors, of a half a dozen Deputy Vice‑Chancellors, the key regulators of our education system in Australia, across the board, across all parts of education, and including the Secretary of my Department whose birthday it is today. Happy birthday again, Tony.
But also look at the other side, and the seniority and the experience on the Indian side of the table. There is nothing like this that Australia experiences with any other country in the world when it comes to education.
This is my third visit to India as Education Minister in three and a half years. This is our fifth meeting in that period of time. And with every meeting it gets better, it gets stronger, it gets deeper, the trust between our two nations, our two systems just gets better and better and better.
When we first met our conversations were about higher education, and about international education. Dharmendra came to the University of New South Wales in late 2022 and made a speech, I talked about this this morning, where he told us about the NEP, this audacious plan to skill up the nation, transform the Nation of India, and he asked for Australia's input and support and assistance. And Australia has responded. And I thank you for placing your trust in us, Dharmendra.
I understand 19 universities, international universities, have been given letters of intent to establish campuses so far in India. Seven of those are Australian; seven of the 19, so I think that is a sign, or the evidence, if you need any, of the strength and the depth and the seriousness of our relationship and the trust between our two nations and our two education systems.
But it's not just in the area of higher education. What, Dharmendra, you have done in expanding this meeting to include skills, and in our last meeting the decision we took to expand it to look at early education and schools as well, meant that today in our conversation we looked at all parts of the education system.
We looked at it as a whole system, and we asked our officials to make sure that when we come back in 12 months' time there is more work that we've done on early education, on school education, on vocational education and in higher education, and in particular, as we've all said, in the area of sports education.
And let's not forget research, give me a copy of that report, please. And this terrific piece of work, the Australia-India Institute Shared Pathways For Research Futures a guide here to help collaboration between universities here in India and here ‑ in Australia and here in India, we launched that framework today as well.
And Dharmendra, when you travel to Australia next year, and hopefully all the ministers travel to Australia next year, we're looking very much forward to hosting you and looking at all the work that we have accomplished over the last ‑ over the next 12 months, but also hoping to take you to visit the first Hindu primary school in Australia, which, it's extraordinary that it doesn't exist at the moment given that there are now more than a million Australians who can trace their heritage back to India, and lots of Hindu temples in Australia, not one Hindu school. That's about to change. Construction will start very soon and looking forward to taking you to see the school when you make it to Australia next year.
ANDREW GILES: Thank you, Dharmendra. As Jason said, this is a unique forum, it's unique in that it brings together our two nations in a way that we don't do with any others, and it also has a really shared long‑term vision for each of our countries and for both of our countries building on the trust and respect which has always existed but which isn't taken for granted and which is built through engagements like this.
Unlike Jason, this is my first visit to Delhi in this capacity, and I'm privileged to be here because Dharmendra has expanded this Council to include every element of the education system and to work closely with Minister Chaudhary has been a privilege; to build on discussions which took place in Australia last year, to see real progress towards them, but also to think beyond that progress. And some of the issues which have already been touched upon I think are worthy of restating. The work that's being done to deepen our people‑to‑people links in the skills base is vital.
We've had some innovative new ideas come up today, which I look forward to working through and building on. The work between our regulatory bodies is so fundamentally important. Much has been done by officials, there is real energy about building on that, to build on the MRQ process, to really put it from concept to execution in a really practical sense, to build on that work.
I'm excited about the opportunities that are presented by the Centre of Excellence that's being progressed in Odisha State. I think that is a symbol of an important area of shared understanding and progress, and we've seen that in related MOUs between our countries just announced, but it's also a symbol of how in technical education we can really deepen our partnership to build on the work that's done well in both countries, to build on the shared aspirations that elevate vocational and technical education, and indeed to bridge the gap between what has been considered technical education and the higher education pathways.
Everyone has mentioned sport, and I'll mention it again because it has been a critical feature of our conversations, again at every stage of the education journey. There are opportunities that are being explored today that will identify further opportunities in this regard.
And perhaps finally, I might end by saying the discussions today show a shared commitment, a shared commitment to do jobs of today, to build for the jobs of tomorrow, to make sure that the opportunities that are present in both of our labour markets can be met and achieved more efficiently and with a deeper understanding of what works for each of us and for both of us.
JOURNALIST: Sir, a brand new campus of [New] South Wales University – when will start in India, and what would be the focus area? That is my first question. And another one is, sir, how many CBSE school will be opened in Australia?
PRADHAN: Don’t come to any conclusion. Today we agreed to open more CBSE-affiliated schools, today we agreed to do that. Both regulators and both the Government and the [indistinct] and both the [indistinct]. Don’t get into targets. Number two, today we exchanged the letter of intent from UGC, and University of [New] South Wales. Today we did a record time. They are planned in the month of June 2025, today we got LOI. Very soon I hope by next academic year the course will start.
CLARE: And some of the courses include business, media, computer science, and cyber security.
JOURNALIST: Hi, sir, this is Vishwadhana from ANI, as you saw several agreements and MOUs were exchanged today. I just want to know, was labour mobility discussed a part of this framework, and if it was discussed, will these agreement increase the mobility of Indian students and [indistinct].
PRADHAN: Labour mobility is not part of our delegation of responsibility, but certainly labour mobilisation is there between India and Australia. The competent ministries, the Trade and Commerce Ministry, they have successfully deepened that. Our role is to create the capacity. Today, what we did – we created the capacity from both the side. To cater - one thing I'd like to mention - one of the agreed thing what we have a few years back; we have developed a collaborative model of recognition - Mutual Recognition of Qualification, MRQ. Today, Australia-India MRQ standards becoming the global standards for many other bilateral agreements. This kind of things we are organising from this kind of deliberation.
JULIAN HILL: Just on labour mobility, I might just use this to promote an agreement that Australia has only with India. There's no other country in the world that we have this agreement, and that's called the MATES Program. It grants up to 3,000 visas to early career professionals or graduates from high‑quality Indian universities in certain disciplines, including science, IT, STEM, and so on, to apply for a visa to come to Australia for one, two or three years, and work in those fields.
It's open for another two weeks, so we would say to any young Indians that meet that criteria, please put in an expression of interest. We know that there will be more interest than the number of places, and so for anyone who meets the quality and the requirements there's a ballot, and they're invited to apply. But this is an agreement that we only have with India. There's no other country that is eligible for this special MATES visa, given the relationship between our two countries.
JOURNALIST: Good afternoon, Ministers. I am Thanushka from [indistinct]. My question to you is with respect to the Centres of Excellence in Disaster Management and Resilience. Could you share details as to how would Australia be exactly contributing to the Centre of Excellence, first. Secondly, when can we expect it to be actually inaugurated? And third, with respect to disaster management, will Australia bring in their expertise, of course, but will there be funding as well?
PRADHAN: Let us not get into the details today. [indistinct] deadline. It is an agreement [indistinct words] mature [indistinct words]. It is an evolutionary thing. We discuss, we deliberate, we recognise mutual capacity from both sides in many area, not only disaster mitigation - in many area starting from early childhood education care to advanced research, to cyber security, we have mutual agreement in many area, and in many MOUs and many ‑ you might have seen few MOU between two university from Indian side and institute from the Australian side. Many mutual agreements are already working, many more has to be decided, many more are in pipeline.
JOURNALIST: Hello, sir, I'm Krithika Tiwari from Times Now. My ‑ I have two questions, first, what new initiatives through this collaboration can we expect in the smoother mobility of students and researchers both between India and Australia? And secondly, we have heard about how lead institutions are partnering. Can you also expect the same sort of partnership, because you also underline how there are multiple benefits to it. These partnerships to percolate to more regional and more vocational institutions as well.
PRADHAN: As my colleague, Mr Jayant Chaudhary has already mentioned, the prestigious institution from Australian side, TAFE, is aligning with many IT ecosystem of our country. That means it is getting percolated to that level also.
Regarding the dimension of our agreement – what is the net outcome. Sports is the net outcome, capacity building by both the side from NCT and Australian teacher’s standing institute issue. These are the additional outcome up to this deliberation.
So, I can say this ‑ knowledge and competence is such a vast subject. We cannot quantify in the one meeting, we cannot quantify between few subjects. It is a vast one. Regarding mobility, I just said my colleague can correct me, India is today Australia's one of the major destination, bringing our students to Australia. Our number is more than ‑‑
SPEAKER: 1.7 lakh.
SHRI DHARMENDRA PRADHAN: 1 point ‑ 1,728 numbers of Indian students already studying in different institutions of Australia. Almost all the provinces. This is a welcoming state. [indistinct words]. Now, the changing geopolitical scenario, Australia is a favourite destination of Indian students. For us, the number is not important, the kind of academic engagement from both the sides we are organising today, that's the main achievement of our relationship.
CLARE: Just to add on to Dharmendra's answer, not every young bright Indian will be able to make their way to Australia, perhaps 'cause they can't afford it, perhaps because of their life circumstances. And that opportunity is not a one‑way street, it doesn't always have to involve getting on an aeroplane and going to Australia. It can involve these great universities coming here, and that's really what these international campuses are about.
It's bringing the best of Australia and the best of Australian universities closer to where so many young Indians are seeking that great education, and so it's a win for Australia and it's a win for India. It helps a lot more people get access to an education that otherwise they couldn't get access to. And so having now seven Australian universities amongst 19 from around the world committed to establishing a campus across India, not just here in Delhi or in GIFT City, but in different parts of the country like Bengaluru or Chennai or Mumbai in the case of the University of Western Australia, or Uttar Pradesh in the case of Western Sydney University, that provides an opportunity for so many more young Indians that otherwise they may not have had the chance to take advantage of, because it would be impossible to even contemplate taking a couple of years out of their life to come to Australia.
CHAUDHARY: May I just add that what Minister Hill pointed out, that for skilled professionals there are established pathways and unique opportunities between Australia and India, and it is very clear that we already have a mobility and migration partnership agreement which is in place.
How we implement that is there are mechanisms, there is a joint working group that meets periodically. The critical element is recognising each other's institutionals and the skilling capacity, what is the quality of the training that is being done, what is the quality of assessment. So, that a young skilled, young person from India, when they're going out from a diploma or certificate program, an Australian institution or Australian employer knows specifically what is the skill level, how does that relate to the Skill Qualification Framework. How does it apply to the Australian system of looking at it.
That is key, and I think already as part of the mechanism, in five critical areas there has been agreement, occupation standards have been created. What I mean by when I say occupation standards, this is a qualification [indistinct]. There are courses that are available for Indian students who want to get skilled and get assessed according to what the Australian standard is.
And like what Minister Pradhan is saying, this is an iterative process, it is a dynamic process, it is not a static process. These are not credentials that will remain etched in stone. They have to continuously evolve. This is the mechanism and platform through which we're able to work collaboratively.
JOURNALIST: Nishant from DDU. So the sports curriculum is a new thing, so what will be the key focus areas of this initiative and what major outcomes can we expect from this sports curriculum?
PRADHAN: Primarily sports culture, primarily capacity building of a sports teacher, and starting from school level to higher education level. And campuses, what we have found, the medallists of Australia come from the campuses of Australia.
So we want to recreate a model where Indian campuses, be it school or [indistinct words] or polytechnics, this is the breeding ground of sports medicine, future generations of sportsmen who come out of that, that's Australia's successfully developed that model in different level we have discussed. Thank you friends.