Indo - French Bilateral Educational Cooperation

The current status of bilateral educational collaboration is vibrant with a growing desire to intensify it both within the governmental framework and outside it, among universities and academic institutions. The number MoUs signed between prestigious Indian and French university and private institutions has crossed the 300 mark in several disciplines including new ones (heritage conservation, digital archiving etc) for student and faculty exchange.

In the field of education the emphasis on the French side has also been on the promotion of teaching French language and culture in India. The French language tutor programme is being organized by French Embassy and is aimed to help Indian higher educational institutions to develop teaching of French language. A MoU was signed during the visit (2010) of President Sarkozy between President Grenoble 3 - University and IGNOU for promoting the study of French language. There exists a MoU between the Maison de Science de l’Homme (MSH) (www.msh-paris.fr) on the French side and the ICSSR (Indian Council for Social Sciences Research) (www.icssr.org), UGC (www.ugc.ac.in), ICHR (Indian Council for Historical Research) (www.ichrindia.org) and ICPR (Indian Council for Philosophical Research) (www.icpr.in) on the Indian side. The major activities under this MoU are: collaborative research projects, seminars, workshops, conferences, exchange of scholars, documents, data, publications etc. The French Government offers subsidy to MSH to facilitate visit of researchers, every year (duration one month) within this framework.

A number of Indian students are studying in France in various fields and their number has increased over the years. In 2011 2500 Indian students came to France as compared to 2000 in 2010 and 1945 in 2009. A number of scholarships are being offered by the French government to Indian students. A total of 341 scholarships were given by the French Embassy to Indian students for pursuing higher education in France in 2011.

To bring together French and Indian education institutes, Journee d’Inde (India Day) was organized (September 2011) in Paris by Campus France. An agreement between Manipal University and Ecole de Metier du Cinema et de la Television for dual degree in film making was signed following the event. Educational fairs have also been organised in India. These include:‘Higher education in France’ fairs (1998-2007), ‘EU higher education Fair’ (2008) and Indo-French Education Fair (2010). Representatives from 25 French educational institutes visited (February 2012) New –Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai to identify prospective candidates for admission to institutes in France and explore possibility of collaboration with Indian institutes.

One of the most important initiatives in the field of education has been the cooperation on the new IIT in Rajasthan. Following the last visit (December ,2010) of President Sarkozy to India, a Letter of Intent was finalized for cooperation on IIT-R. Under this, a French Consortium comprising higher education & research institutes will send faculty members / experts / academicians / students for research or teaching for a period of at least half a semester to IIT-R. The French partners will contribute towards the establishment of five centres of excellence /research laboratories in priority fields like renewable energy, systems engineering, art, conservation and heritage at IIT-R.