Overview

India’s first Education Policy was passed and implemented in 1986. After thirty-four years, the National Education Policy (NEP) for India has been updated, revised and approved on 29 July 2020. The policy signifies a huge milestone for India’s Education system, which will certainly make India an attractive destination for higher education world-wide.

The policy is based on the pillars of “Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability, Accountability” and will transform India into a vibrant knowledge hub.

NEP 2020 emphasises systemic and institutional improvements to regulation, governance and promotion of multidisciplinary academics and research in Indian HEIs.

The Karnataka State govt in the southern part of India is keen to implement the NEP and make necessary changes to the higher education sector in the state. UK HEIs have been practising some of these changes for years such as - Choice based credit system, multi-disciplinary programmes and ensuring curriculum parity with industry standards and these have enabled UK to be world leaders in higher education. The state would like to learn best practices from UK HEIs enabling these changes to be implemented in the HEIs of the Karnataka state and this could pave way for forging long term partnerships in the years to come.

THEMES:

1. Higher Education and employment of higher education graduates and post - graduates
2. Design of multi-disciplinary programs in tune with NEP propositions
3. Building research and innovation culture in HEIs
4. Leadership programmes for decision makers at HE institutions

Target audience:

• Policy makers, and higher education experts in the state of Karnataka
• Institutional representatives from both public and private institutions from state of Karnataka

Call for proposals

We are interested in receiving session proposals related to the mentioned themes. A combination of keynote speeches, case studies and panel discussions are expected to support delegates to explore and discuss the engagement and support to implementation of India’s National Education Policy in the state.

Proposed sessions:

Theme 1: Higher Education and employment of higher education graduates

Objectives:

• To discuss the global trends in job-skill mismatch and graduate employment/ unemployment
• To share experiences on the best practices of employability skill development programmes in higher education institutions in the UK.
• To discuss strategies for aligning higher education with improved work readiness of graduates.

Format: Panel discussion & case study

Theme 2:   Design of multi-disciplinary programs

Objectives:

• Strategy on designing multi-disciplinary programmes for UG curriculum
• Share best practices and experiences to make research work at UG/PG level.

Format: Panel discussion & case study

Theme 3: Building research and innovation culture in HEIs

• A step by step plan to build research culture in HEI
• Share best practices and experiences to make research work at UG/PG level.

Format: Panel discussion & case study

Theme 4:  Leadership training to the decision makers of HE institutions

Objectives:

• Inculcating Leadership qualities to Vice Chancellors/Dean Faculties/Chairmen of the departments

Format: Workshop including case study

This would be a virtual event. Each panel (except the workshop) would have three UK experts from three different UK institutions moderated by British Council staff.

Tentatively these panel discussions are planned in February 2021. The programme flow and the actual dates for the sessions would be shared by first week of January.

British Council would receive the nominations and would select the UK HEIs in consultation with Govt of Karnataka. The British Council’s decision on the choice of UK HEIs will be final

We look forward to receiving your submission.