TUM Mumbai’s Senior Regional Manager, India, Mohaa Vyas and Layla Eberle, TUM’s Senior International Strategist for India, participated in a virtual event on March 15, which featured comprehensive information on India’s new National Education Policy and opportunities for cooperation between the state of Karnataka and Bavaria. The event was organized by the Bavarian-Indian Center for Business and Higher Education Cooperation (BayIND) and the Karnataka State Higher Education Council.In 2007, Bavaria and the state of Karnataka entered into a regional partnership based on decades of close economic ties between Germany and India. Five years later, a branch office of the Bavarian-Indian Center – the BayIND Science Office – was opened in the capital Bengaluru to strengthen science and research relations between the two countries.
Karnataka – one state, many opportunities
Karnataka is located in the southwest of India. As one of India’s most technologically advanced major states with numerous universities, Karnataka is particularly known for its innovation density. Bangalore is not only the state capital, but also the IT capital of India and thus an important technology location for the whole world. Tradition and modernity meet in Karnataka: Centuries-old traditions are cultivated in a vibrant technology-savvy culture, and at the same time, the entire region offers a wide range of opportunities for research, education, and development.
The first Indian state to implement the National Education Policy
During the event, it was emphasized that India’s revised National Education Policy (NEP 2020) will bring many changes in educational structures, regulation, and administration, with a particular focus on internationalization.
A number of gaps have been identified that will be addressed by promoting flexible curricular structures, integrating humanities subjects with STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, mathematics), supporting international students on campus, and increasing collaboration between Indian and German faculty.
The NEP is essentially based on the principle that education must promote the basic skills of reading, writing, and numeracy, as well as cognitive skills. Since the introduction of the new education strategy, the Indian states have been working on its implementation. Each will be looking for individual opportunities for collaboration here, as individual states increasingly focus on internationalization with foreign universities in the form of student exchanges, twinning programs, and student goal setting.
The changes might provide new opportunities for TUM to collaborate academically with institutions in Karnataka. TUM Mumbai will therefore continue to monitor developments in order to stay abreast of the changes and identify opportunities for TUM’s schools and departments in good time.