India-Australia rapport

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s ongoing visit to India has underlined the importance being accorded by both countries to bilateral ties in the education sector. On March 8, the first day of his four-day-long trip, Albanese announced that the two governments had finalised the Australia-India Education Qualification Recognition Mechanism. This arrangement is aimed at ensuring that the degrees earned by Indian students who have studied in Australia are duly recognised when they return home; it is also expected to facilitate recognition of the students’ Indian qualifications by the Australian authorities.

Around 7.7 lakh Indian students went abroad to study in 2022. Their preferred destinations for degree courses are Canada, the US, the UK and Australia. These countries accounted for 75 per cent of those who went overseas for education last year — up from 60 per cent in 2018. Even after spending lakhs, if not crores, of rupees on tuition fee and living expenses, most of these students struggle to find gainful employment back home as their foreign degrees and diplomas do not get adequate recognition in India’s job market. The India-Australia mechanism is a significant step towards resolving this issue. What’s more, Deakin University, one of Australia’s top educational institutions, will be the first foreign university to set up an international branch campus at GIFT (Gujarat International Finance Tec) City in Gandhinagar. This development is likely to benefit Indian students who are unable to study in Australia due to financial constraints or family commitments. Maintaining high academic standards and offering an affordable fee structure will be the major challenges.

Even as the presence of Albanese and PM Modi in the Ahmedabad stadium on the opening day of the India-Australia Test ticked all the right boxes in terms of optics and cricket diplomacy, the relationship between the Quad partners is set to grow stronger with the implementation of the India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement, which came into force a couple of months ago. Bilateral trade and defence ties are poised to reach the next level under the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. It’s a win-win situation for both nations.