A delegation of the Universities of Pennsylvania is on a visit to Karnataka to explore possible collaborations with higher educational institutions here.

The delegation of Universities of Pennsylvania headed by Vice- Chancellor Dr Peter Garland and Dr Anita Meehan is on a week long visit to the state. During the visit discussions and consultations would be held pertaining to collaboration in higher education. Meanwhile, Vice- Chancellors of various universities for present all along in several meetings held on Monday. On Tuesday, a few universities would enter MoU with Universities of Pennsylvania.

Inviting Pennsylvania State Higher Education institutes to collaborate with the Department of Higher Education, Dr CN Ashwath Narayan, Minister for Higher Education, said that the government would further expand decentralisation in higher education.

He was speaking in a preliminary meeting about Global Partnership between higher education institutes in the state and Pennsylvania State system of Higher Education (PASSHE).

Decentralisation would happen at all the stages of higher education, in accordance with the vision of the National Education Policy 2020 to provide access to quality education collaboration, he said. This would facilitate collaborations with highly ranked universities world over.

The minister said digitalisation of higher education would also be accorded priority. “As a result of introducing training courses and other such initiatives, the enrollment ratio in polytechnic has touched 100% from the earlier 50% and 80,000 students are getting admitted annually,” he said.

Initiatives such as Twinning course, Dual Degree, Skill training and internship would be further expanded, according to Ashwath Narayan.

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