India’s higher education system is the world’s third largest in terms of students, next to China and the United States. In the future, India will most likely become one of the largest education hubs of the world. India’s Higher Education sector has witnessed a tremendous increase in the number of Universities/University level Institutions & Colleges since independence. As per the annual All India survey of higher education (AISHE, 2018), there are totally 49964 institutions categorized as 903 universities, 10011 stand alone institutions and 39050 colleges.  

Over the past five years, internationalization of higher education and research has become one of the key policy priorities for the government of India with a number of initiatives in this sense such as the Global Initiative of Academic Networks and Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration which were aimed at tapping the talent pool of foreign academics to improve the competitiveness of the Indian system. The Leadership for Academicians Programme launched in 2019 was designed to provide international training for Indian academics in academic and administrative leadership in partnership with selected foreign universities. In the draft of the relatively new National Education Policy, there is an emphasis on developing a distinctly Indian approach to internationalization of higher education. 

These are some of the topics that we discussed in our two episodes with Dr. Shashikala Gurpur, distinguished academician and orator, Director of Symbiosis Law School, Pune, and and Dean of the Faculty of Law, Symbiosis International University. She is a member of 19th Law Commission of India and National Judicial Academic Council.