Prof Edward Crawley, Skoltech’s President and Prof. R.K. Shevgaonkar, the IIT’s director, signed a MoU during a round table discussion attended by Russian and Indian higher education leaders at the Moscow State University.
Skoltech and the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD) signed today a Memorandum of Understanding aimed to forge links between the two technological and innovation institutes.
The new partners agreed to develop a program for academic and research cooperation in areas of mutual interest and facilitate faculty and student exchanges. Prof Edward Crawley, Skoltech’s President and Prof. R.K. Shevgaonkar, the IIT’s director, signed the MoU during a round table discussion attended by Russian and Indian higher education leaders at the Moscow State University. The signing took place in the presence of Pranab Mukherjee, the President of India and Dmitry Livanov, Minister of Education and Science of Russia. India and Russia signed today a series of 11 MoUs to establish a network of higher education institutes and for cooperation in the areas of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computer sciences.
Established in 1961, The Indian Institute of Technology Delhi is one of the country’s top public research universities. It was declared to be Institute of National Importance by the Government of India. Skoltech (the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology) is an innovation focused university, established in 2011 as a collaboration between the Skolkovo Foundation and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Twenty percent of all master’s and PhD students at Skoltech are international.
The MoU between the two institutes comes on the heels of a broader association agreement between Russia and India. The countries plan to expand innovation education collaboration, as Skoltech’s president Edward Crawley explained in an interview he gave during a recent visit to Delhi.
The purpose of the bilateral MoI is to establish a network that will work towards the consolidation of Russian and Indian research and educational institution’s efforts in training of high skilled specialists for the innovation economy, promotion of teachers and students academic exchange program.
The network’s overall goal is to serve as a unified scientific and educational space for the implementation of cooperation in the sphere of education, science and R&D. It aims to create a platform for joint research, educational and institutional programs; develop outsourcing of external financing from government bodies, public organizations, and private companies; and facilitate information exchange and the process of mutual recognition of diplomas and educational standards. The sides also agreed to organize and hold joint international scientific and methodological conferences, workshops, and tele-bridges.