The agreement was signed following a bilateral meeting in New Delhi between India’s Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and the Australian Education Minister Jason Clare. 

This agreement is part of the commitment by Prime Ministers of both countries at the 2nd India-Australia Virtual Summit held on 21 March 2022, wherein they had agreed to establish a Joint Taskforce for mutual recognition of qualifications. 

A task force was accordingly set up consisting of senior officials of education and skill ministries and regulators on both sides. It has come up with a comprehensive mechanism that covers both education and skill qualifications of the two countries and will help facilitate two way mobility of young people for education and employment purposes by mutually recognizing various levels of education and skill qualifications.

While addressing media, Pradhan said that Australia and India are aligned to making the knowledge pillar a key aspect of the bilateral relationship. He informed that both the countries agreed to create new frameworks of partnership to take our bilateral relations to new heights. 

The minister expressed his happiness that, as suggested by India, the scope of Australia India Education Council (AIEC) has been widened to also include cooperation in skill development. 

Pradhan also invited Minister for the 7th Australia India Education and Skill Council (AIESC) meeting to be held in September and for the G20 Education Ministers’ Meeting in June this year.

The signing of G-to-G mechanism for mutual recognition of qualifications, the announcement of the IEIF Critical Skills Project and 11 institutional MoUs mark a landmark moment in educational relations between India and Australia. 

The developments today will create more opportunities for two-way mobility of students and professionals for the purpose of education and employment, and pave the way for making education the biggest enabler in taking India-Australia bilateral relationship to greater heights realise shared aspirations.

The ministers had good conversations on further deepening our long-standing bilateral relations, invigorating our vibrant partnership and boosting engagements in education, skill development, deep-tech research and areas of mutual interest.

Addressing the joint media briefing, the Australian Education Minister Jason Clare said that Australia is very keen to broaden the partnership between the two countries in the field of education as well as skilling. 

He further added that the agreement signed today will make it easier for students to study in each other’s countries and also provide recognition to various levels of education and skill qualifications. 

Appreciating the National Education Policy brought out by India, the Australian minister said that it is breath-taking in scope and will transform India by giving a big push to jobs, businesses, economic productivity and creating opportunities in all areas. 

He said that India has set the target of providing 50% of its youth with either higher education or skill education by 2035 and Australia would be privileged to partner with India in this program. The Australian Universities are enthusiastic to work with their Indian counterparts through the mechanism of joint/dual degrees or twinning of institutes that has been recently facilitated under NEP2020. 

Australia wants to take forward the depth and seriousness of relationship between the two countries by fostering partnership in the education sector, he reiterated.

Replying to media queries, Clare said that the Australian government will be contributing 1.89 million dollars for running skills programme in India in the area of agriculture which is a critical sector for India. 

He further informed that Australia is working on top priority basis to clear the pendency of education visas for Indian students. Clare expressed his gratitude to Pradhan for the kind welcome and hospitality and said that he looks forward to their meeting later in the year.

In today’s bilateral meeting the two sides also discussed issues like promoting student mobility and enhancing research and academic collaborations between Indian and Australian universities through the mechanism of Joint/ Dual/ Twinning degrees that have been brought in recently under NEP 2020.