New Delhi (APN News): Indian Institute of Management (IIM)-Kozhikode, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) – Kanpur and Yale University,

Mr. Kapil Sibal (Right) with Dr. Richard Levin

USA have entered into a partnership to advance higher education in India through academic leadership development programmes for higher education leaders in India and through research on Indian higher education. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Dr. Richard Levin, President of Yale University, Dr. Debashis Chatterjee, Director of IIM – Kozhihode, and Dr. Sanjay Dhande, Director of IIT – Kanpur in the presence of  Mr. Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Human Resource Development and Ms. D. Purandeswari, Minister of State for HRD, here on Thursday.

Speaking on the occasion,  Mr. Sibal said that this partnership, which will take effect from January 2011, will be sited in two new Centres of Excellence for Academic Leadership (CEAL) to be established at IIM – Kozhikode and IIT – Kanpur. The partnership will begin with a term of five years, and could be renewed thereafter, he added. He also said that a six member committee with equal participation from the three partnering institutes will determine the norms/qualifications for participating in these leadership programmes.

The flagship programme of the partnership will be a new “India – Yale University Leadership Programme,” to be developed by Yale University in consultation with IIM – Kozhikode and IIT – Kanpur, that will expose university and academic leaders in India at the levels of vice-chancellor, director, and deans to the best practices of academic administration and institutional management in the United States. Yale University, IIM – Kozhikode, and IIT – Kanpur would also engage in joint faculty research on higher education and collaborate to organize workshops and seminars on relevant areas of academic administration and leadership. The first programmes under the agreement would take place in 2011 in New Haven, Connecticut.

Yale President Richard Levin stated, “Yale is pleased to undertake this important and much needed effort on higher education with IIM – Kozhikode and IIT – Kanpur. We look forward to working with them to advance the cause of higher education in India by sharing what we have learned over three centuries as an institution and we similarly look forward to learning from our partners in India in this age of global education.”