Students Exchange Program between European countries and India
Exchange Program to 14 European Countries announced by HRD – The Union Human Resource Development Ministry has announced an Exchange programme to 14 European countries. The program is slated to start from 2020 onwards. With this, the ministry aims to fund 100 student pairs in order to exchange them for one semester. The HRD ministry is hopeful that this step would help to improve mobility between India and the other European Institutes which are some of the best in the world.
There would be exchange of faculty as well on the permanent basis and would be balanced in nature. The online application for ‘DUO-India’ programme have already started from July 15, 2019. Those who are interested in this fellowship need to apply before August 31, 2019.
A source from the Ministry has stated that they had launched Scheme for promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC) programme in 2018 in order to improve the ecosystem of research in the Higher Educational Institutes of India. It aims to promote the Joint Research Project between the best Indian and foreign Institutes. The govt has decided to introduce ‘DUO-India’ programme to further improve the collaboration.
However, only those Indian Institutes are eligible for this programme which are part of Joint Research Projects. The 14 European Countries under this plan are – Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Finland, Denmark, Italy, Finland, Portugal, United Kingdom and France.
Those applicants who wish to apply for this program need to be a member of the institutes’ scientific or academic staff. The institute should be classified under ‘SPARC’ programme.