Yale ties up with IIM, IIT for courses in academic leadership

As a welcome gesture to visiting US president Barack Obama, top educational institutions in India and US have entered a partnership to kick off the Singh-Obama Knowledge Initiative (Soki).

Just a week ahead of Obama's maiden visit, the Yale University, the Indian Institute of Management (IIM)-Kozhikode and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)- Kanpur have entered into an agreement to launch the Yale-India Leadership program. The memorandum of understanding (MoU) between these institutions is seen as an important effort to advance India-US cooperation in higher education and is probably among the first few agreements between the two countries.

Singh-Obama Knowledge Initiative was established by the governments of India and United States during prime minister Manmohan Singh's visit to US last November. Both countries have pledged $5 million each to fund university partnerships and faculty development for the next five years.

To begin with, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has already set aside Rs25 crore for the initiative. As per plans, there will be a joint working group with members from the ministry for human resource development (HRD) and the US embassy in India who will formulate policies and decide on grants. From the Indian side, the UGC will screen the proposals for grants and make recommendations. For the Americans, the US embassy will take a call on US institutions for university partnership programmes.

This is the first agreement under Soki and the Yale-IIM-IIT partnership aims to advance higher education in India through academic leadership development programmes and research.

This programme will expose Indian vice-chancellors, directors, and deans to the best practices of academic administration and institutional management in the US.

Yale, IIM and IIT will also engage in faculty research on higher education, share information and academic materials related to academic leadership, collaborate to identify opportunities for exchanges and conduct joint workshops and  courses on academic leadership. The first programmes will take place in 2011 in New Haven, Connecticut.

The partnership will be sited in two new Centres of Excellence for Academic Leadership to be established at IIM-Kozhikode and IIT-Kanpur.