French delegation led by Mr. Thierry Berthelot, Consul General of France in Bangalore consisting of Institut Français en Inde officials and French School representative of Rennes School of Business and ESIGELEC visited Vijayawada on the 25th of February 2022 in the state of Andhra Pradesh for the signature ceremony of two MoUs – the first being between Rennes School of Business and SRM University Andhra Pradesh and the other between ESIGELEC and KL University Andhra Pradesh.
The visit also involved discussions with the authorities at VIT Andhra Pradesh and the officials from the Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education regarding student mobility and joined academic programs that would strengthen the collaborative educational bond between the state of Andhra Pradesh and France. Each year, approximately 10,000 Indian students go to France either for an internship, semester exchange/ semester abroad programmes and degree programs. This visit intended to further increase this number and as per the Consul General, Mr. Thierry Berthelot “France would like to have around 20,000 Indian students by 2025”.
Both the MoUs are important to frame further collaborations such as joined program/pathway programs and associated mobility. During the MoU signature ceremony, Mr. Berthelot emphasized on the fact that the job market in India is quite rich with more than 3,50,000 job opportunities with the presence of approximately 1,000 French Companies. Such exchange programs and MoUs will facilitate the Indian students to use it to their advantage to gain easy entry into the labour market just not in France but also in Europe and in India.
Mr. Berthelot added further “By virtue of being exposed to different pedagogical styles, working in groups with French students and obtaining at least a basic level in the French language, these students are able to build very lucrative profiles as they progress”.
The discussions at VIT-AP further proved the fact that internationalisation is one of the key priorities for Indian Universities, especially with the implementation of the New Education Policy. Transversal and interdisciplinary approaches are the “go-to concepts” for bringing in successful international partnerships to Indian Universities in general.