After the attacks on Indian students in Australia a report regarding efforts for the welfare of the students will be submitted by December. This has been revealed during a meeting today between Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Kapil Sibal and Senator Chris Evans, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Australia. The HRD Minister has mooted the raising of the level of the Joint Working Group for Education between India and Australia to ministerial level. Social welfare of students, mutual recognition of degrees, academic cooperation etc will be purview of the Joint working group. Sibal also said that the sub-group on social welfare of students must meet soon.

Both Australia and India could have a dedicated nodal officer at both ends to enable the free flow of information required related to students welfare and related issues. This could be particularly useful when there are doubts regarding quality of degrees being offered by an institute etc. Both sides discussed at length the issue of recent incidents of violence on Indian students in Australia. The Australian Minister emphasized that the Australian government sees this both as a criminal issue and a public policy issue and his government is dealing with this on both accounts.

Kapil Sibal said that India was today at the cusp of opportunity and he is of the view that once the education sector in India opens up, what the world saw India become in services and manufacturing, will happen in the years to come in HR development. He said that he was saying this because in India the output dividend in education is greater than the input costs. He informed the Australian delegates that the Ministry was considering a regulatory framework for attracting foreign investments in higher education in India. He suggested that the foreign universities could set up their campuses in India in future. This model would be mutually beneficial as it would generate large number of skilled professionals who could meet the needs of the growing Indian economy as well as the global market.