The above linked article from The Telegraph indicates that…
- An expert panel has advised the government against accepting a British request to recognise the one-year master’s degrees awarded by UK universities and treat them as equivalent to the two-year master’s degrees awarded by Indian institutions.
- Indian students returning with one-year master’s degrees from Britain be compelled to earn additional credits from an Indian university for their degrees to be considered valid for higher studies or government jobs.
Blow to UK degree plea |
| BASANT KUMAR MOHANTY |
|
New Delhi, Jan. 28: An expert panel has advised the government against accepting a British request to recognise the one-year master’s degrees awarded by UK universities and treat them as equivalent to the two-year master’s degrees awarded by Indian institutions. Rather, the panel has suggested that Indian students returning with one-year master’s degrees from Britain be compelled to earn additional credits from an Indian university for their degrees to be considered valid for higher studies or government jobs, a top source told The Telegraph. The panel, appointed by the Union human resource development ministry, was made up by the chairpersons of the University Grants Commission, All India Council of Technical Education and the Central Board of Secondary Education. It said the University Grants Commission and the All India Council of Technical Education would frame guidelines for Indian universities to decide the additional credits these returning students need to acquire. Nearly 26,000 Indian students are now enrolled in master’s programmes in Britain, most of them studying for the one-year degree. Britain has been nudging India to recognise its one-year master’s degrees for the past several years. The UK Higher Education International Unit and the UK-India Education and Research Initiative had commissioned the National Recognition Information Centre, the British advisory agency on education quality, to do a comparative study of British and Indian master’s programmes. The study considered criteria such as learning outcomes, course content, progression routes, research requirements, occupational outcomes, assessment methods, rigour and quality assurance. It suggested that the one-year British degrees were comparable to the two-year Indian degrees. A delegation from the UK Higher Education International Unit and the UK-India Education and Research Initiative met human resource development ministry officials in July last year to present the study’s findings. The ministry then set up the expert panel to examine the findings and suggest action. The panel compared the course contents of the two-year Indian programmes with those of the one-year British courses. It found that the Indian programmes covered a wider curriculum, including a larger number of core subject areas. |
The followers of my blogs are familiar that I have been writing on this topic for nearly one year…
Shocker: India states that UK Master Degrees as NOT … – RLS’s Blog
One year Overseas Masters validity in India! Issue “not just for UK” to …
RLS's Blog 
Thanks Ravi for sharing this with all of us. Indian Govt stand was quite obvious and expected, so I am not surprised. I had cmmented earlier also that the entry for British One Year Master Program is three year ordinary degree and not four year Master degree as is case of some Australian Universites. So there was no ground for considering British one year master equivalent of Indian Two Years master degrees.
Gulshan Kumar
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The issue indeed is more on the duration of the degree and the duration of the education. India follows a 10+2+3/4+2 model. In case of UK, it becomes a 10+2+3+1 . In the case of Engineering too the UK degrees are mostly of 3 years and not 4 years… I still do believe that either there should be a disclaimer by British Council and EducationUK when they promote the UK Masters in India stating clearly that the degree is not valid and while it may lead to employment in private sector, the public sector plus the academia plus the government are not going to accept them. I feel the fact that UK degrees are being promoted without such warning in India at this time is a kind of mis-representation. In fact the tagline says that they are world class degrees and globally recognised. My purpose of blogging on the topic is not to make the UK degrees look inferior. They are not at all so. The purpose is to ensure that the Indian government is forced to take a fresh look at the whole thing…
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Well i dont think we need to take the news negatively, even if students are asked to take extra credit there seems to be no harm, for instance if one wishes to phd , she may be asked to do a certain amount of course work to make it equivalent. If this enables us to get jobs in India , I dont see any harm in the same.
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Neethu, You have done your best till date in taking up the issues through the MHRD. I am not sure if we should accept the mid-path that is being found. The reason for this is that once they decide on this, we have no hope at all of getting full validity of the UK Masters or similar duration other Masters. It is better to reject the mid path and seek only a full validity based on the quality and content and other such criteria. Further we have to be fully aware that in India we are yet to formalise a system of RPL that will allow the Indian students returning from UK with half-degree to be able to join an Indian Masters in second year. It will not happen around the country for some time to come.
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Sir i cannot thank u enough for raising this issue, but with these guidelines coming up now an then and AIU not recognizing UK degree, what will be the solution, i have already signed the plea, but is there anything as students we can do apart from sharing with our juniors not to make the same, expensive and irreparable mistake (as called by the department people) of doing masters from one of the most prestigious universities.
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There is a genuine reason for you to be disappointed and to an extent feel “cheated”. It is a fact that no one gives a warning or even a disclaimer to the student setting out overseas that on their return they may find jobs in private sector but joining a public sector, joining the government or becoming an academic working in an Indian University including the possibility of higher education in India is just not going to be possible. The Indian banks too issue forex and give out loans when AIU clearly states that the degrees less than 2 years are not valid as Masters.
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Thanks a lot Ravi for updating consistently on this issue. I’m a 2012 masters passed-out from University of Essex with a distinction. I was literally dumb struck after getting to know this when i tried to register my PhD in an Indian University in the month of December 2012. It was really heart-breaking for me after doing so well in my masters. I really am passionate towards the field of education. I want to pursue my profession in this field as well as do a PhD. I’ve joined an engineering college as a teaching assistant (based on my bachealors degree) though i should have been an assistant professor hoping that there will be some decision on providing equivalence soon 😦 Do you have any information on when can this issue be resolved? When is a partial or full equivalence decision expected?
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No idea when the issue will be resolved but in my opinion, UK should not sit soft just with the half recognition. This will not help in the long term and will leave a message that the degree is inferior to Indian Masters. Which it is not…
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I have been told to join Bridge course – 6 months for getting equivalency certificate in India for UK MSc.
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Please share the advise that you have received.
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