Modi’s visit to Canada: a missed opportunity?

During Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Canada last month, he thanked Prime Minister Stephen Harper for “returning a precious piece of our heritage”. He was referring to the return of a 900-year-old Khajuraho sculpture.

This was a momentous gesture, and yet strangely enough during the three-day fanfare and enthusiasm over Modi’s visit to Canada in mid-April, there was an uneasy silence in the media about how higher education and our different knowledge traditions can contribute to building and strengthening the bilateral relationship between our two countries.

This is indeed surprising given the importance of inter-civilisational dialogue to the building of any bilateral relationship – especially one between Canada and India, where the two prime ministers have committed to addressing shared global challenges.

How is it that two countries that have much in common, including former British colonial rule, a broadly English-speaking population, a democratic system and a diverse multicultural population, as well as a growing regional role as Asia Pacific powers, have largely overlooked the importance of international higher education as a key strategic priority in building ties between the two countries, particularly considering the current context of the ‘new global knowledge society’?

Institutional collaboration

This is not to suggest that there is an absence of Indo-Canadian academic collaborations. In fact, since the late 1990s, there has been a flurry of activity engaging individual institutions, provinces and federal-level initiatives such as the bilateral Agreement for Scientific and Technological Cooperation and the Mitacs internship programmes.

There have been summits and delegations coordinated by national bodies such as the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada or AUCC, and the Association of Canadian Community Colleges or ACCC in Canada; the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry or FICCI, and the Confederation of Indian Industry or CII, in India, and the bilateral Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute.

The largest-ever Canadian delegation to India was organised by AUCC in 2010, resulting in CAD$4 million (US$3.3 million) worth of new scholarships and institutional partnerships – with Mitacs being a large portion of this grant.

The visit also saw the launch of a new alumni network – ICAN – aimed at Indian students who have studied in Canada and returned home, and the signing of a Canada-India Memorandum of Understanding for Higher Education Cooperation.

In fact, Canada’s first-ever international education strategy in 2014 identified India as one of the top target markets for international education and highlighted the importance of bilateral exchange of researchers and student mobility through numerous initiatives.

The Canadian community college sector in particular has been very active with the Student Partners Program and more recently through the signed agreement with India’s National Skill Development Corporation, or NSDC, to collaborate on the vocational training of labour and knowledge creation in water resources.

Europe forges educational exchanges

However, there has been a lacuna with the Modi visit to Canada. In comparison, Modi’s inaugural visit to Europe, also in April 2015, resulted in French President François Hollande releasing a joint statement supporting two-way educational and professional exchanges for Indian and French students.

A joint statement with German Chancellor Angela Merkel emphasised educational exchanges as a deliberate strategy for collaboration, with the setting-up of an International Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences, thus strengthening ties between universities in India and Germany through the Indo German Strategic Partnerships in Higher Education programme, and enhancing the exchange of scientists between the countries.

Similarly, President Barack Obama’s relations with Prime Minister Modi have included discussions on boosting cooperation in the higher education sectors of the two countries as a key component of US-India bilateral relations. Jointly the countries have invested in strategies such as the 21st Century Knowledge Initiative, the Fulbright-Nehru programme and the US-India Higher Education Dialogue, to mention just a few.

An absence of international academic relations in profiling Canada-India relations during Modi’s visit is a critical oversight, particularly given the 2014 announcement in Canada of a much-awaited international education strategy.

How and why has the Prime Minister not taken the lead role as the “unifying champion for international education” as recommended by the advisory panel for the international education strategy? Why has the Prime Minister not made education a key pillar of the Government’s bilateral relations with its priority country?

International academic relationships with India are crucial for Canada. After China, India is the second largest ‘sender country’ with approximately 225,000 Indian students studying abroad in 2010-11, a 256% increase since 2000. In 2013, of these students, only 31,665 chose to study in Canada.

India also boasts among the largest and most powerful global diasporas, some 25 million people of Indian descent who live abroad – 1.2 million in Canada – and who account for approximately 3.2% of India’s gross domestic product, or GDP, in the form of remittances they make to India.

The asset of the Indian diaspora in Canada has been recognised by both countries; however, specific initiatives linked to building research and educational linkages through this diaspora, as referenced by the Indian government’s 2012 report on The Annual Status of Higher Education in States and Union Territories, remain unexplored.

Clearly, India has proven that it has a much larger share of talented youth than most countries, a pool of critical importance to Canada’s current and future prosperity.

India is concerned with meeting the demands for higher education and training of this young population and thus its 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) announced one of the highest allocations for higher education to date. It recognises the need for access but also “excellence” within its higher education system and places central importance on internationalisation in achieving this goal.

Under Modi it is expected that a continued liberalisation of government bureaucracy and reform of foreign direct investment, or FDI, regulations in education will open up greater possibilities in the internationalisation of the public-private partnerships. This could create possibilities for Canada in the development and massification of India’s infrastructural projects, which present massive opportunities and which will heavily depend, for capacity and sustainability, on training and higher education linkages with global institutions.

Institutional collaborations, the setting-up of institutions in India, Modi’s ‘Make in India’ approach, faculty training and development, study abroad programmes for Canadian students in India, reciprocal internships, and research and development opportunities are just a few of the varied possibilities for Canada as a result of the growing policy importance and funding allocations within India to its higher education sector.

India has set targets to build a world-class higher education sector, invest in cultural diplomacy and fund reciprocal international relationships. In recognition of its indigenous knowledge traditions, it has taken pride in reviving its ancient centres of learning and international education, such as Nalanda University, while also venturing into international branch campuses in India and abroad.

Taking the first step

Modi’s visit illustrates that Canada is perceived as a reliable go-to nation and thus the potential for India-Canada academic relationships is rich. However, navigating such relationships is a daunting proposition given the limited and somewhat challenging historical relations, their highly complex and bureaucratic political structures and the incomplete knowledge and understanding of each other’s nations.

This is why the first step to building deeper, more meaningful relationships requires better appreciation of each country’s rich historical knowledge traditions, an understanding of the historical, political, cultural and economic policy contexts and challenges, and an exploration of reciprocal and mutually beneficial future opportunities.

To that end, different stakeholder groups – the government, academic institutions and scholars, non-governmental organisations and the public at large – must invest in opportunities and promote greater “inter-civilisational dialogue”, what Governor General David Johnston has compellingly described as “the diplomacy of knowledge”.

There was just such an opportunity afforded by the conference planned by the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute to coordinate the launch of the Global Initiative of Academic Networks, or GIAN, by Prime Minister Modi in Canada’s capital, Ottawa.

GIAN, Modi’s brain-child, focuses on attracting eminent scholars and scientists abroad to teach in India. It was initiated first with the US, with plans to expand the programme to Canada, among other nations. However, this proposed event was unfortunately cancelled and the GIAN launch in Canada deferred.

For us in Canada, returning a piece of India’s heritage should serve just as a foundational step to understanding the centrality of a nation’s heritage and higher education as a core element of building trust, commitment and mutual respect between two countries.

Roopa Desai Trilokekar is associate professor in post-secondary education at York University in Toronto, Canada, with administrative experience in international education and research interests in comparative international education, internationalisation of higher education and the student experience. Amira El Masri is a PhD student at the faculty of education at York University, Toronto. She has assumed different roles – instructor, administrator and researcher – at different universities in Canada and the Middle East. Her areas of research interest are international education policies and international student experiences. Sheila Embleton is distinguished research professor of linguistics at York University in Toronto. Her interest in higher education in India stems from her time as vice-president academic and provost at York University, and her term as president of the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute. Zainab Kizilbash is a PhD candidate in the faculty of education at York University with research interests in the internationalisation of higher education and the internationalisation of teacher professional development. Neville Panthaki is a doctoral candidate at OISE, University of Toronto, Canada.