The program offers specialized courses in areas such as wireless technology, artificial intelligence applications, quantum engineering, 5G and 7G communication systems, semiconductor processing, nanotechnology, photonics, and more.
The program offers specialized courses in areas such as wireless technology, artificial intelligence applications, quantum engineering, 5G and 7G communication systems, semiconductor processing, nanotechnology, photonics, and more.
The U.S. State Department has developed an educational program aligned with India’s New Education Policy, enabling Indian students to undertake a one-year professional master’s degree with a focus on industrial specialization at American universities.
Akhilesh Lakhtakia, a Jefferson Science Fellow at the U.S. State Department’s South and Central Asia bureau, has designed the program. He was recruited from Penn State University, where he worked as a professor of engineering science and mechanics, to analyze India’s NEP. The State Department tasked him with creating a program that benefits students, governments, and universities in both countries.
The program focuses on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics or STEM fields and is set to commence in the fall semester of 2024. It offers specialized courses in areas such as wireless technology, artificial intelligence applications, quantum engineering, 5G and 7G communication systems, semiconductor processing, nanotechnology, photonics, and more.
The State Department is facilitating discussions involving more than 20 American and 25 Indian universities to participate in this initiative.
Upon completion of the course, students will be eligible to stay in the US for up to three years under current visa regulations. This extension aims to provide them with the opportunity to gain industry work experience and manage student loans.
“What was proposed was very much to my liking. It is student-centered, flexible, multidisciplinary, futuristic, and international. If this can be implemented, it will simply revolutionize school and higher education,” Lakhtakia told Hindustan Times.
The commencement of these courses presents a mutually beneficial situation for both the State Department and the Commerce Department. The former can strengthen people-to-people connections and enhance soft power, while the latter stands to increase revenue through the influx of foreign students to the United States.
Clarifying the rationale behind the decision, Lakhtakia elaborated, “A usual master’s degree in the US is for two years. But we thought that over 12 months, students can get a master’s degree with 30 credits. The idea is also to have a strong experimental component so that graduates when they go into industry, can become effective fairly quickly.”
