UNIQUE BUT EQUAL: THE INDO-EUROPEAN CASE ON INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION

The economic cultural social and technological advantages of globalization must not be ignored and they should be taught to everyone. The world is a single place and globalization does nothing but dilute the boundaries between people, nations and continents to write a new chapter on the fundamental principle of sustaining the peaceful symbiosis of cultures, nations and people.

Globalization also has a profound impact on education as students need to acquire the necessary skills to work in multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural teams often located in different countries. They also need to acquire an international business acumen tailored to the needs of the global economy. And Universities have to evolve in this international context, creating accreditation programs with universities in other countries and establishing bilateral international education and training programs reflecting the needs of the global community.

The Erasmus Mundus Program is an excellent example on how the above objectives can be achieved. For the Indian Universities who are a part of the Erasmus Mundus Program the learning experience has been enriching for both the hosts and the guests.

The program truly reflects its name and is slowly transcending boundaries by allowing Non-European partners to be a part of the program.

The paper attempts to explore the issues such as, the unique features of the collaboration, its celebration of differences without infringing the unique features of individual partners, the facilitation of cross-pollination of ideas and praxis and finally, the exploration of equal concerns of quality and pluricultural dimensions by partners.
The paper also highlights what efforts are needed from both the European Universities and the Indian Universities especially with regards to the language concerns, transferring of credits, cross-cultural assimilation etc. to further strengthen and develop the Erasmus program.