EDUCATION DIPLOMACY

Education diplomacy is the soft power through which a country uses education and related services to build positive, strong relationships with other countries, advancing common goals

- Sanjaya Mishra

From time to time, we come across narratives of making India a Vishwa Guru again, which align with the aspiration of Viksit Bharat by 2047. Considering India’s cultural heritage and knowledge power in science, engineering, and information technology, there is a considerable scope for extending education diplomacy and becoming a Viswa Mitra for other countries of the world.

Education diplomacy is the soft power through which a country uses education and related services to build positive, strong relationships with other countries, advancing common goals. It is an essential part of a country’s foreign policy to envision the role of education in international development and cooperation. Most developed countries have been adopting such practices. Scholarship programmes such as the Fulbright (USA) or the Commonwealth Fellowship (UK) are examples of such initiatives. Many countries have also established specialised departments to support education and research, such as the International Development Research Centre (Canada). The US Department of State has run the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) since 1940. Many IVLP alums have become presidents and prime ministers in over 130 countries around the world. Similarly, an evaluation of the Commonwealth Fellowship scheme revealed that its alums include eight presidents/ prime ministers/deputy prime ministers, 60 ministers, 262 vice chancellors, and 566 CEOs in the private sector in countries around the world. What is more important to note is that over 90% of the 31,000 alumni continue to maintain professional contact in the UK after several years of their fellowship.