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The announcement was made at the first session of the Akhil Bhartiya Shiksha Samagam 2025, which was organized on the fifth anniversary of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 on Tuesday.

Four additional leading foreign universities, such as Australia's Victoria University and the UK's University of Bristol, will open campuses in India. At the first meeting of the Akhil Bhartiya Shiksha Samagam 2025, which was held on Tuesday to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, letters of intent to that effect were given to the institutions.  Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan was the primary guest.

 Which four universities are to open campuses in India soon?

The four institutions are Western Sydney University and Victoria University, which will open campuses in Greater Noida and Noida, respectively. Likewise, Australia's La Trobe University will have its presence in Bengaluru. The University of Bristol, from the United Kingdom, will have a Mumbai campus. The initiative follows a University Grants Commission (UGC) provision notified in 2023, under which foreign universities with global rankings among the top 500 can establish campuses independently in India.

Details of partnership with the universities

The news brings to 13 the number of foreign universities that have opened or plan to open campuses in India. Western Sydney University, one of the top public research universities, will provide undergraduate degrees in business marketing and business analytics as well as postgraduate MBAs in innovation & entrepreneurship and in logistics & supply chain management.

It is already associated with Indian organisations such as IISc, ICAR, AIIA and Jal Shakti Ministry. Victoria University, with its strong foothold in vocational and tertiary education in Australia and internationally, will be providing undergraduate courses in business, data science, and cybersecurity, in addition to postgraduate studies in IT and management.

La Trobe is also a partner university of the India-Australia Sports Partnership and collaborates with AVENU Learning on Indian student diploma streams. La Trobe University, which has a reputation for research in smart cities, molecular sciences, and biotechnology, will be providing business, computer science, and public health undergraduate courses from its Bengaluru campus.

It operates a Joint PhD Academy with IIT Kanpur and is a member of the ASCRIN network along with IIT Kanpur, BITS Pilani, and TISS.

Germany is famously known for providing free education to international as well as domestic students. Several German universities provide Master of Science (MSc) programs - most of them completely in English - for winter and summer semesters, which usually start in September and April, respectively.

Following are the full details of the best German universities with free Master's in biomedical and medical sciences:

1. Otto von Guericke University, Magdeburg

Otto von Guericke University provides MSc in Biochemical Engineering free of charge. The program is available in English language alone and hence no German language is needed. It aims to build up scientific excellence alongside analytical ability to research intricate biomedical and technical interactions based on elementary principles of science.

2. RWTH Aachen University, Aachen

RWTH Aachen offers MSc in Biomedical Engineering, all English-medium with internship and master thesis. It is for international students as well as home students and is of four semesters' duration. Application for Winter 2025 programme is still open until October.

3. Hamburg University of Applied Sciences

MSc in Biomedical Engineering for three semesters and is conducted entirely in English. Application can be made for the summer semester (April 2026) from December 1, 2025 to January 15, 2026 on the official DAAD website.

4. Technische Hochschule Lubeck

TH Lubeck provides a four-semester Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering at all levels of academic background. The programme is primarily in English but German language versions are also provided as an option. It is designed specifically for students who wish to enter careers in research, industry or the academy. Application for winter intake for non-EU students now closes, but information on next year's summer intake will be on the university site in due course.

5. Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, Rheinbach

The school has a four-semesters MSc Biomedical Sciences that provides theory and practice so that the students are well equipped for useful professional careers in the medical sciences.

The courses are funded by the DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst), or the German Academic Exchange Service, that spon

The Department of Education on Monday said it is opening an investigation into Duke University and Duke Law Journal over reported racial discrimination in choosing new editors.

The Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Education (OCR) cited a report that the Law Journal distributed a packet to school "affinity groups" in 2024 concerning the application process for entering the Journal next year. All applicants were required to submit a 12-page memo critiquing an appellate court ruling as well as a 500-word personal statement which would be graded on a point system and their first-year GPA.

But applicants from these "affinity groups" were allegedly offered the chance to earn extra points if their statements mentioned their "race or ethnicity" and as many as 10 points for explaining how their "membership in an underrepresented group" fostered "diverse voices."

The OCR suspects that this practice might be an enforceable violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"If Duke gives preferential treatment to law journal or medical school applicants who are illegal if it's on the basis of those students' immutable characteristics, that is not only an insult to civil rights law, but to the meritocratic nature of academic achievement," Secretary of Education Linda McMahon wrote in a statement. "Blatantly discriminatory practices prohibited by the Constitution, antidiscrimination law, and Supreme Court precedent have become all too commonplace in our schools. The Trump Administration will no longer stand for it."

McMahon, in a joint letter to Duke University with Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., asked the university to "review all policies and practices at Duke Health for the illegal use of race preferences, take immediate steps to reform all those that illegally consider race or ethnicity to confer benefits or advantages, and give clear and verifiable assurances to the government that Duke's new policies will be executed faithfully in the future—by making all organizational, leadership, and personnel adjustments necessary to make sure that the necessary reforms will be lasting."

The department is also asking Duke University establish a "Merit and Civil Rights Committee" to aid in the resolution of additional civil rights abuses.

Fox News Digital contacted Duke University and Duke Law Journal for comment but did not immediately hear back.

Duke University has been criticized several times for racial preferences and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) pushback in the last year.

Earlier, Fox News Digital has covered a 2021 plan named "Dismantling Racism and Advancing Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the School of Medicine" for Duke Medical School. The handbook referenced standards like dress codes, punctuality and self-reliance as examples of "White supremacy culture."

Dr. Kendall Conger also informed Fox News Digital in 2024 that he was discharged from Duke University's health system after he spoke out against the university's promise not to engage in racism, which framed racism as a "public health crisis."

"It was not so much a commitment to improved medicine, as a commitment to left-wing ideology. And I felt that if I didn't speak up, I was abiding by imprimatur," Conger said back then.

India's best business school, Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A), will open its first foreign campus in Dubai this September.

The grand venture, for which was conceived by IIM-Ahmedabad Director Bharat Bhasker in 2023, would initially start with one-year MBA course and set up two large research centers, one dealing with case study development and another start-up incubation.

"I'm extremely satisfied with the quick pace of implementation of the plan," Bhasker told IIM-A in an interview.

"The Dubai campus was my vision in 2023, and today I'm glad to see that coming true. I'll be going to the campus next week," he said. "We've introduced regional focus to the curriculum, integrating case studies and Middle Eastern and African business practices."

The step follows IIM-A's signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) last April with the United Arab Emirates government.

The signing, held in Mumbai, officially inaugurated the Dubai campus in Dubai International Academic City, and IIM-A was India's first management school to open an international campus.

Bhasker believes this is a strategic achievement not just for the institute but for India as well.

"Despite the fact that the Western nations are closing their doors to foreign students in large numbers, India must cash in on this opportunity. Education is India's greatest soft power, and this campus is a gem of strategy in creating long-term influence," he asserted.

"As China employs its trade and industry to construct global power, India has to employ its education superiority and English-speaking populace. If India is to become the Global South leader, this is the way," he asserted.

Aim Of The New Campus

The new campus will also have a diverse group of students from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), North Africa, and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). It will be about 40 to 50 students in the first batch itself, and the long-term plan is to reach the full capacity of 900 students within ten years.

Dubai came as the obvious choice, asserts Bhasker.

"We've offered executive education in the region for a number of decades. Credibility and trust that we've established over time made it the natural next step," he said.

The expansion comes as foreign applications to MBA programmes are slowing down.

Statistics reveal that there was a 5 per cent decline in applications to graduate business schools across the globe in 2023, the second consecutive year to experience a decline.

Bhasker has a positive vision for India's future, however. "The numbers around the world might be down in America or Europe, but India is unique. We have a young man power force, a growing economy, now the third-largest economy in the world. With opportunities increasing day by day, the need for well-educated managers also increases. That's where institutions like IIMA step in," he continued.

When asked to put into words what makes a good manager in this day and age, Bhaskar responded in short order: "Commitment and vision are their worth, but above all, empathy. Business is systematized to be quantified in terms of profit and loss, but empathy carries you a long way."

In the future, Bhaskar made a thumping move forward for IIM-A's campus: setting up a School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.

"The style with which we educated management previously is not going to function anymore. The style with which we are educating management presently is completely different in comparison to the previous time. Nowadays, technology, science, and AI come under leadership and decision-making. The course of management and the method institutes train should shift," he added.

"Being proactive is necessary," he added.

The Dubai campus is more than an international expansion; it is a progressive, strategically driven action on the basis of regional relevance, educational diplomacy, and a shifting vision of what management education in the 21st century can and ought to be.

Indian students can now get the Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) for the first time from their Gujarat classrooms.

Ahmedabad is now the site of a major first for Indian education. Udgam Consultancy, one of Gujarat's most influential players in the school system, has tied up with Canada's Rosedale International Education to provide the internationally accepted Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) — the first institution in India to achieve this.

This is a new beginning for students of Ahmedabad, who now have an opportunity to study a Canadian high school curriculum — with its focus on skills, global citizenship, and experiential learning — without having to leave the city where they reside.

The OSSD, regulated by the Ontario Ministry of Education, is well recognized by universities in nations like Canada, the UK, the US, Australia, Germany, and Singapore. It differs from conventional Indian school boards due to its accommodating, student-focused approach. The curriculum takes the learner through subjects like psychology, data analysis, business, and the media through ongoing assessment and project-based learning instead of memorization and high-stakes tests.

"It's no longer about preparing students for results alone — it's about preparing students for life," said Manan Choksi, CEO of Udgam Consultancy, while expressing the greater vision behind this shift.

The program will be offered with Rosedale Global High School, an Ontario-credited virtual school that already has partnerships with more than 100 institutions in 17 nations. With Udgam on board, Indian students now have direct access to a globally harmonized academic track that leads to international universities and professions.

Ravi Kumar, Rosedale's Senior Manager of Global Education Partnerships, feels the partnership is a natural extension. "India has had a reputation for its strength in academics. What we're doing now is coupling that strength with a system that's built for global readiness."

This change is more than a new curriculum offering — it is a shift in the tide of Indian education, where international education is no longer reserved for the students who can afford the cost of foreign education. For Gujarat students, the globe just became a little nearer.

When deciding on a career in medicine, the greatest university to pursue studies at needs to be thoroughly thought about because it can potentially make or destroy the future of the student. Harvard University and Stanford University are the two universities that always top the list. Each of these institutions has great medical programs to provide, and therefore the potential students have to review their programs for comparison, specifically overall ranking, main subject areas, courses, fees, and scholarships.

Overall Ranking Comparison

The latest QS World University Rankings ranks Harvard University as the top medicine school in the globe with a great overall ranking of 99.1. The university's employability rankings are high and backed up by its 100 in employer reputation, the high esteem in which employers hold a Harvard degree. In relative terms, the third-placed Stanford University - ranked 93 - comes below Harvard but is very close. Stanford maintains an equally high employer reputation score of 94.2, which indicates how good it is at educating medicine.

Key Subject Areas within Medicine

Both the colleges offer extensive studies with core areas of concentration being medicine. The students at Harvard are taught various subjects such as Clinical Medicine, Public Health, and Biomedical Sciences. Stanford offers extensive studies in Clinical Medicine, Health Services Research, and Health Policy. All the courses are to equip the student with all the qualifications required to succeed in various medical professions.

Courses and Eligibility

Harvard School of Medicine provides a Doctor of Medicine (MD) program to students holding a bachelor's degree. The candidate must have a good academic background, preferably science, and good scores in MCAT. Stanford School of Medicine provides an MD program and accepts students with undergraduate courses, giving importance to the science courses and high scores on the MCAT.

Tuition Fees

Studying in these elite colleges costs a lot. The four-year cost of Harvard University's MD course is around $1,08,138 per year, and thus its four years' cost is around $6,10,320. The four-year cost of Stanford's MD course is around $1,44,216 per year, and thus its four years' cost is around $6,56,000. It must be remembered here that students must include other costs like boarding, books, and living expenses as well, which can be equally vast amounts.

Scholarships and Financial Aid

Fortunately enough, both Harvard and Stanford provide students with numerous scholarships to assist them. In Harvard, Harvard Medical School Financial Aid Office provides many need-based scholarships. HMS Financial Aid Application is used through which the students can apply. The students have to prove financial need, and documents of support are provided while applying.

Stanford also offers many options for financial aid, such as the Stanford Medicine Scholarship, given on merit and need. Interested students must apply for the Stanford Graduate Financial Aid Application to be eligible. These scholarships help native students alleviate their burden as they pursue their MDs.

Opportunities Await

In summary, both Harvard and Stanford universities provide unequalled opportunity to health practitioners. By their respected ranks, wide-ranging curricula, and generous provisions for financial aid, students are afforded the opportunity of obtaining a fit that is appropriate for their career goals. Indeed, deciding between the two highly rated schools might all be a difference of interests towards specialisations, campus life, and funds.