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Australia will soon start recognising higher education degrees received in India under a mutual agreement between the two nations, but professional registrations of engineering, medicine, and law pass-outs will stay outside its ambit.

Jason Clare said India has other agreements with nations like the United States. What makes this broader than the agreement with the US is it contains online courses also, apart from programmes/courses that Australian universities can operate in India or at a standalone campus like the one that the University of Wollongong is putting up.

Clare said it means that whether you are studying with an Australian varsity in Australia, here in India, online, or at an Australian university campus in India, those qualifications will be counted and recognised for your next great measure in higher education.

Asked whether the framework will also accord mutual recognition to professional qualifications, Jason Clare informed those provisions are still in the works.

Clare said if one is a doctor with a medical degree from an Indian university. At the moment, the response is no, because there’s another action that has to be taken where the medical profession has its registration procedure, he said. This confirms that [after] this recognition of the university qualifications, the next stage is what can be set into work in terms of recognition by various professional clients. That remains to be done; so that’s a big piece of work.