US designs one year master’s programme for Indian students in STEM courses

In a significant development, prospective students aiming to pursue a master's degree in the US can now enroll in a streamlined one-year professional master's program offered by American universities. Aligned with India's new education policy (NEP), this novel initiative by the US State Department enables Indian students to complete a portion of their master's degree in the US.

Traditionally, master's programs in the US span a duration of two years.

What's new in the programme?

• Under the new programme, students who complete the one-year professional master's degree in the US will also be able to stay back for three years to gain work experience. 
• Currently, the programme only covers science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines and will begin from the fall semester of 2024.
• The programme designed by Akhilesh Lakhtakia, a Jefferson Science Fellow at the US State Department's South and Central Asia (SCA) bureau, gave an example of how the programme involving an American and an Indian university can work.

• Lakhtakia also explained how an American university can propose a course in wireless technologies to students at its Indian counterpart. 
• The Indian university can propose the same to its students studying bachelor's in electrical engineering at the end of their third year. Then both universities come together to create an application form and select students. 
• There are currently 20 American and over 15 Indian universities that are interested in taking advantage of the new initiative. The US Department of State will act as the facilitator. 

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There were about 2,80,000 Indian students in the US according to Lakhtakia. 32,000 were pursuing bachelor's degrees, 25,000 were pursuing PhDs and the major chunk of the rest were pursuing their masters.  

Lakhtakia said a master's in specialised programmes that are otherwise hard to find, can also help Indian students enter the workforce faster, start earning, pay back a good portion of their student loans, and built a career. 

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