Building A Community Of Innovative Secondary And Higher Education Leaders

Q. What is The College Board? Could you trace a brief history of the organization for us?

The College Board is a mission-driven not-for-profit organization (NGO) that connects students to undergraduate university success and opportunity. Founded in 1900, the College Board was created to expand access to higher education. The original members of the College Board were universities and secondary schools seeking to simplify the university application process.  This is also one of the key goals of the India Global Higher Education Alliance.  Today, the College Board is a membership association is made up of over 6,000 of the world’s leading educational institutions and is dedicated to promoting excellence and equity in education. Each year, the College Board helps more than seven million students prepare for a successful transition to college through programs and services in college readiness and college success — including the SAT® and the Advanced Placement Program. The organization also serves the education community through research and advocacy on behalf of students, educators, and schools.

Q. You recently announced the India Global Higher Education Alliance. What is the mission behind it?

The India Global Higher Education Alliance is a platform for achieving three primary goals:

Building a community of innovative secondary and higher education leaders who will work to improve the transition for students to higher education in India. Establishing a forum for sharing of global best practices to learn from what is working in admissions around the world Taking concrete actions to help ensure that all students, regardless of income, geography or social class, can access excellent higher education Furthermore, at the Symposium we also launched the College Board India Scholars Program whereby we will partner with NGOs and Alliance members to help low income students in India get ready for the SAT, access fee reductions to offset the cost of the SAT and earn full scholarships that will be co-funded by the College Board and Indian Alliance member universities.

Q. What is your timeline in terms of expanding the alliance in India? 

Over the next year, we hope to add another 10-15 India Global Alliance member institutions.  We are working with our Founding members to refine the membership criteria right now.

Regardless of whether institutions are members of the Alliance, they are always welcome to use our programs such as SAT and Advanced Placement and many do.  For example, many universities participating in the Study in India initiative use the SAT as an admissions and scholarship credential.  Furthermore, through the DASA program, the NITs use the SAT Subject Tests as admissions credentials for Non-Resident Indians.

Q. Why do you think the introduction of College Board programs like the SAT and AP will help increase the visibility of Indian universities and how will it encourage inbound students?

By joining an Alliance of peer institutions, Indian members of the Alliance can work directly with universities around the world on admissions and enrollment projects. As such, the contributions from the innovative Indian member universities will be showcased on the world stage. 

Further, Indian universities that join the Alliance will be using common global measures such as the SAT and AP.  Students in almost every country in the world take these exams and can send scores to universities in India for potential recruitment. 

Full list of members, for your reference:

Founding Alliance members from India include:

Ahmedabad University

Ashoka University

Azim Premji University

Bennett University

BML Munjal University

FLAME University

Manav Rachna University

Manipal Academy of Higher Education

NMIMS

SRM Institute of Science and Technology

Affiliate members from around the world include:

Columbia University

MIT

Pomona College

Purdue University

McGill University (Canada)

University of Cambridge (UK)

University of Hong Kong (HK)