UGC Participation in NAFSA 2006
The 58th Annual conference of NAFSA was held at Montreal Quebec, Canada between 21st & 26th May, 2006. A UGC delegation comprising of Dr. Shashi Rai, Member, UGC;Dr. R.K. Chauhan, Additonal Secretary, UGC, and Dr. A.K. Parate, Joint Secretary,UGC attended the Conference.
NAFSA is an Association of International Educators , founded in 1948 to promote the professional development of American College and University officials responsible for assisting and advising 25,000 foreign students who had come to study in the United States after World War II; since then, it has grown into an excellent international forum from all the countries of the world to market their higher education and to translate the concept of globalization of education into action during the annual conferences. Though largely dominated by United States of America, it still gives an opportunity for other countries to exhibit their Higher Education system and to come to a common platform for exchange of students and faculties leading to better exposure and understanding.
The 58th Annual Conference was a great success with more than 7000 delegates from around 94 countries. The Conference was the largest and most important gathering of international educators, administrators, policy experts and world leaders.
The theme of the conference was very aptly selected as advancing an international commitment posing challenge to discover new colleagues and partners, information, solutions and support to take up international programmes and to expand wings from national to international level. This will definitely be a driving force for Indian Higher Education institutions, the Universities, Colleges and Deemed Universities, to achieve excellence in order to be internationally competitive. The conference featured few plenary sessions with world-class plenary speakers, several workshops and a grand & massive exhibition of posters and stalls of various countries (50 pre-conference workshops, 190 educational sessions and more that 350 exhibits).
The UGC took maximum advantage of the opportunity and tried to meet as many potential international partners as possible. The delegation collected valuable information in the form of literature made available in print and electronic mode by various universities and institutions of higher education situated across the globe. Concrete efforts were made to search international partners for exchange of students and faculties.
In this regard, the delegation had a special meeting with representatives of Arcadia University on 22nd May, 2006. Dr. David C. Larsen, Director, Centre for Education Abroad and Dr. Sekhar Deshpande, Director, Communication Programme & Associate Professor of Communication were present. It was apparent that Arcadia University is seriously planning to send their students to India for Higher Education, may be on a short-term basis initially. It was decided that through further negotiations and continued dialogue, a platform shall be prepared for making exchange of students and faculty feasible. A detailed plan needs to be worked out in near future.
Two representatives of Concordia University, Montreal, Dr. Balbir S. Sahni and Dr. Dennis Murphy and Mr. Jean – Philippi Techdijian, Deputy Director and Mr. Faisal Beg, Trade Commissioner, Canada came forward for a discussion with Indian delegation on 24th May, 2006. They informed that Education working group of the Focus India Initiative has organized a ,Canada-India Networking Reception’ in honour of the Indian delegation at L.B. Atrium of Concordia University on 25th May, 2006. The reception was sponsored jointly by the Govts. of Canada, Quebec and Ontario. They also requested us to make a presentation on this occasion. About 150 persons interested to know the system of Indian Higher education and gathered for the program and the leader of Indian delegation, Dr. Shashi Rai, made a brief presentation on strength of Indian Higher Education system and the possible specialized areas of learning available in India. Dr. R.K. Chauhan, Additional Secretary, UGC discussed about the role of UGC as faci
litator in internationalization of education. It was gratifyingly evident that lot of interest about Indian Higher Education was generated among those present.
The delegation met ,Little India’ group at New York on 28th May, 2006. Mr. Achal Mehra, Editor of ,Little India’ monthly magazine represented the group. Complete and exhaustive information about Indian Diaspora present in America is available with them. They are very well aware of the aspirations of American students to study abroad especially in India. They have agreed to make all such information available to UGC in near future. The Commission has approved UGC’s participation in NAFSA-2007 to be held from May 27 to June 1, 2007 at MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOPA, USA.
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