We cannot aim to be global without an active interest in India’
Laurie Pearcey, pro-vice-chancellor of Sydney’s University of New South Wales, discusses the India centre at New Delhi, and his many visits to the country.
At 33, Laurie Pearcey is the youngest pro-vice-chancellor in Australian higher education. And he has his hands full. Part of his job involves attracting at least 4,000 Indian students to the university by 2025, under the university’s global impact strategy.
He’s had some experience – Pearcey has previously facilitated youth engagement between Australia and its Asian partners. Laurie was selected as a delegate to the 2018 Australia-India Youth Dialogue and sits on the advisory board of the Australia-China Youth Association. There have been surprises along the way too. Pearcey discusses setting up the university’s India centre at New Delhi, his many visits to the country, and discovering that we’re friendlier than he’d imagined.
What does an India centre mean for students and your institution?
The University of New South Wales had been active in India for 11 years now. Our flagship centre in George Institute, New Delhi, is our hub for knowledge exchange. We will invite international researchers, professors and academicians for discussion panels.
With the guidance of experts in the sector, many students will be recruited to work on our research projects. Our faculty at the centre will reach out to companies for tie-ups and undertaking research in their field. We are also collaborating with Indian universities to facilitate our mission. We also intend to hold student exchange programmes through the centre.
Which Indian universities have you collaborated with?
Our faculty members are actively working on projects with the Manipal Institute of Technology, Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, and the IITs in Delhi, Bombay and Madras. Students from these universities work on research papers in fields ranging from engineering and public health policy to green energy and innovation in global planning.
How many Indian students currently study at UNSW? do you have programmes where our students can participate remotely as well?
We cannot be a global university if we are not active and focussed in India. We have 21,000 international students and 1,200 of them are Indians. Our ‘Future of Change’ scholarships have been of great help to students from India and China. This year, we awarded scholarships of $5,000 to $10,000 to 61 students, including a full fee waiver for a Bengaluru medical graduate to pursue a two-year public health programme. In this digital world, students need not travel all the way from India to our college campus. We have many online certificate courses and a Masters in public health.
In the last three years, you have travelled to India 11 times. What have your experiences been like?
I did not know what to expect in India, honestly. I had heard that things don’t always work by the system - be it a small business or the government. But I was proved wrong by the thriving startup ecosystem. I also got interested in the extraordinary history and diverse cultures the country has fostered through the years.
Source: Hindustan Times, 24/01/2019
