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Media Release

September 3 2009

Australian students in India - successful exchanges build capacity

Indian scholars who have spent time in South AustraliaAustralia’s Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard will be in Chennai today to hear, first hand, the experiences of Australian university students studying in India.
 
Four female social work and social policy students from the University of South Australia have been working and studying at the Madras Christian College India as part of one of the longest running and most successful collaborations between the Australian and Indian higher education sectors.
 
The South Australia students will be joined in Chennai by some of the Indian scholars and graduates who have spent time in South Australia as the scheme has developed. 
 
University of South Australia (UniSA) Vice Chancellor and President Professor Peter Høj said the long-running collaboration is a fine example of the value of international learning and global experience and of reciprocity in international education.
 
“The roots of this program go back to 1996 when UniSA’s School of Social Work and Social Policy together with Rural the Unit for Health and Social Affairs (RUHSA) established a collaboration that saw the first UniSA students travel to India to take on educational field placements,” Prof Høj said.
 
“Between 1996 and 2006 more than 80 UniSA students have studied and worked as part of the RUHSA collaboration.
 
“Building on the success of this program and an MOU signed between UniSA and the University of Madras (and its affiliate Madras Christian College) in 2006 a new phase of collaboration focussing on social work and social policy took off in 2007 and saw Indian social work students come to South Australia to take on education and field placement programs through UniSA – bringing a two-way perspective to this important international engagement.”
 
Prof Høj said since then about 22 students from Madras have been made welcome in South Australia to undertake social work placements in schools, NGOs and refugee and women’s support facilities.
 
“We have found that all of the exchange students gain an enormous amount, not only from developing an international perspective of diverse social challenges and how they can be managed in the field across national boundaries, but also from the experience of applying their learning in a new cultural context.”
 
He said the University of South Australia was boosting support to the successful exchange program by offering two new UniSA Presidential scholarships for social work students from India to complete PhD studies in social work in South Australia.
 
“Taking the time to talk to students engaged in this program is an eye-opener,” Professor Høj said.
 
“Their education is experiential and incredibly diverse, with Indian students practising their skills in schools and NGOs in South Australia that work with marginalised Indigenous communities or women in crisis and Australia students working in rural Indian communities on issues such as women’s and family health and HIV/AIDS.
 
He said UniSA was grateful for the support of the Australian Government through its Endeavour Exchange Scholarship Program which since 2007 has supported 17 students from MCC who have studied at UniSA and seven of our local students to come to Chennai as part of the program.
 
“This support is ongoing and greatly valued and today I believe the Deputy Prime Minister will see the outcome of that investment in her meeting with students.”
 
 
News Editors please note: Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard will meet with students at the Taj Coromandel Hotel from 2.30 pm. There will also be a short film from students from Madras Christian College who are now studying and completing field placements in Adelaide at the University of South Australia.
 
 
Background information
 
·        UniSA is the largest University in South Australia with more than 34,000 students.
 
·        About a third of these students are international students from more than 88 countries choosing to study with UniSA. In 2008 there were 1106 Indian students studying at UniSA mainly in the fields of information technology, engineering and the environment, business and health sciences.

 


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