From the Chancellery
Prof Peter Høj
Vice Chancellor & President
I was delighted to be part of a special and very successful UniSA
delegation that accompanied Deputy Prime Minister and Education
Minister Julia Gillard to India last month.
Given some recent negative reports about Indian students in Australia, it was a perfect opportunity to focus on the positive side of the relationship between our two countries in different areas of higher education.
At the same time, Minister Gillard was a great ambassador for our cause, complimentary about UniSA and generous with her time during the formal proceedings and in interactions with guests, staff and students.
At the top of the delegation agenda was the global launch of our International Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding. Minister Gillard officiated at the event in Delhi, which was also attended by Australia’s High Commissioner Peter Varghese, an impressive array of Indian VIPs and a media contingent.
The new centre has received significant international recognition in a very short time and we were greatly encouraged by the positive feedback at the launch. It reinforced the message we have heard from our social sciences partners in India that there is a strong desire to collaborate with the centre’s research program.
Of course the fact that the centre was inspired by former Prime Minister Bob Hawke and has received more than $10 million in funding from the Federal and State governments has helped underline our commitment to this venture. So too, has the international standing of the man who is now making the vision a reality.
You don’t have to go too far in Indian higher education circles to discover that Professor Pal Ahluwalia – who wears the twin hats of UniSA’s Pro Vice Chancellor for Education, Arts and Social Sciences and the UNESCO Chair in Transnational Diasporas and Reconciliation Studies – is held in high regard.
It is an exciting venture and we hope that Indian students will be among those who apply for 10 PhD scholarship opportunities that the new centre will offer over the next three years.
The Deputy Prime Minister also joined us in Chennai for an event that was lower key but no less important in terms of strengthening our ties in India - a celebration of the successful student exchange program between UniSA and Madras Christian College (MCC), an A* rated College.
It included a re-signing of our formal agreements with MCC, and meeting with South Australian students who are currently living and studying in India. We were joined by the parents of Madras students who are currently on exchange in Adelaide and showed a DVD of the students enjoying their time in Adelaide, much to the delight of their parents. It left us all in no doubt about how valuable such experiences are.
UniSA has had a relationship with MCC for a number of years and the exchange program with our School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy has grown significantly in the past three years.
We are also expanding our activities more widely in the State of Tamil Nadu and the newly established Centre for International Social Work is the centrepiece of this development.
India is of increasing importance to UniSA, not just as a source of undergraduate and postgraduate students but also as a research partner in a number of areas. To be able to showcase two significant international research centres on this trip was a source of great pride.