Trinity College Dublin plans big for India

Professor Jane Ohlmeyer, VP of Global Relations at Trinity College Dublin, one of Ireland’s oldest universities was recently in New Delhi as part of the university’s ongoing deepening engagement with India. Apart from being at the cutting edge of research, technology and innovation, Trinity recently has had Bollywood on campus with the filming of Ek Tha Tiger. Jane Ohlmeyer spoke to me at length about the university’s plans for India.

Professor Jane Ohlmeyer with Salman Khan: Bollywood calling

Debeshi: Can you elaborate on why you are visiting New Delhi

Jane: We are visiting to do a number of things: to raise the visibility of Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin in India; to nurture high level collaborations with leading Indian universities; and to promote our postgraduate and undergraduate courses to prospective Indian students.

Debeshi: What are Trinity College Dublin's plans for India?

Jane: Trinity has extensive research collaborations in India.  Here are a few examples.

Civil Engineering: A scholarship scheme for the exchange of students of taught Masters courses and research collaboration between consortium members has been developed by the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering at Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin and a number of Institutes of Technology, National Institutes of Technology and universities in northern India.

Trinity’s Adjunct Professor Ravindra Dhir and Associate Professor Roger West, of TrinityHaus, the Michael McNamara Centre for Construction Innovation and Sustainability at Trinity, have  developed the initiatives:

The Ireland-Indian Initiative in Civil Engineering (I3CE@TCD) sets out to foster links between Trinity and a select number of high level Indian academic institutions to facilitate the exchange of staff and postgraduate students in the delivery of the MSc/MTech taught course programmes. It will allow Indian or Irish students to spend one year in the partner institution with full credit towards their degree.  Indian students from partner institutions who are accepted to attend for an academic year in Trinity will be awarded a scholarship.  Dissertations will be co-supervised with a corresponding academic in the partner institution.

As part of this process, Memoranda of Understanding have just been signed between Trinity College and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi and Thapar University,Patiala. MTech Internship students are currently in Trinity College Dublin researching composite bamboo columns for structural use, in collaboration with Professor Suresh Bhalla of IIT Delhi, supported by the Faculty of Engineering, Mathematics and Science at Trinity.

The Ireland-India Concrete Research Initiative (IICRI), is developing collaborations in research with such partner institutions, including joint funding and supervision of PhD students. There is a significant challenge for both countries in developing more sustainable concrete, essential to infrastructural, commercial and domestic building projects. The use of greener alternative cements in concrete leads to changes in the durability characteristics which have relevance for both life-cycle costings and the carbon footprint associated with infrastructural development. The consortium of Civil Engineering at Trinity and its Indian partners aim to share expertise, knowledge, resources and facilities in order to disseminate the necessary innovations to allow Irish and Indian engineers to take advantage of more sustainable concrete materials with confidence in the future.

Trinity College Dublin’s Professor of Experimental Brain Research, Shane O’Mara recently visited the National Institute for Mental Health and Neuroscience, NIMHANS, in Bangalore, in order to teach in a Department of Science and Technology (India) sponsored school in the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory. A competition was held to bring students from all over India to participate in a special teaching programme involving faculty from all over India, and from the USA and Ireland.

The school was organised jointly by Professor of Neurogenetics, Mani Ramaswami for Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, and Professor B S Shankaranarayana.  Twenty-five students were selected for the programme, coming to Bangalore from as far afield as New Delhi, Bhopal, Calcutta and other locations. Professor O’Mara taught on two topics: a) the functions of the hippocampal formation in learning, memory and amnesia, and b) the neural coding of memories by ensemble activity in the brain.

In addition to his teaching at NIMHANS, Professor O’Mara also visited Professor Shona Chatterji, at the National Centre for Biotechnological Sciences, NCBS with whom he has established a Science Foundation Ireland-funded research programme. A research student will visit Professor O’Mara’s laboratory for six months during the course of 2012 to avail of advanced training in the use of the TCIN 7T magnetic resonance imaging system. An exciting experimental programme has been devised and joint publications between TCIN and NCBS are expected.

Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin’s arts and humanities research institute, the Trinity Long Room Hub, has a Memorandum of Understanding with the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Student (JNIAS), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. It facilitates a bilateral exchange programme whereby two fellows from each institution annually spends up to three months in the partner institution.  There they contribute to the research environment of the host, via research presentations and one-on-one meetings, and carry out their own research. Scholars named to the programme for 2012 are Professor Eunan O'Halpin (TCD), Peter Arnds (TCD) and Jyoti Atwal (JNU). 

In the first instance, the programme is focused on the arts and humanities, but scholars outside of these agreements can be facilitated by agreement between the institutions. 

 

Debeshi: How many international students are there on campus? How many of these are from India?

Jane: Today it has a vibrant community of 17,000 students representing 122 nationalities, and a wide range of social backgrounds, age-groups and cultures.  About 10% of our students are from non-EU countries, including India. We have 140 Indian students at Trinity, 45 of whom are undergraduates and the rest are postgraduates.  These students are studying a wide range of subjects: Engineering, English Literature, Economics, Computer Science, Medicine, Business and Medicine.   We are keen to increase the number of Indian students studying at Trinity and in August will advertise scholarships for postgraduate and undergraduate study.

Debeshi: Any other interesting updates you would like to share with our readers.

Jane: The Bollywood film, Ek Ta Tiger, which stars Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif was filmed in Trinity in September 2011 and has a Trinity story line.  The film will be launched on 15 August 2012 and we plan a range of activities in Delhi and other Indian cities around the time of the launch.

Watch this space for more!

MBA on top: GMAC survey

The MBA programme remains top choice for prospective business school students despite the growing popularity of specialised master’s programmes.

A new report from the Graduate Management Admission Council reveals that among all prospective students surveyed, 55 percent indicated that they are only interested in attending an MBA programme (this has remained steady over the last three years), while 18 percent of prospective students are only considering a specialised master’s programme, up from 13 percent in 2009.

The mba.com Prospective Students Survey results for the first time offers insight into the reasons why prospects choose study destinations. Similar to GMAT score sending patterns, the top three preferred destinations were the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. Reputation of a country’s educational system was the most cited reason for choosing a specific destination. Prospective students intending to study in the US cited better career preparation, whereas improved chances for an international career was cited for non-US destinations. Notably, affordability was cited among respondents selecting Canada, Singapore, and India.

“Prospective students have more information and more options with programme choice than ever before,” said Dave Wilson, president and CEO of GMAC. “But as the dark economic clouds continue to dissipate, the challenge of meeting the financial costs of a graduate management programme is very much on their minds.”

Fewer respondents cited economic reservations as a constraint to pursuing a graduate management degree compared with three years ago. Yet, when choosing a specific program to apply to, financial considerations have become more important. Potential students say they will rely more on personal savings and family support than on loans, grants and other aid.

Better-than-average cloud-related job growth in education: IDC white paper

Cloud computing is being touted as a significant transformation tool the world over.

In a white paper commissioned by Microsoft, IDC estimates that spending on public and private IT cloud services will generate nearly 14 million jobs worldwide by 2015. The paper also reveals that a majority of these jobs will be found in emerging markets because of their immense workforces — 1.2 billion workers in China and India alone.

Cloud Computing: transformation tool?

According to the paper, the education sector, a small vertical but with better-than-average cloud-related job growth, will see IT cloud services as an attractive way to deal with budget constraints. Many are worried about being locked into a single cloud vendor, but in many developed countries, they may find cloud computing is still a good way to face budget cuts. In less financially constrained geographies, IT cloud services will offer standardisation and lower capital costs of expansion.

Dr Elizabeth Sherly

Explains Dr Elizabeth Sherly, Director (In-Charge), Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management-Kerala (IIITM-K): “Kerala’s state education department, for instance, would gain significantly by switching to the cloud platform. There are a number of applications in the education department, handling functions such as common admission counselling and results. These applications register heavy traffic only at certain times, for instance during the time of admission or results. In other periods, the system remains idle.” 


By adopting cloud computing for this sector, the government can create a central pool of shared resources including software and infrastructure. Not to mention, setting off cloud-related job growth.

Students and academic researchers are not permanent migrants: Universities UK

The British government’s immigration policies aimed at preventing student visa abuse at bogus colleges has resulted in decreasing numbers of foreign students, particularly those from countries such as India, Pakistan and China. The country’s higher education sector has been voicing concerns about the long-terms effects of the government’s strict visa regime on a market that is now worth in excess of £5 billion.

Eric Thomas: contentious debate

At a recent debate organized by higher education action group, Universities UK, university chiefs were unanimous about the fact that the image of Britain as a leading international education destination had taken a beating in the light of the government’s visa regulations.

Professor Eric Thomas, President, Universities UK said: “Migration is a significant issue and we are behind the government in stopping student visa abuse. However, there is clearly a conflict between government policy and the higher education sector’s ability to compete in the international market.” Thomas revealed that while UK’s market share in the international education market dropped from 10.8 per cent in 2000 to 9.9 per cent in 2009, biggest competitors have increased their market share. He also added that there have been reductions in student numbers from the Indian subcontinent.

“Students and academic researchers are not permanent migrants,” stated Thomas. “They come here to study and then, by and large, they leave.”

Professor Julia King, Vice-Chancellor, Aston University revealed that the University had witnessed a 39 per cent decline in applications from India. Birmingham’s local economy (food, clothing and entertainment) had also suffered a loss in revenues. King added that with a change in the post-study work visa regulations, graduates in disciplines such as pharmacy, engineering and business had been affected severely.

Glyn Williams, Head of Migration Policy, Home Office defended his government saying that “student migration is here with us and here to stay and no government is going to ignore that.”

“The more we debate, the more the adverse effect of the government policy will reverberate throughout the world,” Williams added.

Keith Vaz: crusader?

Rt.Hon Keith Vaz MP, Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, focused on how public perception of Britain as a popular overseas education destination in important student markets such as India had taken a beating, especially with the recent deaths and Indian media’s attention on these tragic events. Vaz pointed out that Britain was being viewed as an unwelcoming place and many Indian middle-class families, who could afford an overseas education, were choosing to send their children to countries such as the United States instead.

Vaz was openly critical of the UK Border Agency (UKBA), border control agency of the British Government. He appealed to university representatives to lobby with the Foreign Office, the Government’s Business Department and No 10 rather than the Home Office. “These departments understand the benefits that foreign students bring to our economy,” added Vaz, himself a first generation immigrant. Vaz was born in Yemen from parents born in India.