Paul J. Geis, assistant director for affiliations and exchanges in the Isabella Cannon International Centre, participated in the inaugural Fulbright Nehru International Education Administrators Seminar in India this spring for international education administrators from the United States.
Geis was among a group of senior international administrators from 10 institutions of higher education in the United States and was the only representative from a private college or university. Prior to beginning the March 20 – April 3 seminar, Geis also conducted a site visit to the Alliance for Global Education in Pune, a newly approved semester affiliate study abroad program.
Geis cited several reasons for applying for the grant, among them The Elon Commitment strategic plan, which calls for more study abroad options for Elon students, specifically in India and China, and for a tripling of international students at Elon.
“India is a country of 1.2 billion people and is there is so much potential for Elon students, faculty, and administrators to collaborate with and learn from our counterparts there,” he said. “We have had several faculty with interests in India and a few short-term programs and other activities in India but Elon has no institutional links to partners in the Indian higher education system. I wanted to participate in the seminar to be able to understand the post-secondary system in India and help determine what types of institutions and programs might best meet the needs of Elon.”
The seminar included two weeks of guest lectures, visits to institutions, group discussions, and cultural visits. The institutions were in and around the cities of Delhi, Kolkata, and Chennai (formerly Madras). The diversity of institutions visited mirrored the diversity of the U.S. institutions represented. They included Lady Shri Ram College for Women, a well-known constituent college of the University of Delhi, the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Madras Christian College, SRM University, a private university in Chennai, and Indira Gandhi National Open University, among the world’s largest open universities with about 3 million students.
Geis said the visits gave him a good insight into the different types of institutions.
“There are some people in the United States, and in India, who think that the only institutions worth looking at are the IIMs or that private institutions must be better,” he said. Meeting with top administrative and academic staff, as well as students, helped to shed light on many of the nuances of Indian higher education. “The Indian system is definitely overburdened and struggling to cope with capacity for an upcoming cohort of youths that is 500,000,000 strong. There are, however, strong institutions and centers of excellence in all sectors.”
Geis said the Fulbright Nehru program allowed him access to some of the top names in Indian higher education. Kiran Datar, who most recently served as an advisor to the National Knowledge Commission of the Government and held previous positions as the Dean of Colleges at the University of Delhi and as Principal Miranda House, University College for Women, accompanied Geis and his colleagues throughout the visit.
Other notable speakers during the seminar included Dinesh Singh, vice chancellor of Delhi University, and Narendra Jadhav, a member of the Planning Commission of India.
Geis is hopeful that his participation in the seminar and the information he learned can have an impact on the continuing internationalization of the Elon.
“The organizational infrastructures for international partnerships at many of the institutions in India are limited or nonexistent,” he said. “Implementing student exchange programs will be challenging but the benefit for Elon students and the campus community would be well worth the efforts. Our Indian colleagues are interesting in collaborating with US institutions and we are seeing increasing student and faculty interest in India here at Elon.
Geis will give a presentation on the Indian higher education system at a brown bag lunch hosted later this month by the Isabella Cannon International Centre.