Cementing Sydney's relationship with India

The University of Sydney will send its largest ever international delegation to India next week, in a clear demonstration of the country’s growing importance to higher education in Australia.

Led by the University of Sydney’s Vice-Chancellor and Principal Dr Michael Spence, the delegation of more than 60 academics and staff will travel across India to meet with institutional and industry partners.

The trip coincides with a visit by the Australian Minister for Education Dan Tehan MP. Dr Spence will be speaking at a session during the India-Australia International Education and Research Workshop - hosted by Minister Tehan - to discuss the internationalisation of higher education and research.

“The University of Sydney is Australia’s first university and one of the most prestigious in the country. We know how important India is to our future,” Dr Michael Spence said.

“We already look after hundreds of Indian students on our campus and we would love to welcome more. We also want to strengthen and broaden our existing ties with key Indian institutions and industry partners.

“India is full of exciting possibilities. As the world’s fastest growing major economy, there is no other country that offers more growth opportunities for Australia.

"Partnerships with key organisations such as the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, IIT Bombay and Tech Mahindra mean our researchers and students get an opportunity to study, live and undertake important research in India at a time when the local economy is going through a fundamental transformation process.”

Sydney Scholars India Equity Scholarship

During the delegation visit, the University in collaboration with the Asha Society will announce the creation of the Sydney Scholars India Equity Scholarship. Worth up to AU$60,000 (IND 2,930,000) a year, the scholarship is one of the most generous scholarships to be awarded by an Australian university. It will cover the cost of postgraduate tuition fees, living expenses, flights, textbooks and health cover and is available only to current residents of communities in Delhi, India where Asha Society works.

In a ceremony on Wednesday 20 November, this year’s scholarship will be awarded to a student from the Peeragarhi in Northern Delhi.

The Sydney Scholars India Equity Scholarship for postgraduate course work follows on from the Sydney Scholars (India) Scholarships, announced in February this year. Combined the two scholarship schemes are worth AU$560,000 (INR 27,350,000) a year and are awarded to 20 international students from India annually.

Vice-Chancellor Dr Michael Spence will be visiting the high schools of the inaugural recipients of the two major scholarships offered under the Sydney Scholars India Scholarship program, valued at up to AU$200,000 (INR 10,000,000) each. He will be awarding the schools a trophy in recognition of the achievements of their alumni and delivering a talk to the students about education in the fourth industrial revolution.

The two scholarship recipients for the Sydney Scholars India Scholarship are:

• Aryan Bhatia from Delhi Public School, who is now undertaking a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours)
• Madhullikaa Singh from Bombay International School, who is now undertaking a Bachelor of Arts and Advanced Studies

Research partners

Currently we have around 60 University of Sydney academics doing research in or about India, our research collaborations with Indian partners are growing and we hope to accelerate that growth over the coming years. In 2015, Indian Institute of Technology Madras signed on as one of our 20 strategic partners.

The University is looking to develop priority partnerships with a total of six Indian institutions we already have an existing relationship with, to develop a deeper engagement in strategic areas of science and research. Each priority partner has been matched to multidisciplinary research themes.

As part of the delegation visit, the University of Sydney will sign an agreement with Tata Institute of Social Sciences to work on collaborative research around the flagship theme of Human Security in the Anthropocene.

High level meetings will also take place with IIT Bombay, Manipal Academy of Higher Education and the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta and Bangalore to explore further partnership opportunities.

Industry partners

We are seeking to develop more industry partnerships in the wake of the success we have had with partners like Tech Mahindra, India’s leading technology company. We have partnered with Tech Mahindra to provide students with real-world experience through the newly developed Industry and Community Projects Units (ICPU) where students are given authentic problems set out by industry, community and government organisations.

Tech Mahindra is the first ICPU industry partnership in India and students will be work on tackling the challenges of water shortage and air pollution in India. We are seeking to expand our partnerships with industry in India and will be holding a number of meetings to facilitate this during this visit.

Public talks in India

For the first time since it was started in 2006, we will be taking our flagship public talks program – Sydney Ideas - overseas. Audiences in Mumbai and Delhi will have the opportunity to hear from prominent University of Sydney academics who will be discussing:

• Smart cities in India – the intersection of urbanism and telecommunications - Dr Tooran Alizadeh
• Energy consumption and production in India and Australia - Dr Girish Lakhwani
• Corporate leadership and Gandhian virtue ethics: an Australian reflection - Professor John Shields