By Azera Rahman, IANS
New Delhi : For those aspiring to study at Cambridge University, here’s some good news. The university is planning to enhance scholarships, said Alison Richard, vice-chancellor of one of the largest universities in Britain.
The university is also signing memoranda of understanding (MoU) with various Indian universities to facilitate more exchange programmes so that more Indian students study at Cambridge, according to Richard. She is the first women vice-chancellor of the one of the oldest seats of learning in the world.
Cambridge University takes pride in churning out a great number of leaders across the world, and indeed many from India like Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to name a few.
It is a place where students aspire to go for their graduate programmes. But financial constraints often come in between and cut many dreams short.
“We understand that monetary constraints is a major hindrance for students coming to us to study. We have a number of Indian students in our university and we want more to come,” Richard told IANS.
“This is why this year, we are planning to raise funds, as much as one billion pounds ($2 billioin), of which a substantial amount will go into granting full scholarships to students. This will hopefully encourage more Indian students into coming here,” she said.
Richard is on a 10-day visit to India for the launch of a chair in honour of Jawaharlal Nehru, who was an alumnus of the institution.
Jawaharlal Nehru Professorship of Indian Business and Enterprise is an initiative to grant professorship to an Indian academician to do research at the Judge Business School at Cambridge University.
The Indian government supports the initiative, which commemorates the centenary of Jawaharlal Nehru’s entry into Trinity College Cambridge, where the first Indian prime minister studied for a degree in natural sciences.
“Another reason why I scheduled my visit during this time is that I will participate in the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mumbai’s conclave in the next couple of days.
“Cambridge has always had a strong relationship with the IITs, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore, and the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) and we are working towards making these relationships stronger,” she said.
Richard will also be meeting vice-chancellors of different universities during her visit and will be conducting workshops with them.
“Cambridge also has a strong relationship with Delhi University (DU) and the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in the field of social sciences and humanities.
“I will be meeting vice-chancellors of DU, JNU and other universities from Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata and discuss possibilities of exchange programmes. In due course of time, we will be signing MoUs with some universities for such programmes although we already have scholarly exchange programmes with some of the IITs and the IISc,” she said.
Students from Cambridge University do come to India under exchange programmes, with durations varying between three weeks to three months in the IITs, IISc and IIMs, and according to Richard this trend will be given a bigger boost in the future.
Mathematicians, chemists and earth scientists, besides others working in the field of nano-science from the IIT Mumbai and scientists involved in molecular drug discovery in IISc Bangalore, have regular exchanges with the faculty of Cambridge University.
According to Richard, 20 percent of the academicians of the Cambridge University have come to India on one of these exchange tours.
“The Gates Cambridge Scholarship, which gives 100 percent funding to the students, has been availed by more than 200 students till now. Of them 40 are Indian students. This time 16 Indian students have availed this scholarship.
“We hope that in the next decade, there will be much more exchange between the Cambridge University and other Indian Universities. We want more Indian students to come,” Richard said.