The Hindu : New Delhi News : All set for `real' student exchange

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 24, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

All set for `real' student exchange

It may have come after a rather long wait of over five decades, but with educational institutions in India and Pakistan finally looking ready for some "real" student exchange, a new beginning is on the anvil.

While attempts to keep students from both sides of the border connected through short cultural and academic exchange programmes have been under way for some time now, the option of students actually getting to be part of a classroom on the other side was almost unthinkable some time ago.

But this week might just see a fresh start being made for greater cooperation between institutions of both sides. While a continuing exchange programme between Pakistan's Kinnaird College and Delhi University's Lady Shri Ram College will move a step further by giving journalism students the chance to do their dissertation in the other country, engineering students may be the next to share the technology highway.

If the buzz in campus circles is anything to go by, then Pakistan's National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences (NUCES) -- considered the equivalent of the Indian IITs there -- is said to be considering a proposal made by an Indian institute to allow exchange of engineering students for an internship or dissertation.

With the University representatives having already visited IIT Delhi and now set to visit the Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology and Jamia Millia Islamia today, students are hoping that the talks will bring about a positive response. About 40 delegates from Pakistan had participated in a conference organised by the International Society of Electrical and Electronic Engineers in Delhi this past week, with many ideas being exchanged.

"We had made a proposal to the Director of NUCES, Prof. Kasir Durami, on the possibility of student exchange programmes and he expressed interest in it. The issue will be discussed when Mr.Durami visits our campus and we are hoping for a positive response," said Gagan Arora, the general secretary of NSIT's IEEE wing.

Being seen as an opportunity for the younger generation to interact with each other, students say although a visit to Pakistan may not quite mean a better exposure for Indian students academically, it will give them the much needed cultural experience.

"We may be technically much better off than students from Pakistan, but the exchange would definitely give us the chance to get a feel of things there and understand them better, so we are looking forward to what the institutes decide,'' said another student.

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The 56th Annual Convocation of Aligarh Muslim University will be held on March 2 at the Athletics Grounds of the University. The Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Arjun Singh, will be the chief guest and deliver the convocation address.

While 4,000 students will be awarded degrees and medals, the University will confer an honorary doctorate on Mr. Arjun Singh and the Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly of Iran, Dr. Gholam Ali Haddad Adel.

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They may be known for their gruelling study sessions, but engineering students like to have their share of fun too.

The Delhi College of Engineering this week is witnessing a lot of action with the annual cultural festival currently on.

Titled "Expressing the spirit of India'', the festival was inaugurated on Tuesday by the Delhi Chief Secretary, S. Regunathan.

The Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, meanwhile, is holding a five-day orientation programme on "Entrepreneurship Development''. Being organised by the University School of Management Studies in collaboration with the National Institute of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development, the workshop is on till this coming Friday.

While Thursday's workshop will focus on "Managing Enterprise: Marketing and Finance'', the agenda for Friday is "Managing Enterprise: Human Resource and Production Aspects".

Lakshmi B. Ghosh

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