The Hindu : New Delhi News : Now Indo-Pak academic exchanges in the offing

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 27, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Now Indo-Pak academic exchanges in the offing

Staff Reporter

`There is immense respect for Indian Institutes in Pakistan'

NEW DELHI: With the peace process between India and Pakistan now moving beyond just cricket and cultural exchanges, academic collaborations seem to be the next big thing, with one of the country's politically most alive campuses -- Jawaharlal Nehru University -- gearing up to hear voices from "the other side".

Having just returned from a two-week-long trip to Pakistan that included visits to various universities, JNU Vice-Chancellor G.K. Chadha is already chalking out possible plans of academic collaborations that could include not just student and faculty exchanges but also joint research programmes.

With the Vice-Chancellor planning to call a meeting of all departmental deans next week to share his experience and discuss the measures that could be taken to further the initiative, things could be finally be on a roll. "We are exploring the various possibilities and would like to take the Government into confidence in this matter. We are sure that the Government will be willing to build better ties through higher education," Prof. Chadha said.

The Vice-Chancellor visited four universities during his stay in Pakistan -- Punjab University in Lahore, Peshawar University, Qaid-e-Azam University and the National University for Sciences and Technology.

Describing the public reaction there as extremely encouraging, Prof. Chadha said: "People were extremely excited with the academic strides made by India. They take our standards to be very good and showed immense respect for the standard of JNU and other Indian institutes. And given the great respect shown by them towards the University, we would like to explore the possibility of forging academic in various areas."

Coming as it does following a meeting of Vice-Chancellors from Asian universities held recently in JNU, Prof. Chadha's visit is being seen as a small beginning. "There are various areas that we could work on together. The general feeling there was that the research facilities are not up to the mark. Also most of the senior faculty had done their Ph.D. from foreign universities. Why should they spend so much money and go all the way when they can simply come to the neighbourhood?" points out Prof. Chadha.

But JNU is obviously looking at gaining from the experience too. "I was pleased to see that the University of Peshawar's Department of Archaeology has remarkable educational material. They are doing some excellent excavation work and the Peshawar Museum has brilliantly conserved literature and works related to Buddha and his period. During a talk I did mention that JNU is open to even holding its entrance exam in Pakistan. We are now hoping for a positive feedback from the universities," he said.

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