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Bond to succeed
India calling Professor Graham Button
This is a case of trend reversal. We always hear about Indians going abroad to pursue their dreams, but here’s a foreign university looking for Indian collaborators. Professor Graham Button, Executive Dean, Faculty of Arts, Computing, Engineeri
ng and Sciences, Sheffield Hallam University, U.K., is here to discuss long-term research opportunities with various Indian universities with the aim of developing mutual understanding.
The University has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with some high quality institutions like Christ College, Bangalore, Manipal University and NIT, Hamirpur (Himachal Pradesh) and NIT, Surat. “Most UK universities look to collaborate for teaching alone but I am not here for recruitment,” says Button, clearing the doubts.
Not to dominate
His visit is specific to two research institutions of his university – Material Engineering Research Institute (MERI) and Communication Computing and Cultural Research (C3RI). Unlike many who look at India as an inferior associate, Button clearly wants to explore deep relationships that are mutually beneficial. “We want to engage in research only with those universities who are doing similar work and can work in a global partnership environment. We are not here to be the superior party or to dominate. For a successful research, people need to respect each other. We believe that India has the potential and we want to learn as much from these collaborations,” he hopes.
It is often said that Indian universities lack facilities, in comparison to their foreign counterparts. And Button himself has travelled to various parts of India to check out the amenities. Did he see any deterrent? “Yes, there is some gap in some universities. But the places I visited, there are none. All of them are very well-equipped and forward thinking. I shouldn’t be saying this but some of them are better equipped than us,” he explains.
And the fact is Sheffield Hallam has been rated as one of the top universities in research in Britain by Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) conducted by their Government annually.
Generally, an initiative of such magnitude is not without any problems but Button assures that he hasn’t faced much as yet. “What we are facing are just institutional hurdles that are common across universities anywhere. And I knew we will face it. Anyway, if there’s any problem we will solve it for them,” sums up Button.
M.R
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