The Hindu Business Line : Australian varsity to tie up with Indian institutions

Chennai March 16 The University of Western Australia (UWA) plans to tie up with academic institutions in India for student and faculty exchange programmes besides working on joint research projects in areas of mutual interest.

The tie-ups would also be backed by scholarships for Indian students.

The university recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with IIT-Madras and will soon sign agreements with IIT-Delhi and IIT-Mumbai, according to Ms Hema Sharda, Professor, School of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering ,UWA.

Internship

"We plan to accept 35 students for a 10-week long internship at UWA this May. The trip will be fully sponsored by us," she told Business Line on the sidelines of the Australian Education Interview Programme.

As part of the internship, candidates will get to work on research projects in areas of their choice.

Microelectronics, nano technology and biomedical engineering are some areas preferred by students, Ms Sharda said.

As of now, UWA has also granted internships to students from Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology, New Delhi and University Institute of Engineering and Technology, Punjab.

Scholarships

So far, about A$1,00,000 have been invested through such scholarships and more is likely to follow, said Ms Sharda.

"We are open to offering more scholarships so that undergraduate students in India look at us as an option for full-time post-graduate study," she said. UWA is also looking at equal institute funding, especially for research projects, and is willing to tie up with premier private institutions.

It also wants to explore the option of offering post-graduation and Ph.D programmes for lecturers in Indian colleges.

Lecturers who choose to study at UWA would be eligible for scholarships.