RONO HILLS, Mar 17: The United States-India Educational Foundation (USIEF) held an outreach program for its Fulbright-Nehru and other fellowships here at the RGU campus on Sunday.
Speaking at the event, RGU Vice-Chancellor Prof. Saket Kushwaha said that human capital and building capacity are the two main pillars to make RGU an institute of repute.
‘Our vision is to make RGU one of the better universities in the country and even if it is a small university, we can still aspire to make it an institute of repute,’ the VC said.
Kushwaha further said that students in institutions of higher learning like the RGU aspire for a career in teaching and research and ‘it is our responsibility to prepare them and give them exposure to avenues where they can learn and expand their horizons of knowledge.’
It is not just about the fellowships, but also the associations that grow out of them that can make them better prepared for the future, he added.
Expressing his gratitude to the USIEF for coming forward to encourage the RGU fraternity to apply for the scholarships, he said, ‘even if institutions do reach out to us, we too have to come forward and avail such opportunities.’
Speaking on the occasion IQA Cell Director Prof. Amitav Mitra said that the Fulbright-Nehru scholarships is a very prestigious award and ranges from fellowships of 2-week upto 2 years.
Welcoming the representative from the USIEF, he hoped that his presence on campus will inform, sensitise, motivate and encourage more applications from the University.
Disclosing that he himself has been a fellowship alumni, Prof. Mitra expressed that these fellowships not only benefit the individuals but also the institution they come from, because the experiences and learning gained through the exchange add on to their contribution back at their own institution. “Not only that, even the host institution benefits because of the potential for international collaborations and signing of MoUs”, he said.
Sumantra Basu of the USIEF, in his presentation, said that the governments of US and India have awarded more than 20,000 fellowships since its inception in 1950, both out-bound and in-bound.
In addition to the Fulbright-Nehru fellowships, the Foundation also has other fellowships like the Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellowship, which scholars and academic leaders can apply for, he pointed out, adding that Arunachal is one of the states in the nation from where the minimum number of applications are received. He expressed the hope that with the intervention, at least 1 person will be motivated to apply.
He further informed that the Foundation additionally supports school teachers for exchange programs and appealed that this information may also be sent out to school teachers in the state to encourage them to apply.
Dr. Rajesh Chakraborty, Head of the History department also spoke. Among others, faculty members, research scholars and students attended the programme. (Team Mass Comm.)
