GUWAHATI: The United States-India Educational Foundation(USIEF) held an outreach program for its Fulbright-Nehru and other Fellowships here at the Rajiv Gandhi University (RGU) campus on Friday.
Speaking at the event, RGU Vice-Chancellor Prof. Saket Kushwaha appreciated the efforts of the Internal Quality Assurance Cell headed by Prof. Amitav Mitra in organising an event of this nature.
Expressing his gratitude to the Foundation for coming forward to encourage the RGU fraternity to apply for the scholarships, he said that even as institutions reach out to us, we too have to come forward to avail such opportunities.
Prof. Kushwaha said that the 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. But for that human capital and building capacity are the two main pillars.
“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 said.
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. He extended his welcome to the representative from the USIEF and hoped that his presence on campus will inform, sensitise, motivate and encourage more applications from the University. Sharing 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 fellowships follow a process where they are advertised a year ahead and that applications considered now will be eligible in 2020. He shared 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.
Sharing that 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 that Arunachal is one of the states in the nation from where the minimum number of applications are received. He expressed a hope that with the intervention, at least one person will be motivated to apply.
He also shared that the Foundation additionally supports school teachers for exchange programmes and appealed that this information may also be sent out to school teachers in the State to encourage them to apply.