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As part of the International Education Week-2002 from November 18-22, the United States Educational Foundation of India (USEFI) organised different events country-wide to promote exchange programmes with the US to deepen understanding across cultures.
The events in the Capital kicked-off on November 18 with a panel presentation on "International Education: Country Perspectives" at the American Centre.The participating countries included US, UK, Canada, Ireland, France, Germany and Australia whereas New Zealand was conspicuous by its absence.
Delivering the opening remarks, Jane E Schukoske, Executive Director, USEFI said, "The US Department of State in partnership with the Department of Education is celebrating International Education Week to reach out to young people to develop a broader understanding of cultures and languages of respective countries. The education week reiterates our efforts to endure friendship and partnerships through international education and exchange; and the coming together of educational services of respected countries will go a long way in realising that goal."
The presentations of respective educational services were centred around the programmes offered at the undergraduate and postgraduate level in the areas of engineering, MBA, computer science and other specialised subjects; qualifications and marks required getting admissions in institutes of higher learning; visa procedures; cost of living; tuition fees; how can one get scholarship or grant; place to live in and whether one can take up paid employment while studying in respective countries.
Quentin Stevenson Perks, Counsellor, Education and Training, Australain Education International; Hazel Siromoni, Canadian Education Centre Network; Patrick Beck, Director, French Language and Education Bureau; Hannelore Bossmann, Director, German Academic Exchange Service, Shikha J Mohanty, Education and Trade Manager, Ireland; Jugnu Roy, Assistant Manager, Education UK-North India and Vijaya Khandavilli, Educational Advisor, USEFI gave different aspects of higher education programmes for the benefit of students interested in pursuing education in these countries. Each presentation was followed by a question and answer session where educational counsellors got an opportunity to know more about the educational programmes in respective countries.
Moreover, this was not the end as the USEFI organised a debate competition on "Education Abroad: Brain Gain or Brain Drain?". Participating in this competition were two students each from Army Public School (APS), Ridge Road; DPS, RK Puram; Modern School, Barakhamba Road; Birla Vidya Niketan (BVN), Pushp Vihar; Mother''s International School, Aurobindo Marg and Spring Dales School, Pusa Road who spoke in favour and against the topic. Debators were marked on the basis of content, research and data collection, language, voice modulation, stage presence and pronunciation whereas injectors were marked on the basis of quality of questions, language, expression, pronunciation and stage presence.
Abhinandan Gupta of BVN who spoke in favour of the topic had an interesting aspect to this debate. Gupta said: "Students want to go abroad as most of the Indian universities and institutions of higher learning apart from a chosen few are in a bad shape. Moreover, students do leave the country because very few seats are offered in institutes like IIMs and IITs."
On the other hand, Rishabh Gulati of Modern School who spoke against the topic felt that education abroad leads to brain drain. Gulati remarked, "Indian students studying abroad become experts in their chosen areas but it''s the foreign countries who benefit from it." Abhinandan Gupta of BVN who spoke in favour of the topic and Mitasha Chandoke of SDS who spoke against the topic were declared the best debators. Vaibhav Sahgal of DPS was declared the best injector. BVN was awarded the trophy for receiving maximum points during all the stages in the competition.
The panel of judges for the debating competition included Sunil Kanwar, lecturer, Delhi School of Economics; Darpan Kalra, Management Consultant, executive member, Harvard Club of India, Quentin Stevenson-Perks, counsellor, education and training, Australain Education International, T C S Srinivas Raghavan, consulting editor, Business Standard and C Jayanthi, editor, Education Times.
An information seminar on, "Creating winning applications to US business schools" was held at the USEFI during the education week to provide information on admissions in B-schools across the US.