Dr Suresh Garimella, president of the University of Vermont, spoke to The Sunday Guardian.
Education partnership is the new driver for India-US strategic diplomacy. Those building this bridge of soft diplomacy are many from the Indian diaspora, who are at the helm of the US education system. Not many know that there are at least 16 Indian-origin presidents in US universities, many in the top-ranking institutes. These presidents of top US institutions have been working backstage to build academic partnerships, research and scholarly collaborations, and now opening opportunities for full-fledged US university campuses in India’s top cities. One such is Dr Suresh Garimella, president of the University of Vermont, currently intensively engaged in strengthening the prospects for academic collaborations, and high-quality research and scholarship between the US and India. An alumnus of IIT Madras, and then Ohio State University and the University of California, Berkeley, Dr Garimella has earlier been the executive vice-president of Purdue University, which gets the maximum Indian students in the US and where he built the first bridges of India-US research partnerships in science, in startups, internships, and joint-degree programs. He spoke at length with The Sunday Guardian on the opportunities and barriers for this “goldmine of diplomacy between the two democracies waiting to be tapped”. Excerpts:
Q: With your long experience in both teaching and managing higher education in the US, what are the most important attributes of this system that you think make the US the most sought-after destination for higher education globally?
A: While other countries and regions are catching up rapidly, the US has long been the undisputed leader in research and innovation springing from our higher education institutions. The US offers a wide variety of educational settings, ranging from small, private liberal arts colleges to massive research-intensive institutions. Educational innovation and a student-centric approach, a core of liberal arts education, infusing cutting-edge research into teaching, and support of experiential education (research experience, industrial internships, study abroad, service learning) are all key. Among the research-intensive institutions, the scope and scale and the extent of innovation remain world-leading. At these institutions, it is not in spite of, but indeed because of, the research exposure that the educational opportunities are so deeply enriched. Post-graduation opportunities are also plentiful in this country—in traditional career pathways and in entrepreneurial startups—and that remains an important attractor. Indian families, like many others, are also conscious of college rankings, and the US continues to lead the world in this area.
It is also important to note that it is this very global appeal that continues to feed the vibrancy and quality of higher education in the US—as generations of international students seek opportunity in the US, they enrich our offerings, our cultural diversity, and the innovation that springs from it. That said, I also want to note that we don’t have everything right. The cost of education is soaring and needs to be brought under control. Mission-creep and regulatory/compliance burdens are straining our systems, and public support for higher education is also under threat. Continued support of fundamental as well as use-inspired research from public and private (industry, foundation and philanthropic) sources is critical to our continued global competitiveness, as is the ability to foster civil discourse and dialogue.
Q: Comparatively, what is blocking India’s way to become a global educational destination even as Dubai, Hong Kong, and Singapore in close vicinity, are attracting students from worldwide?
A: I am broadly aware of the new efforts in India such as the National Educational Policy (NEP) which underline the attention higher education is receiving. The sheer scale and size of the need, where by some accounts 500 million students must be educated, poses a staggering challenge. Rather than comparing to successes in affluent city states, it is important to recognise that India will need to develop and implement its own solutions, ones that prioritise achieving excellence at scale and access for a wide spectrum of the population that necessitates a price point that would be unthinkable in most other countries. Governance and administrative practices that support a focus on student success and a strong research and innovation culture will be necessary, along with efforts at professional development and capacity-building to properly staff and train the exploding numbers of educational institutions in India.
Q: Indian students have been among the largest body of foreign students in the US. How have they contributed to American society and economy on the one hand and acted as the bridge between the two countries?
A: To truly capture the role immigrants have played in advancing the United States intellectually, socially and commercially would need many pages. And indeed, much has been said about Indian immigrants in the US specifically, ranging from their role in leading and establishing companies big and small, in contributing to and leading institutions of higher education, and increasing participation in social and political life. It is widely accepted that the Indian immigrant community punches well above its weight in the US. As their participation and recognition grows, they have acted as an important bridge between the two countries and cultures, and I only see this growing in the years to come.
Q: How do you read the Indian government’s decision to allow foreign universities to open campuses in India? What is the level of interest among American universities in setting up campuses in India?
A: As you know, there is a wide variety of educational institutions in the US ranging from exclusive top-ranked privates to large Midwestern publics and state flagships to regional publics and small, typically liberal arts private institutions offering specific value propositions. Each will have a different response to this opportunity. Many will continue to look to India as a source of students, but I hope these initiatives from the Indian government will also be seen as a means of building meaningful partnerships between two like-minded peoples, and will extend beyond student mobility to research and educational partnerships, developing new paradigms of high-quality educational delivery at scale, and a focus on impact on society and its pressing challenges. If setting up campuses of different flavours in India aids a university’s plans, so be it, but it is not the only—or even common—approach.
I, for one, believe deeply in comprehensive, strategic partnerships. While serving in university leadership at Purdue University, we prioritised our partnerships with India based on the fact that it had a more successful alumni than any country outside the US, and we had more Indian undergraduate students than any university in the US at the time. We set about building specific, actionable partnerships with select universities, companies, and government agencies and greatly strengthened our connections with our alumni. This led to a visiting doctoral student program supported by the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), the Purdue Undergraduate Research Experience (PURE), that brought upward of 40 top undergraduates to paid summer research internships at Purdue, research and training relationships with marquee companies, and a variety of collaborations on joint degree programs.
Currently, I am engaged in efforts to convene (mostly private) institutions of higher education in India into a consortium to jointly advance and transform practices and standards. I believe these kinds of efforts are as valuable as physical campuses in India, if not more so.
Q: As an educationist and university administrator, what are the top three suggestions that you would forward to the Indian government that would allow greater academic collaboration between Indian and American educational institutions?
A: The majority of successful partnerships happen at the institution-to-institution and researcher-to-researcher levels. As such, any regulatory relief, as well as funding programs that foster such collaborations, are welcome. Joint research labs between our countries, joint funding programs, and further easing of scholar mobility (including speeding up visa application processes on both sides) would help further the connections. A focus on professional development for faculty and staff would be timely—recruiting, upskilling and continually developing faculty and staff talent to feed the exploding needs of the higher education workforce must be an urgent priority, and an area in which US partnerships can be helpful.
Q: How is India becoming a global education destination with foreign campuses, including from the US, linked to India’s enhanced status worldwide?
A: As an economic and industrial powerhouse with a growing standing in the world, India’s educational institutions will continue to be critical in undergirding the needed research and technological developments and meeting the vast workforce needs of the emerging economy. We have seen other countries invest deeply and strategically in higher education and reap benefits in world rankings for their institutions and growth in competitiveness of their critical industries. The same has to be true for India, and it is heartening to see many of India’s top institutions increase their focus on research and excellence. In time, it will be increasingly critical for more of India’s so-called second- and third-tier institutions, which train the vast majority of students, to continue enhancing their contributions as well.
Q: While much focus has traditionally been laid on sending Indian students to technical programs and courses in the US, the enthusiasm is comparatively lower in humanities-related programs. What can be done to increase the number of Indian students going for non-technical degrees?
A: Career outcomes are important to families and students investing in an education. Good career outcomes have typically been associated with engineering, medical, business and other such professional degrees in India. As economies advance and populations become more affluent, it appears that the importance of a well-rounded liberal education becomes better recognised. This is reflected in company hiring, where a broader education is preferred over more focused technical skills. Anecdotally, I do see more Indian students joining humanities-related programs in the US in recent years.