In November of last year, Professor Glenn Wightwick, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) and Professor William Purcell, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (International and Advancement) went on a week-long visit to our Indian KTPs. They were accompanied by Innes Ireland and Leo Mian Liu from the International Office; Dr Jamshed Siddiqui (UTS Country Director and Chief Representative, India and South Asia); as well as four academics including Professor Dayong Jin, Dr Guandong Xu, Dr Matthew Arnold and Professor Jon Adams. The objective of the trip was to further develop UTS’s relationship with Indian KTPs as well as explore new opportunities.
The delegation visited four Indian KTPs including Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore; Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M); Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU); TERI University and also made visits to Infosys Limited and the High Commission of Australia in India.
(L-R) Mr Innes Ireland, Dr Guangdong Xu, Dr Matthew Arnold, Professor Jon Adams, Professor Dayong Jin, Professor Glenn Wightwick, Dr Jamshed Siddiqui, Professor William Purcell and Mr Leo Mian Liu.
Discussions at the KTPs focused on scoping potential areas of research, discussing student mobility in the form of joint PhDs and identifying other opportunities for engagement. A further outcome of the visit is the idea of developing a network of KTP institutions collaborating together within interdisciplinary fields.
While each Indian KTP has developed and transformed and each are at a different level of engagement with UTS – all Indian KTPs have expressed their common desire to continue pursuing collaborative links with UTS.
In addition, a very productive meeting was held at Infosys and it was agreed that applications will be accepted from UTS students for their InStep Internship program.
The delegation visit to India was incredibly successful and not only provided an opportunity for our UTS researchers to collaborate internationally, but also allowed our senior executive staff to be further acquainted with their equivalent KTP counterparts.
The KTP India delegation was the first pilot of its kind to pursue international research collaboration in a model different to the individual academic visits. We are currently in the process of making preparations for a delegation visit to Latin America.
If you are an academic who has existing research links with researchers from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (PUC) or Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Brazil please contact Ana.Ruiz@uts.edu.au for more information.