Guest Lecture On Higher Education Opportunities For Engineering And Management Students - Helm Centre

A Guest Lecture on “Higher Education Opportunities for Engineering and Management Students in Taiwan,” was organised by Dr. KCG Verghese Higher Education Leadership Management Centre, on 18th July 2022 at Good Shepherd Hall.

The event began with a Welcome Address by Dr.G. Ilavazhagan, Director International Affairs, HITS. He accorded a warm and cordial welcome to Dr. Rushikesh Ulhas, Assistant Professor, International Business Administration Program, Providence University, Taiwan. He was extremely delighted to welcome the students of Management, and Engineering disciplines who had showed keen interest attending the event. He appreciated the creative efforts done by Dr. A. Sherine Joy, Head Languages &HELM Centre for inviting the guest and organising the event. He acknowledged the presence of Dr. Badri Narayanan, HOD, School of Management and staff members who were present. He emphasized on the importance and scope for students to explore the possibilities to study abroad and also utilize the opportunities to go for higher education and job opportunities. He also emphasized about the MoU signed by HITS with Providence University Taiwan. HITS also has partnerships with more than 100 Universities from all over the world with very strong linkage in research, faculty & student mobility, twinning and dual degree programs. He expressed his happiness about the availability of several opportunities for students of HITS and Providence University, Taiwan.

Dr. Sherine Joy, Head HELM centre apprised the audience about the role of the Centre of Excellence, Dr. KCG Verghese Higher Education Leadership Management Centre, HITS and also introduced the Chief Guest Dr. Rushikesh Ulhas, Assistant Professor, International Business Administration Program, Providence University Taiwan. Dr. Rushikesh has done his Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from University of Pune. He received his MBA and PhD in Technology Management from National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan. His research interests include sustainability, strategic management and consumer behaviour.

Mr. Ben Milton, AP, Languages Dept, invited Dr. Rushikesh to deliver the lecture on “Higher Education Opportunities for Engineering and Management students in Taiwan”

Dr. Rushikesh, began his lecture with a brief general introduction about India and Taiwan and introduced Providence University. He gave an insight into the students opting for international education and presented the statistics of the students who visit various countries for Higher Education. About 11.5 lakhs international students opted US as their destination for Higher studies and around 25,772 students opted for their destination to Taiwan. He made the session interactive and requested the students to mention the advantages and disadvantages of students opting to study abroad. Many students expressed their opinions that included scope for exploring new areas of research, greater opportunities for employability, interaction with people of various culture, globalization etc. as advantages. The guest informed that all such views are based on individual perspectives.

He further explained that, Taiwan is a small island having a population of 23 million and asked a rhetorical question that, why do you think Taiwan needs international students? He mentioned that Taiwan has several reputed Research Universities, among them are National Taiwan University, National Cheng Kung University, National Chung Hsing University etc. He further explained about the links among research institutes, industries and first tier universities in Taiwan. He also emphasized the importance of India-Taiwan relationship and reiterated that India is potentially a preferred destination for Taiwan Tech manufacturers. In his lecture, he highlighted the role of India in terms of education cooperation. Among international students studying in Taiwan, Indians are the fastest growing group. Five years ago around 1000 Indian students were studying in Taiwan and now the statistics has increased to 2,783 students. Indians are ranked as the top 10 groups of International students in Taiwan and a majority of them are pursuing Masters degree or Ph.D. Most of the students are doing Major in Engineering, National Sciences, Life Sciences, Medical, Public Health, Business and Management. Taiwanese Universities prefer to recruit more Indian students because they speak fluent English and excel in various aspects, Many Indian students are recruited into research institutes.

Dr. Rushikesh also took the audience through a 360 degree virtual tour and showed various places in Taiwan, high speed rail, airport, metro system, National Taichung theatre, universities etc., He also showed the excellent infrastructure and sprawling campus of Providence University which was established 65 years ago and presently it comprises of 12,000 students, 630 faculty members, 1000 international students per year, and 400 partners worldwide. He insisted that the students should make use of the opportunity to explore the possibilities to study in Providence University, Taiwan through either of the Short-term program (Summer program, Winter program, Overseas internship) (6 weeks), Exchange program (1 semester: 4-5 months) Double degree/ Triple-degree program (with partner universities only) and Full-time Bachelor/Master/Ph.D. programs for international students (open for all).

He concluded his lecture by stating the benefits for international students as:

• Research opportunities (Solid University Industry collaboration, Govt. funding, etc.)
• Superior lab facilities
• Cultural expedition, Chinese learning
• International education/ atmosphere
• Personality development, better social standard of living
• International job prospects

The programme ended with Vote of Thanks by Dr. Badri Narayanan, HOD School of Management, who profusely thanked the Chief Guest for highlighting the various opportunities for students to study in Taiwan and also about the job prospects. He thanked the organisers, especially Dr. KCG Verghese HELM centre for organising the event on a constant basis to benefit the academic community.