[ad_1]
In her recent visit to India, Dr Carol Folt, president, University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, led the ‘USC India – Partner the Future’ initiative that aims to connect with alumni, academics, and aspiring students. The initiative further aims to collaborate with Indian universities, strengthen partnerships, and create opportunities for tomorrow in India.In an interview with Education Times, Dr Folt spoke about their commitment to advancing gender equity, focusing on safe campuses, and boosting research collaborations. Excerpts of the interview below:
The safety of students is one of the prominent concerns in the changing geopolitical situations. What is your take on some of the challenges faced by international students?
Well, my take first is that Los Angeles is a very multicultural city, which gives importance to cross-understanding. So, if I were an Indian parent and concerned about my children, I would feel very comfortable about that because it is a big city which has city issues. But you are also not going into a place where people are not welcoming. It is an immigrant city where the natives are positive about people coming in.
We put tens of millions of dollars into the safety of our campus as we are concerned about students living away from home. We have officers for student security and our campus closes at night so we can keep people safe. When we look at those safety statistics, we are pretty safe. We must teach students how to be in a big city in a very different world. They learn things that remain useful forever. An increasing number of our Indian students want to return to India, we want them to take back the skill sets that are going to make them leaders in their communities.
Could you give an overview of the rising enthusiasm and relevance of research across sectors? Can you quantify where India stands in the field of research?
The US and China are the two most dominant countries working in research areas, in terms of dollars (investment and profitability). In terms of growth, India is certainly doing better although one cannot quantify it. The country is independently growing in research areas. It is having a burst in the growth of universities; most other countries are not. Indian universities are growing. So, the per cent share is only increasing and growing fast.
During your tenure as the head of the Association of American Universities (AAU), what were the initiatives taken by you to strengthen the partnership with India?
During my term as Chair of the AAU, the administrations of Prime Minister Modi and President Biden signed a bilateral agreement in January 2023 to enhance the sharing of technologies across government, business, and higher education.
To accelerate this sharing, the AAU, under my leadership last April, established a task force on Expanding US-India university partnerships. This task force released a report recommending, among other things, that the two countries establish joint research institutes focused on key scientific and societal challenges, as well as to ease travel for students and researchers to study, collaborate, share, and support the development of each other’s human capital and physical research infrastructure. Yannis Yortsos, dean of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, is a key member of the AAU India Task Force.
How do you plan to encourage deserving Indian students with limited financial resources to study at USC since it is expensive for an average student?
USC provides financial aid to international students in the form of merit-based scholarships, exclusively for undergraduate students, and on-campus work, open to all students. My goal is to develop additional sources of funding to make our university more accessible to talented students globally. We are also encouraging our alumni and the Indian business community to consider contributing to a new fund we have created to help provide additional financial support for Indian students.
Despite an increase in Indian students’ mobility, the number of girls travelling for education is still fewer. How can we encourage more girls to study overseas?
Advancing gender equity has been the motto and we have had a well-balanced student gender distribution, where female students are slightly more than male students. The Viterbi School of Engineering is one of the few Top 10 Engineering schools that has 50% female students, and The Marshall School of Business too has 50% of women students.
We have amazing Indian female students, who are great leaders. They are determined, kind, generous, and respectful. Each year, our notable prize recipients often include students from India, with a noteworthy emphasis on female students who consistently have a strong voice.
Our ongoing commitment to advancing gender equity is reflected in the continued efforts of our Office for Equity, Equal Opportunity, and Title IX (EEO-TIX), established in August 2020. The office is dedicated to promoting equity, equal opportunity, and inclusion in various university programmes and activities, including admissions and employment. Through the provision of prevention, education, and training programmes, the office actively works to promote and protect the civil rights of all members of the university community.
There are multiple research collaborations between academics/researchers in India and USA. How can we ensure that it is fruitful for both countries?
USC research spending surpassed $1 billion for the first time, as per the federal reports. The spending included significant investments in computing, health and sustainability. We are focussing on supercharging our partnership.
I am a child of an immigrant family, who came to America to have a chance to do great things. Higher education in any country promotes the advancement of society. The more connected our countries are, the more chance we have for a peaceful world. So, in that way, it is equally important to us as the Indian market is expanding. Every country wants to not only have markets in its own country but wants to have global connections.
Being a professor in biological sciences, and a researcher of metal toxicity, you have focused on sustainability development goals (SDG) as the core area of your work. How can universities reinforce their energies in achieving SDGs?
We are committed to the goals, and USC is one of the leaders, that started with getting our campus clean. Now we are working in LA city and also implementing the goals at the LA harbours.
We are also working on green medicine as medicine manufacturing is contributing to 10% of the carbon emissions in the world. We are in one of the areas working to develop new clean hospitals. I think universities must be coming up with newer technologies, and use their experience, research, and education to support SDG. Starting from the campus, we must work locally and expand out later.
The safety of students is one of the prominent concerns in the changing geopolitical situations. What is your take on some of the challenges faced by international students?
Well, my take first is that Los Angeles is a very multicultural city, which gives importance to cross-understanding. So, if I were an Indian parent and concerned about my children, I would feel very comfortable about that because it is a big city which has city issues. But you are also not going into a place where people are not welcoming. It is an immigrant city where the natives are positive about people coming in.
We put tens of millions of dollars into the safety of our campus as we are concerned about students living away from home. We have officers for student security and our campus closes at night so we can keep people safe. When we look at those safety statistics, we are pretty safe. We must teach students how to be in a big city in a very different world. They learn things that remain useful forever. An increasing number of our Indian students want to return to India, we want them to take back the skill sets that are going to make them leaders in their communities.
Could you give an overview of the rising enthusiasm and relevance of research across sectors? Can you quantify where India stands in the field of research?
The US and China are the two most dominant countries working in research areas, in terms of dollars (investment and profitability). In terms of growth, India is certainly doing better although one cannot quantify it. The country is independently growing in research areas. It is having a burst in the growth of universities; most other countries are not. Indian universities are growing. So, the per cent share is only increasing and growing fast.
During your tenure as the head of the Association of American Universities (AAU), what were the initiatives taken by you to strengthen the partnership with India?
During my term as Chair of the AAU, the administrations of Prime Minister Modi and President Biden signed a bilateral agreement in January 2023 to enhance the sharing of technologies across government, business, and higher education.
To accelerate this sharing, the AAU, under my leadership last April, established a task force on Expanding US-India university partnerships. This task force released a report recommending, among other things, that the two countries establish joint research institutes focused on key scientific and societal challenges, as well as to ease travel for students and researchers to study, collaborate, share, and support the development of each other’s human capital and physical research infrastructure. Yannis Yortsos, dean of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, is a key member of the AAU India Task Force.
How do you plan to encourage deserving Indian students with limited financial resources to study at USC since it is expensive for an average student?
USC provides financial aid to international students in the form of merit-based scholarships, exclusively for undergraduate students, and on-campus work, open to all students. My goal is to develop additional sources of funding to make our university more accessible to talented students globally. We are also encouraging our alumni and the Indian business community to consider contributing to a new fund we have created to help provide additional financial support for Indian students.
Despite an increase in Indian students’ mobility, the number of girls travelling for education is still fewer. How can we encourage more girls to study overseas?
Advancing gender equity has been the motto and we have had a well-balanced student gender distribution, where female students are slightly more than male students. The Viterbi School of Engineering is one of the few Top 10 Engineering schools that has 50% female students, and The Marshall School of Business too has 50% of women students.
We have amazing Indian female students, who are great leaders. They are determined, kind, generous, and respectful. Each year, our notable prize recipients often include students from India, with a noteworthy emphasis on female students who consistently have a strong voice.
Our ongoing commitment to advancing gender equity is reflected in the continued efforts of our Office for Equity, Equal Opportunity, and Title IX (EEO-TIX), established in August 2020. The office is dedicated to promoting equity, equal opportunity, and inclusion in various university programmes and activities, including admissions and employment. Through the provision of prevention, education, and training programmes, the office actively works to promote and protect the civil rights of all members of the university community.
There are multiple research collaborations between academics/researchers in India and USA. How can we ensure that it is fruitful for both countries?
USC research spending surpassed $1 billion for the first time, as per the federal reports. The spending included significant investments in computing, health and sustainability. We are focussing on supercharging our partnership.
I am a child of an immigrant family, who came to America to have a chance to do great things. Higher education in any country promotes the advancement of society. The more connected our countries are, the more chance we have for a peaceful world. So, in that way, it is equally important to us as the Indian market is expanding. Every country wants to not only have markets in its own country but wants to have global connections.
Being a professor in biological sciences, and a researcher of metal toxicity, you have focused on sustainability development goals (SDG) as the core area of your work. How can universities reinforce their energies in achieving SDGs?
We are committed to the goals, and USC is one of the leaders, that started with getting our campus clean. Now we are working in LA city and also implementing the goals at the LA harbours.
We are also working on green medicine as medicine manufacturing is contributing to 10% of the carbon emissions in the world. We are in one of the areas working to develop new clean hospitals. I think universities must be coming up with newer technologies, and use their experience, research, and education to support SDG. Starting from the campus, we must work locally and expand out later.
[ad_2]
Source link