PROVIDENCE – Brown University President Ruth J. Simmons will lead a school delegation to India next week as the university expands its programs in the world’s largest democracy and explores new partnerships there.
Simmons will meet with leaders in higher education, business and government in Delhi and Mumbai over five days, including U.S. Ambassador to India Timothy J. Roemer.
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She will be accompanied by Matthew Gutmann, Brown’s vice president for international affairs; Rajiv Vohra, dean of the faculty; Ronald Margolin, vice president for international advancement; and Vijay Chitnis, the school’s international advancement officer.
“With India’s rich history, culture and leadership in many areas of education, Brown recognizes the value of expanding our ties with leaders in education, industry and civic life as a way to expand opportunities for students and faculty in India and the United States,” Simmons said in a statement Friday.
Since 1991, Brown has had a program that allows students to study at St. Stephen’s College and Lady Shri Ram College for Women in New Delhi, and faculty members from the two institutions to work at Brown.
Simmons will sign an agreement Monday renewing the program for the 2011-12 academic year, when one master’s degree candidate and up to 15 undergraduates will attend St. Stephen’s. Participation in the India program costs Brown students $26,088 for one semester or $49,828 for the full academic year.
“The Brown in India Program is designed to provide students the opportunity for study in the intimate atmosphere of a small Indian college with maximum interaction with the host national students,” according to the university’s Web site.
The agreement Simmons will sign “also lays the groundwork for visits between faculty, research staff, and graduate students for academic activities such as lectures, seminars and colloquia,” Brown said.
During the trip, Simmons will appear before the Confederation of Indian Industries, a major business group. Brown said it will start a formal relationship with the organization, which “may include initiatives such as joint research projects, conferences and scholarly visits.”
Simmons will also speak at the Indian Institute of Technology, a leading business school, and give a talk at The Forum for Women in Leadership called, “Women as Business and Societal Leaders: Time to Soar.” And she will meet with Brown alumni and parents, and formally announce the creation of a new India Advisory Council for the university.
Brown currently has more than three dozen Indian undergraduate students and 48 graduate students from India enrolled and 13 faculty of Indian citizenry teaching at the university. Eight Brown students undertook summer internships last year at companies in Mumbai and Delhi.
India’s government last week proposed legislation that would make it easier for foreign universities to set up campuses in the country. But Brown says the timing of the bill and its delegation’s trip is a coincidence, The Wall Street Journal reported this week.
“We are interested in talking with the government, we are eager to talk to people in India about the various roles they see for us,” Gutmann told The Journal.
Brown has also declared the current academic year to be the “Year of India” at the university, and has been hosting lectures, cultural events, academic conferences and other programs about the country and its place in the world. The University of Rhode Island has also been expanding its initiatives related to India.
“While the fact of India’s new global stature may no longer be surprising, understanding the history and potential of modern India is more important than ever for all academic disciplines,” Brown President Ruth J. Simmons said last year.
The Year of India initiative is funded by the Brown India Fund, which was established during a pivotal 2004 visit to the country by a Brown delegation. Groups from the university have continued to visit regularly since then.
Additional information is available at brown.edu.
