“Globalization of Education” has become an important buzz word today and education which was confined to the lecture halls has crossed international boundaries.
With the broad vision and leadership of the College Academic Council, the International Programmes are steadily growing in number and scope. The aims are:
* To create Awareness of available International scholarships
* To give Global Exposure to our students and faculty
* To encourage Student Exchange / enrichment programmes
* To facilitate Faculty Enrichment Programmes
Scholarships:
Goldman Sach’s Scholarship:
In keeping with the tradition of participating in Goldman Sach’s Global Leadership Programme, the college nominated 10 students for the year 2008-09. Ms. Shriya Pilgaonkar SYBA and Mr. Himanshu Mishra SYBA were among the first 29 students from all over India and were awarded USD 3000/- each along with a training programme on Leadership held at the Hotel Taj – Lands End, Bandra. From among these 29 students, a contingent of 15 students was selected to attended a 10 day fully sponsored trip to New York to meet various world leaders and interact with Goldman Sach’s awardees from the rest of the world. Ms. Shriya Pilgaonkar was selected to be part of the contingent.
Teach For India Scholarship: Volunteerism and Opportunities for Scholarship Ms. Shaheen Mistry - ‘Teach for India’ Programme Director and Mr. Keyvan Sadig ‘Google’, USA spoke to the students on the concept “Teach for India”. They explained the need for education, for school kids in rural India and how young Xavierites could make a change. They also briefed them on various opportunities for scholarships available for volunteers. As a result, TY students applied and after meeting very stringent criteria, 4 TY students and 2 ex-Xavierites have been selected for the prestigious programme.
“Opportunities in Economics, Political Science and Sociology” Ms. Preeti Dawra, Head, Strategic Communications, National University of Singapore, spoke on Opportunities in Economics at NUS (National University of Singapore).
Ms. Prabhu from the British Council, Mumbai held two sessions on “Scholarships in Higher Education” for Arts &Science students.
Academic Exchange Programmes:
• Harvard Colleges in Asia Program (HCAP): St. Xavier’s was one of the 9 institutions from Asia, invited to participate in this global leadership exchange programme. Nine students took part in a one week international conference on “Opportunities and Challenges: Education in Globalised World” at Harvard, USA.
• The team from the Royal Academy of Arts and Complicite, London, UK had a four day interactive workshop with 8 of our selected students and produced a unique film on “Touching Space”, partially shot at Xavier’s. A similar activity was conducted across the globe in the UK at Ashmole School, London. The film has been uploaded on Royal Academy of Art’s website for exhibition. http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/gsk-contemporary-season/exhib...
The students were encouraged to think creatively about physical and virtual communication and to leave space for half of the performance to be created on the other side of the world by another group of students. This attempt to touch space led to hitherto unknown interactions with imagined collaborators and the discovery of strategic collisions and surprises.
• Under the British Prime Minister’s Global Leadership Program, two British students Ugochi and Stephanie attended lectures for 15 days on Economics and Sociology (Junior College) and Ancient Indian Culture (Senior College). With the help of 5 Junior College students, these British students completed their project on “Impact of Globalisation on the Indian Education System”. Prof. Vaishali Mohini and Prof. Amrita Nadkarni from the Junior College guided the students. Family stay, provided to these two students with two families of our students Vidhi Thakkar and Priyanka Hemmadi, gave them an unique opportunity to learn about Indian Culture.
The programme “Debating Matters” by British Council gave an opportunity to six of our junior college students to participate in the National Level Debating Competition where they reached the Regional Level.
• An International Colloquium was organized on 15th and 16th December 2008 on “Education and Society” in collaboration with the Liverpool Hope University(LHU), UK. Prof. Gerard Pillay, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of LHU and Prof. Bart McGettrick, Dean of Education from LHU along with Dr. Wendy Bignold and Dr. Keith Paterson participated in the two day deliberations on the subject. The key note address was delivered by Dr. Pillay. Eminent speakers were Dr. Rajesh Parikh, Ms Teesta Setalvad, Dr. Farida Lambay and Dr. Kersi Chawda. Thirty five participants from other institutions from Mumbai