One of the world's best academic institutions said the number of Indians in the institution was multiplying.
Nicholas Dirks, chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, who was recently in Bangalore, said applications from India for the undergraduate programmes in the university was rising dramatically.
Last year, there were some 1,300 applicants from India for the undergraduate programmes, of which 150 were admitted. The number of admissions of Indians have doubled in the past five years, said Dirks, who incidentally has spent significant time in India since his early life, can speak Tamil and is married to an Indian-origin academic. He said that of the 5,000 international students in UC, Berkeley, 500 were Indians. The university's total student strength is about 35,000.
UC, Berkeley, features routinely in the top ranks of most university rankings. In the 2013 Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings, Berkeley was ranked the world's 5th most prestigious university and one of six globally recognized 'super brands'. US News and World Report has ranked Berkeley as the No. 1 public university (Berkeley is government funded) in the world in each of the past 16 years.
The university's faculty, alumni, and researchers have won 72 Nobel Prizes, 15 Turing Awards, often referred to as the Nobel Prize of computer science, and 11 Pulitzer Prizes. Its location in Silicon Valley has meant it has - as has Stanford - very close links with the technology industry. Its alumni includes Google chairman Eric Schmidt, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, and Doug Engelbart, inventor of the computer mouse.
"We are the gold standard in undergraduate education and in research," Dirks said. He said a lot of students want to do startups. "Many will create their own careers," he said.
Dirks is an India scholar, and is married to Janaki Bakhle, who is currently associate professor in the history department at UC, Berkeley. He first came to India in 1963 when his father, who was a professor at Yale University, moved to Chennai (then Madras) on research work. Dirks developed an interest in Indian culture and his most famous works, including The Hollow Crown: Ethnohistory of an Indian Kingdom, Castes of Mind, and Scandal of Empire, deal with how British rule shaped the culture of the Indian subcontinent, and how Britain's development came to be influenced by its colonies.
Dirks said he was impressed with the progress India had made in technology. "This hotel I'm staying in has more technology than in any that I have stayed before in the world," he said.
He said he was keen on Berkeley students and faculty working together with Indian institutions to develop inexpensive, usable and scalable projects in areas like new kinds of kerosene stoves, new ways to hook up a smartphone to a biotech device that can, say, do an eye examination in half an hour.
He said several collaborations were already on, among them with the IITs, TIFR (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research), Ashoka University. "We want to focus on areas like urban planning, energy, climate change, sustainability, biotech, liberal arts education. Our faculty drives the collaborations. My job is to put them together," he said, and added there was no proposal to establish an arm of the university in India.
original source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/Top-US-university-sees-sharp-rise-in-Indian-students/articleshow/36352118.cms
Nicholas Dirks, chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, who was recently in Bangalore, said applications from India for the undergraduate programmes in the university was rising dramatically.
Last year, there were some 1,300 applicants from India for the undergraduate programmes, of which 150 were admitted. The number of admissions of Indians have doubled in the past five years, said Dirks, who incidentally has spent significant time in India since his early life, can speak Tamil and is married to an Indian-origin academic. He said that of the 5,000 international students in UC, Berkeley, 500 were Indians. The university's total student strength is about 35,000.
UC, Berkeley, features routinely in the top ranks of most university rankings. In the 2013 Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings, Berkeley was ranked the world's 5th most prestigious university and one of six globally recognized 'super brands'. US News and World Report has ranked Berkeley as the No. 1 public university (Berkeley is government funded) in the world in each of the past 16 years.
The university's faculty, alumni, and researchers have won 72 Nobel Prizes, 15 Turing Awards, often referred to as the Nobel Prize of computer science, and 11 Pulitzer Prizes. Its location in Silicon Valley has meant it has - as has Stanford - very close links with the technology industry. Its alumni includes Google chairman Eric Schmidt, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, and Doug Engelbart, inventor of the computer mouse.
"We are the gold standard in undergraduate education and in research," Dirks said. He said a lot of students want to do startups. "Many will create their own careers," he said.
Dirks is an India scholar, and is married to Janaki Bakhle, who is currently associate professor in the history department at UC, Berkeley. He first came to India in 1963 when his father, who was a professor at Yale University, moved to Chennai (then Madras) on research work. Dirks developed an interest in Indian culture and his most famous works, including The Hollow Crown: Ethnohistory of an Indian Kingdom, Castes of Mind, and Scandal of Empire, deal with how British rule shaped the culture of the Indian subcontinent, and how Britain's development came to be influenced by its colonies.
Dirks said he was impressed with the progress India had made in technology. "This hotel I'm staying in has more technology than in any that I have stayed before in the world," he said.
He said he was keen on Berkeley students and faculty working together with Indian institutions to develop inexpensive, usable and scalable projects in areas like new kinds of kerosene stoves, new ways to hook up a smartphone to a biotech device that can, say, do an eye examination in half an hour.
He said several collaborations were already on, among them with the IITs, TIFR (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research), Ashoka University. "We want to focus on areas like urban planning, energy, climate change, sustainability, biotech, liberal arts education. Our faculty drives the collaborations. My job is to put them together," he said, and added there was no proposal to establish an arm of the university in India.
original source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/Top-US-university-sees-sharp-rise-in-Indian-students/articleshow/36352118.cms
