Education has so far been influenced by western countries. This trend has to change so that students have Asian, African, and Latin American perspectives, said Marcus Hoppe, Deputy Director, International Office, Leibniz University, Hanover (LUH), Germany.
Talking to newspersons on the sidelines of the week-long DIES (Dialogue on Innovative Higher Education Strategies) Regional Workshop which began at the VIT University here on Monday, Dr. Hoppe said so far internationalisation of education had been a western concept. “Now we are trying to have different perspectives —Asian, Indian, African and Latin American perspectives. We are having a dialogue with representatives of universities so that we can develop regional models depending on the needs of the students ”, he said.
Universities in the Asian, Latin American or African countries have to stop aping the West, Mr. Hoppe said, adding that the change in perspective can happen only with the support of the professors and the students. Working with the VIT since 2008, the LUH has been trying to establish structures for International Relations (IR) Offices in universities to achieve the goal of internationalisation of education.
Vijayakumar, Director of IR, VIT said the institute wanted to introduce an international character. The objective of internationalisation ws to enable local students to have global perspective and to enable the foreign students to follow the local customs and language, he added.
M. Subaji, Deputy Director of IR, VIT said the institute wanted to facilitate exchange of students and faculty and to promote university branding.
Earlier, inaugurating the Training Course on Management of Internationalisation as part of the DIES Regional Workshop, G. Viswanathan, VIT Chancellor said that the establishment of IR Offices in universities has become necessary in view of the increasing number of foreign students in universities throughout the world.
The DIES-Training Course on Management of Internationalisation is funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and German Rectors’ Conference. It is coordinated by LUH in cooperation with VIT, University of Madras, Symbiosis International University, Pune, UPAEP, Puebla, Mexico and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Nairobi, Kenya. Eleven delegates comprising two each from Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia, one each from Philippines and Thailand and three from India (from IIT-Delhi, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune and Manipal University) are participating .
