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| Edited By: Nishtha Balagopal |Source: DNA |Updated: May 17, 2017, 08:18 PM IST
Dean Kahler, the Vice Provost for Strategic Enrollment Management, University of Idaho speaks to Nishtha Balagopal about their agriculture-based programs, the importance of multi-disciplinary education, and why Indian students are valued at their univeristy.
It is a flagship land-grand institute, which means it has strong standard disciplines. Our mission is to have science, technology, engineering as well as an agricultural focus in our programs. This is the reason why land-grant universities were formed and the University of Idaho is exactly that. We also offer Liberal Arts education. We have a variety of engineering programs — mechanical, civil, nuclear etc. Our agricultural programs and architectural programs are popular. We are recognised for focusing on student success. Our success rate is better than the national average and we are making progress on that front. We have partnerships with companies like Navitus who focus on global student success programs. We are not situated in a big metropolitan city but it’s a town, which has been built around the university so we have a town-gown relationship. We have a very close-knit family where the faculty cares about the students. They are not just numbers for us and I know them by their names. So we are a very close-knit university.
We look for students who want quality education. We are not in a location where you can go and hang out on the beach or go to play. So we focus on quality academic program at an affordable price. The cost of living is low and the student walks away with a job and is positioned in the global world. When our students graduate, 90 per cent of them have a job in their hands or admission to a professional school. We teach them how to write a resume, get dressed for an interview, how to sit for a meeting etc. Our students have the opportunity to go for a etiquette dinner meeting and so they dress up for a business interview. We teach them right from which spoon and fork to use. In our business programs, we actually give them money so they can invest in the stock market and see how they can build a portfolio through the semester. We try to provide practical training and not just lectures in a classroom.
I think India is a great market. I have been in business for 25 years and I have worked with students from all over the world. And I think the work ethic of students from India is exceptional. They work very hard, have incredible backgrounds and the desire to be successful. I like those qualities in students. The strategic plan of the University is to see the student successful and so we are focused on working with very serious students who want to succeed. I am still in touch with some of my Indian students and I like what they bring to the table. Idaho can offer what Indian students are looking for.
We have an English language program so we can work with them if they fall short. There is flexibility in the graduation program in the US where they can try different programs and discover what they like. A student might have come to study Business but realise that he actually likes agriculture. They can also work on inter-disciplinary projects. It is very difficult to break the perception as people think that if I take up agriculture then I am a farmer, but there are various aspects to it. You need business people, lawyers, and scientists who work on the technology in agriculture. But this perception is what we face even in the US. We are also planning to identify agricultural universities in India where we can have student and faculty exchange programs. We have identified the food science program that would be great here.
Boeing has taken in many of our students. Northwestern Insurance also works with us and they are the ones who host the etiquette dinner. We work with a variety of industries — food and beverage companies, vineyards, human resources, chemicals, software, marketing, advertising etc. We are very big into natural resources and have mining, forestry and conservation programs. Our students have the opportunity to do internships at companies like Boeing and Inceed. We have Employer’s fair in the fall as well as spring. About 130 employers come and schedule opportunities with the students right from the sophomore year and give them guidelines as to what they have to do to get a job by Junior year. There is a company called Micron that manufactures chips for computers and they work closely with the University. There is a site called payscale.com that evaluates the average and median salaries of students from universities. They have rated Idaho as one of the most sought after universities with high return on investment. Idaho leads in early career and mid career salary average. Money and Forbes magazine have rated us as one of the best in the West part of US.
We have some scholarships for international students that are based on academic achievement. We have scholarships that are US$6000 or US$8000 a year. But we are a very affordable university, and if we were not then we could have offered many more scholarships.
We are the only research university in Idaho. We give the opportunity to students to come into research immediately and we pair them up with students and faculty from other fields. We think it’s important for students to think outside their major subject and think about other disciplines too. For example, putting an engineer and a musician together we discover things, which they could not have done on their own. We opened a new branch called Integrated Research and Innovation Centre where we collaborate between different fields like a biotechnologist and an electrical engineer coming together. We have a team that got computers and psychology together and created a game. Inter-disciplinary research is the thing for the future. We have a wilderness program where students have to drive for four hours then hike and they are just out in the open without phones with just their field of study to make them think differently and get out of the mainstream.
President Trump is just one person and he does not determine what happens on our campus. Our President has issued a statement that international students are welcome. We are going to work hard to bring in more international students. If American students want to become businessmen and women they have got to know about different cultures. So we are being more aggressive and saying to Indians that you are very welcome to come. When this whole problem came up, people in Idaho put signs outside their homes welcoming Muslims and other nationalities. We appreciate the multi-cultural community at the university. We met the authorities at the embassy and they clarified that they are not rejecting visas at a higher rate. They are happy to give visas to anyone who is prepared and would contribute.
