Manipal: Manipal University and University of Wollongong Australia signed a general Memorandum of Understanding for student and faculty exchange and working in various areas ranging from Engineering, humanities and sciences, medicine, and business, aside from other disciplines.

The signatories of the Memorandum of Understanding were, Dr H. Vinod Bhat Vice Chancellor Manipal and Professor Paul Wellings, CBE, Vice-Chancellor and Principal University of Wollongong, Australia

Manipal University is indeed proud to announce the strategic partnership with UOW one of the leading research institutions in Australia. For Manipal, with collaborative ties already with a variety of Universities in Australia, this represents an additional expansion in the Australian Continent.

“Manipal University is the most well know university in the country for going international,” said Dr Vinod Bhat. “We have campuses in different parts of the world, we have teaching faculty and students going to different universities of the world, we have faculty from overseas coming and teaching our students, we have joint degree programs and even research programs with universities abroad.” Talking absout the MoU signing today, he said that it was a significant moment for both universities.

“The MoU being a general agreement, we can have students of a number of our institutions going to UOW for electives or a semester with them,” he said.

Dr Bhat also informed that at the recent FICCI education conference in Delhi Manipal University was declared the best Indian University for International admissions. And this has come because of the international office in Manipal University which has taken the university’s agreements to over 300 in the world.

Prof Wellings said that he was delighted to enter into this partnership with Manipal University. “It will be a long term commitment in India and with Adam Gilchrist as our ambassador we like to do a whole range of things with universities in India. We have each year about a thousand Indian students joining us at Dubai or Wollongong and today we’d like to strengthen our relations with Manipal and this part of the world. We share common values, we share common goals.

He also spoke about some of the courses in UOW and said that their medical school was the only one in Australia which was specifically designed to deal with regional and rural medical education. “We are really looking forward to working together and make for meaningful action. We have lots to learn from this relationship,” he said.

Adam Gilchrist also spoke on the occasion, as a brand ambassador of the university and ambassador of Australia for education in India he also expressed happiness at the collaboration. And hoped that it would benefit both universities immensely. To a question, he said, “I feel that the Australian education sector has a lot to offer in a collaborative spirit”. He also said that UOW offers a sports scholarship which provides an opportunity for a young student to study at our campus in Wollongong and pursue cricketing desires. It is a scholarship given by the Bradman foundation. After the MOU was signed, Adam interacted with the students of Manipal University at the indoor sports complex, Marena.

Dr Ramjee K Director, international Collaborations spoke briefly about the MoU between the two universities before the sigining ceremony. He said, “The two of us share commonalities, in terms of age, number of disciplines and the student and faculty strength. In addition we share a common vision of internationalization by being pioneers in establishing overseas campuses, Wollongong ,being the first Australian University and Manipal being the first Indian University, to establish their respective campuses in Dubai.”