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UKIERI Awards Announcements: Celebrating 3 Years of Success & Partnership
The success of the UK India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) was truly reflected in the recently organized UKIERI Awards announcements event which formally announced the UKIERI grants for the year 2008-09.
The evening commenced with a welcome address by Rod Pryde, Director India and Sri Lanka, British Council. His address touched upon the success of UKIERI and the outreach of the program in both India and UK. To share the Indian and UK perspectives on “Bilateral cooperation on Education and Research”, UKIERI had invited Dr Richard Guy, University Research Adviser, University of Bath and Dr Surendra Prasad, Director, IIT Delhi who gave valuable insights into advances made in bilateral collaborations in education & research in both countries and how can we ensure to make it mutually beneficial and sustainable.(Click here to view the presentation made by Richard Guy)
Mr. Ewart Wooldridge, CEO, Leadership Foundation for Higher Education also provided an overview on India UK Higher Education Leadership Development Programme, an initiative in which 15 UK VC’s and Indian VC’s had come together in New Delhi recently to form working partnerships to contribute to the development of higher education leadership In India and UK.
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The UKIERI Awards 2008-09 was formally announced with the unveiling of the “UKIERI: 3 Years of Success & Partnership”, a publication which provides detailed information on the initiative, its achievements across various strands & lists all awards and partnerships to date.
In all, 35 Research Awards, 8 Collaborative Program Delivery Awards and 13 School cluster Partnerships were announced.
Please click here to see the list of awards
The second session of the evening included case presentations by previous UKIERI Awards winners. The presentations were made by IIT Delhi, University of Mumbai, Pearl Academy of Fashion and Apeejay School. The focus was on the UK-India collaboration, including brief description of the projects & role of partnered institutions, achievements to date, lessons learnt and sustainability of these collaborations.
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The event also had a spectacular poster display which familiarized the audience with history of the programme, the progress made so far and the future direction. Having already achieved its target, the programme has created 281 Higher Education, 350 School and 7 Professional and Technical Skills links. The graphs and posters also revealed some other interesting facts on the outreach of UKIERI across all regions in India and UK, the rising preference of working with India/UK partners for future collaborations and success of UKIERI as a public-private funding education initiative.
Amidst a gathering of 225 senior academicians, educationalists, school principals and senior representatives from various ministries, the UKIERI Awards Announcements highlighted the ‘step change’ brought about over the last 3 years of the initiative leading to the UK and India becoming each others partner of choice in education!
“Collaboration on education and research between the UK and India is vital. Our shared future depends on making better use of intellectual capital and on nurturing talent. UKIERI will increase opportunities for schools and colleges, universities and businesses to develop mutual understanding. My congratulations to the award winners, to whom I wish every success. Their partnerships will hopefully benefit both our societies".
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- a message from Lord Drayson,
UK Science Minister on the UKIERI Awards Announcements
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