The University of Sussex is all set to collaborate with Indian universities to grant dual degrees to students:-

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…………A view of the University of Sussex campus

If you have been nurturing a desire to study abroad and lack of funds was the only thing stopping you from writing the statement of purpose, then worry no more. If things go according to plan, the University of Sussex will soon be collaborating with Indian universities to award a dual degree to students. Postgraduate students from Indian universities would spend a year at the University of Sussex while their UK counterparts would study for a year in India. At the end of the course, students would be awarded two degrees — one from the Indian university they attend and another from the University of Sussex.

“Sussex has a long history of association with India, its students and academics, in fact, ever since we received our Royal charter. We have worked with premier institutions in the country — the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) — but we are now shifting our focus to other institutes,” says Kausik Mitra, education advisor and the representative of Sussex University in India. Like a lot of other foreign universities, the University of Sussex too seems to be eager to establish closer ties with overseas institutions and students, especially those in India. And there is good reason for it. After all, Indians comprise the second largest non-European group on the Sussex campus, after the Americans.

To ensure that it has a larger share of the foreign student pie, the university has formed an international liaison team. The members of this team travel widely in countries across the globe, interacting with potential students and answering their queries while giving them an overall idea of the University of Sussex’s facilities and infrastructure.

“While we pride ourselves on the diversity of our international student population, some of our most gifted students have been from India. This experience is reflected in the fact that Indian nationals are frequently over-represented in our competitive global scholarships schemes,” says John Sander, senior international liaison officer, University of Sussex.

The University of Sussex has been co-ordinating closely with Indian institutes that have carved a niche for themselves. Last year, along with the Symbiosis Law School (SLS), Pune, it organised a joint international conference on globalisation and human rights law. Sussex academicians such as Charlotte Skeet and Anjela Williams participated in the event along with SLS faculty members and also made several joint presentations in the area of development-related legal issues as well as gender-related issues. “One of the purposes of this joint conference was to check out the feasibility of a collaboration with the University of Sussex so that our students could get a dual LLM degree. At the moment we are waiting for UGC to make it possible to grant dual degrees,” says Shashikala Gurpure, principal, SLS, and dean, Faculty of Law, Symbiosis International University, Pune.

Closer home, John Dearlove, ex-pro-vice-chancellor of the University of Sussex and a noted expert in the field of political science and international relations, was in town recently to meet the vice-chancellor of Jadavpur University and the principal of Presidency College. The heads of both institutions seemed ready to encourage more students to apply to the University of Sussex if they could get scholarships. But they were particularly keen on the dual degree postgraduate programme.

Dearlove is happy with the response and optimistic about the future of the dual degree programme. “This kind of endeavour will play an important role in developing education links between our countries. It will also give a boost to the global education sector and the economy as a whole,” he says.

The University of Sussex has expressed interest in recruiting young talents from eastern India, especially Calcutta. Mitra and his team of experts are grooming students to that end.

“This is an exciting time for anyone working with Indian institutions as the growth and development of the nation is accelerating. While the evolving nature of the legislative and bureaucratic structures is sometimes frustrating, the University of Sussex plans to deepen and broaden its partnership with India.”

The main purpose of the university is to build international linkages and expose students to other cultures and societies. “In the immediate future we will be working towards awarding dual degrees in biosciences and engineering. We will allow postgraduate students to access our facilities in the second half of a two-year masters and send over more of our faculty as visiting lecturers,” says Sander.

The ex-vice-chancellor of the University of Sussex, Alasdair Smith, will be the next one in town. He will be visiting the economics department at Presidency College, Calcutta, and interacting with the faculty and students. “Sussex happens to be quite a competitive university and has a strong faculty in the economics department. As quite a few of our students choose to study abroad, we want to explore all possibilities with Sussex,” says Amitava Chatterjee, head of the department of economics, Presidency College.

On being asked about the possibility of offering a dual degree to students, he said, “There is such a possibility. And if it happens, it will widen career opportunities for Indian students.”

So all you interested students out there, keep your fingers crossed.

Sources: The Telegraph (Kolkata, India)