Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland is collaborating with India in a big way:-

Do you know that is the most bombed hotel in the world,” asks the taxi driver, as we drive past the luxurious Europa hotel in the heart of Belfast. “It shares the title with a hotel in Beirut, both having taken 27 hits,” continues Patrick.

Over the last half a century, Belfast had become synonymous with car bombs, strife and civil war. However, in the last decade, thanks to a successful peace process, the guns have fallen silent in Northern Ireland. Not only that, its capital is judged to be the safest city in Europe. “When Bill Clinton came here, he made a point of staying in the Europa,” says Patrick.

Just as the city is keen to shake off its violent past, Queen’s University Belfast (www.qub.ac.uk) too would like to change its image and encourage more international students. And India is one of its prime catchment areas. “My vision for Queen’s is to see it as a truly global university,” says president and vice-chancellor Peter Gregson. “I want it to be a place where students from all over can come for research and learning, and knowledge be exchanged for the benefit of all.”

Queen’s is not a new British university struggling to find its feet. The magnificent Great Hall with its fresco on the ceiling and huge portraits of past chancellors show off its heritage. Founded in 1845, the main buildings are beautifully traditional, set around a manicured quad reminiscent of Oxford and Cambridge. Queen’s has a distinguished history, but the civil strife in Belfast in the second half of the 20th century has meant that most students outside of Northern Ireland did not consider it a viable option.

But things have now changed. Already a member of the Russell Group of the top 20 research-intensive universities in the UK, many of its courses rank in the top 20 of the London Times Higher Education League. Queen’s has 17,000 students from over 80 nations and 3,500 members of staff. Its schools of electronic engineering, information and communication technologies, and medicine are highly renowned and it is these departments that have so far attracted Indian students. On an average, 50 students from India undertake postgraduate studies and research each year. Most, if not all, receive scholarships. Belfast also has the lowest cost of living of all UK cities, ensuring that awards go much further here than they would in other universities.

“The university has an excellent introduction programme. Within the first two weeks I was so well taken care of that I felt at home quickly,” says Shyama Prasad Chowdhury, president of the South Asian Students Society and a PhD student from Calcutta. “Belfast is a small, friendly city, cheap to live in and thus attractive for Indian students who are not always cash rich.”

Queen’s has developed a special relationship with the Bengal Engineering and Science University (Besu), Shibpur, with exchange programmes and partnerships. These were created to help develop research leaders of the future and strengthen the knowledge-based economies of India and Northern Ireland. There are opportunities for Besu students to partake of split-site studentships and research partnerships. “The infrastructure is much ahead of what is available in India. All the professors are very good and Queen’s also has industrial collaboration,” says Susanta Kumar Parui, senior lecturer at Besu, currently at Queen’s on a six-month exchange programme.

Bengal Engineering and Science University (Besu)->

Last year, Besu gave professor Gregson an honorary doctorate before he officially opened the new East Indian Centre for Water and the Environment. The centre aims to build awareness and research capacity in areas such as the removal of arsenic from groundwater and climate change, particularly in the coastal zones of India. An EU-India consortium led by Queen’s developed the first low-cost technology to provide arsenic-free drinking water to people in South Asia. A successful trial plant is currently in operation in Cossipore near Calcutta.

“If we wanted just bums on seats, we would have simply opened another B-school like so many universities have. But we have a more holistic approach; we want to focus on science, engineering, humanities, everything,” explains M. Satish Kumar, director of the university’s India Initiative. “We are more research oriented and want to give back to society. Hence our arsenic removal project,” he adds.

Queen’s has also signed partnerships in cancer research and cell biology with the Indian ministry of biotechnology and the National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi. It has collaborations with the University of Hyderabad in literature, language and translations, with staff and student exchanges at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

In June last year, as part of its Welcome scheme, Queen’s funded 20 undergraduates from Besu to stay and work at the university for three weeks in order to get a feel of the place. It was so popular that this year it increased the number to 25. The university is also hoping to build exchange programmes between Northern Ireland and India for 16-18 year-olds. “This way we would build knowledge about each other’s cultures too,” explains Joan Reilly, international director. Officials are in the process of identifying schools in both countries for the programme.

Queen’s is keen to get more Indian undergraduates too. Accepting that £21,000 (Rs 16,85,638) a year for a medicine degree may be steep for Indian students, Reilly says they are trying to work out special packages. “We hope to introduce something akin to what we have for our Malaysian students, whereby we let them do the first couple of years in their home country and finish the rest of the course here,” she says.

As Belfast is a small city, all the university buildings, halls of residences and even the city centre are within a 15-minute walking distance. Queen’s is currently investing £260 million in its staff, students and infrastructure. There is a well-equipped library, self-catering halls of residence where international students are guaranteed a place, a spanking new sports complex and more cafes, restaurants and bars than a student could wish for.

Belfast is only an hour’s flight from London and with all the cheap carriers now making a pit stop here, jetting off to Europe is not difficult. “The place is magical. It’s hard not to fall in love with it,” gushes Gautami, an engineering undergraduate from the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, who is on a three-month summer research project. “The facilities are excellent and the pace is as slow or fast as you want it to be. I will definitely consider coming here for PhD,” she adds emphatically.

What better recommendation can there be than that from a satisfied student?

Source: The Telegraph (Kolkata, India)