Category: Personal Reflections

The University of Surrey is heading a group of institutions to forge new academic partnerships with Indian universities. HRD Minister Kapil Sibal was here the university on 15th January to ink the deal. Surrey isn’t the only university in this partnership – as other major universities such as University of London, University of Southampton, University of Kent, and University of Sussex would be participating in this partnership too; with University of Surrey as the coordinating institute.

What this does is that it lays down the groundwork for agreements with possibly even more Indian institution. During a lunch I had this semester with Vice Chancellor Christopher Snowden, he spoke in detail about his vision of creating ties with institutions of higher learning globally. Surrey already does world-class research in electronics, space exploration, health and medicine etc – so the idea is that we share our expertise in the fields we are strong in, and in return strengthen our research in fields the partner institution is good in. This is part of an overall plan to push the university higher in overall ranking within the next ten years.

University of Surrey already has existing partnerships with many universities worldwide, but this is a breakthrough from the Indian perspective as this agreement with IISER Pune is the first agreement with an Indian institution. What this allows is the ability for exchange programmes for students and academics to be set up, and research to be conducted in conjunction with partner institutes. Surrey already does study exchanges and research collaboration with its partner institutions; heck, even I’m probably going on an exchange in my second year.

What this does is that it lays down the groundwork for partnerships with an even greater number of universities in India. If I’m not wrong, the recently made partnership is a first of sorts for any because it allows for study exchanges.

PS – The University of Surrey Students’ Union is running a campaign to raise £3000 for Haiti earthquake relief. If you haven’t thought about donating to Haiti relief yet, this is your chance to join in!

Things are visibly slowing down around me as the university prepares for its winter hibernation starting 18th December. Lectures are falling off the timetable, the last jumbo issue of year 2009 for The Stag is out, final coursework deadlines for the year are approaching, MAD TV is in the process of shooting its last, Christmas special episode. At work, we have one major event tomorrow to pitch the Surrey placement year to companies before we wind down. I had the first lunch at my house in days; so far, I literally only had time to grab sandwiches or salad from the Union shop in between breaks.

Exciting past few weeks, and the new year promises more change. The next edition of The Stag is far off, but I’m working with a team on getting the newspaper online on its own website. Same with MAD TV, which is moving on to a new system of releasing content too. Controversial times. Change is always greeted by people with something like “With all due respect, fuck you. This idea sucks.” Personally, I think the changes we’ll be making will be for the better.

Big furore at the Students Union, with a majority of the executive team almost being voted out by a proposed no-confidence motion (which was withdrawn at the last-minute). Then there was the ‘Winter Happenings’ dance event at university. MAD TV has been contracted to produce a DVD of the event, which featured dance performances from various dance groups in Guildford. That was most of my last Saturday. The camera team spent most of the rehearsal camera practice zooming into you-know-which bits of the chicks on stage. I kept laughing over the TalkBack intercom system that the team was using to communicate (thankfully, only during the rehearsals, not the actual event).

PS – I feel like adding a “What I’m listening to” section in my posts from now on, inspired by Charles’s blog (he’s the technical producer at MAD TV). Right now, that would be Boring by Lifer.