On March 30, Chancellor James Oblinger returned from India — a trip he took in the interest of furthering international education for both Indian and American students in the United States and abroad.

He traveled with Karen Hughes, U.S. Undersecretary of State for diplomacy and education and five chancellors and presidents in India from March 24 to March 30.

Inspiration for the trip

Oblinger said the trip to India had its roots in the January 2006 President’s Summit on International Education — a meeting with 115 university and community college presidents in Washington, D.C. “It was a conversation about how important it was that the United States continue to be the destination that it always has been for international students and international scholars,” he said.

The corollary to this idea, he said, is how beneficial it is for American students, faculty and scholars to be exposed internationally.

“As the President said, it’s always more impressive when you sit down with a visitor, and you speak a little bit of his or her language,” Oblinger said.

The Chancellor’s Trip to India

After a day and a half of traveling, Oblinger arrived in India.

“For a guy who thought the closest he’d get to the Taj Mahal was the National Geographic, it was quite an experience,” Oblinger said.

Oblinger said the delegation traveled with intentions to “indicate that it was really important that everyone — but India in particular — know that the U.S. welcomes students and scholars from India, and that the United States is still the premier destination for higher education, and that the U.S. wants to collaborate with institutions overseas.”

Oblinger said India sends more students to study in the United States than any other country.

“Not only do we have 498 Indian students and 40 people on our faculty who are of Indian descent, I wanted to get to know some of the institutions and some of the leaders of the institutions overseas,” Oblinger said.

After speaking to an audience of 100 Indian students for their country’s equivalent of CNN, Oblinger said a young woman approached him and said she had been accepted to N.C. State for the fall semester.

Oblinger said Hughes used this as a “real life” example of the student exchange underway as the delegation met with Indian government representatives.

Oblinger said students in India recognized the names of local companies, which provided NCSU with “instant credibility.”

“They didn’t know that the world headquarters of Red Hat was on Centennial Campus at N.C. State University, but they did know that they had offices in [India],” Oblinger said. “They knew about SAS, they didn’t know that SAS was a spin off from three students who were at N.C. State at one time.”

Insight

According to Oblinger, India’s economy is growing at a rate of 9.2 percent per year and is projected to do so for the next 10 years. Oblinger said because of this, Indian students are more inclined to return home upon completion of studies in America than they were 5 years ago.

After meeting with three NCSU Indian graduate students before the trip, he learned about the competitiveness of Indian students.

“The most prestigious institutions in India are called Indian Institutes of either technology or management,” Oblinger said.

According to Oblinger, there are seven of these IITs and three IIMs. There are 4,500 seats available for new students in the IITs and 500,000 applications for those seats. There are 1,500 seats available in the management IITs, with 200,000 applications for those.

He said Indian students come to America, specifically to NCSU, to “get a leg up with an advanced degree from a U.S. institution that’s highly respected around the world.”

Plans for the future

Oblinger said the next step is to discuss the trip with the dean of the graduate school and Vice Provost for International Affairs Bailian Li.

Oblinger said plans for future relations with Indian students have a base in an existing organization — Maitri.

Maitri, meaning “friendship” in Hindi, is a support group of students at NCSU from India who welcome incoming Indian students and help them adjust.

“Here’s the interesting thing — we have no organized alumni network in India,” Oblinger said. “But, over the last 10 years, we have awarded master’s and Ph.D. degrees to 1,100 Indians, and many of them have gone back home.”

Oblinger said it is important to strengthen existing relationships, which could potentially be done by holding alumni reunions in countries around the world.

And with a trip to China coming up in May, Oblinger will have additional opportunities to do so.

“It’s all about building relationships,” Oblinger said. “You can communicate electronically and by a letter, but it’s not quite the same as person-to-person — not even close.”