New agreement between Irish institute and Indian university

The University of Pune (UoP) has extended its cooperation with one of Ireland's major higher education institutions, Cork Institute of Technology (CIT), in the areas of joint PhD supervision and development of joint programmes up to and including taught masters and PhDs. This initiative has been led by the Vice-Chancellor of UoP, Dr Raghunath Shevgaonkar, who travelled to visit CIT with Dr. Vasudha Garde, Director, International Centre at UoP, at the beginning of this week.

As part of an intensive schedule for this visit, Dr Shevgaonkar has reviewed at first hand CIT’s educational facilities, research centres, business incubation hub and innovation ecosystem infrastructure. He observed that 'UoP and CIT have complementary strengths in their respective approaches to research, innovation, teaching and learning. Through the extension of our cooperation, we hope to build an innovation ecosystem that is truly international in nature and fully aligned with the development needs of India and Ireland.'

President of CIT, Dr. Brendan Murphy, commented that 'UoP is recognised globally as a leading university. It is well known for its leadership in the internationalisation of education and for its progressive educational policies and visionary outlook. We are very satisfied with the quality of our engagement with UoP thus far and we look forward to creating new opportunities for both CIT and UoP in the future. This extension of our cooperation provides a platform for our students, staff and industry stakeholders to participate in an initiative which integrates education, research and innovation in an international context.'

The extension of the cooperation between the two institutions was marked by a formal ceremony on Monday, September 27, 2010, which was witnessed by His Excellency P.S. Raghavan, Ambassador of India to Ireland, and Mr.Billy Kelleher, Irish Government Minister for Trade and Commerce. Also in attendance was Mr. Prashant Shukla, Director of the Ireland India Council, Mr. Brendan O’Regan, CEO of Zenith Technologies (strong supporters of this initiative) and a large number of invited guests.