In a unique initiative, an agreement of academic collaboration between SNDT Women's University, a 106-year-old first women’s university of India, and the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC), the largest community college under the City University of New York (CUNY), was inked on Wednesday.
The MoU was signed in presence of Maharashtra Governor and Chancellor of universities Bhagat Singh Koshyari at Raj Bhavan in Mumbai.
A Conclave on "Internationalisation of Higher Education: Opportunities and Challenges" was also held on the occasion.
President of the BMCC-CUNY Dr Anthony Munroe and Vice Chancellor of SNDT Women's University Prof Ujwala Chakradeo signed the Statement of Shared Interest in presence of the Governor. Speaking on the occasion, the Governor said that we live in an era of collaboration and cooperation and not confrontation. “This collaboration will bring new light in students’ work-life,” he said.
Complimenting the SNDT Women’s University and the BMCC Community College for embarking on a partnership for student and faculty exchange, the Governor said the collaboration will produce good results for both sides within the next few years. He mentioned that goodwill of both the organisations will benefit each other.
Dr Munroe said the BMCC is the largest community college in the US, offering affordable education to students from 140 different countries. Stating that 60 per cent of the BMCC students were women, he felt that a partnership with SNDT Women's University will prove to be mutually beneficial. He said the fees charged by the college is one-sixth of private colleges.
He mentioned that the BMCC is rated among the top 5 Community Colleges in the United States, having collaboration with best known financial institutions such as Goldman Sach, Zurich, Citi Bank, Moody's and others. He said students of the Colleges can pursue further higher education in the best Ivy league institutions such as NewYork, Columbia, Harvard, Yale, Starnford, UC Berkeley and MIT.
Prof Chakradeo said the MoU is being signed right at a time when India is ready to implement the National Education Policy 2020. Dr. Chakradeo highlighted that both the institutions offer diverse courses opening many avenues of academic collaboration for the students of both the countries.
She expressed the hope that girls from India will get the best of higher education opportunities through the partnership with BMCC. Stating that skill education is the forte of the SNDT Women's University, she further said that the areas of collaboration with BMCC such as internship, joint degrees, entrepreneurship etc. have been identified and will be acted upon. She hopes that many students from both the universities will be able to visit and work with each other.
