Mission to India
March 24-30, 2007

University of Washington President Mark Emmert and seven other university and government leaders took part in a State Department-sponsored mission to Mumbai and New Delhi, India, to deliver the message that "America wants to expand educational collaboration with India," according to the State Department. (Read about the trip in a UWeek article.)

Leading the delegation was Ambassador Karen P. Hughes, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. The delegation met with students and leaders in higher education, government and business. (Read Hughes' speech on the purpose of the mission.)

The State Department said on its Web site that the delegation carried the message that "the U.S. welcomes and values international students who want to study in the United States, and they will highlight the importance of international education to strengthening U.S.-India ties and preparing globally competitive American students at educational institutions."

The State Department said India is No. 1 in the world in sending students to the United States for higher education. The University of Washington had 186 students from India enrolled for fall quarter 2006, according to the International Services Office.

The South Asia Center at the UW

The UW's South Asia Program provides instruction and scholarship on India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal Bhutan and Tibet. The program provides regular developmental language education and advanced training in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Sanskrit.

The center says on its Web site that undergraduates and professional students regularly participate in study abroad and study tours in India. Others around campus also have done recent work in India. Some examples:

• Doctoral student Carolyn Wei studied at Media Lab Asia in Mumbai and did research focusing on the very personal side of personal computing in Bangalore, a high-tech Indian boomtown. Read more >
• Doctoral student Tapan Parikh spent almost half his time in graduate school traveling in India and working with the people who would use a modified cell phone he developed for use in the developing world. Read more >
• Vandra Huber, professor of human resource management in the Business School, took students on a study trip to several Indian cities in summer/fall 2006 to do outreach activities at a school.
• Senior lecturer Manish Chalana, who has a master's degree in architecture from the School of Planning and Architecture in New Delhi, has been working on projects in India, including one involving an ancient road that starts in Afghanistan and goes to Bangladesh. Chalana said he’s looking at it from a “cultural resource management perspective” with a view toward preserving parts of its history.

"For nearly forty years," Director Priti Ramamurthy wrote on the South Asia Center's Web site, "South Asian Studies at the University of Washington has been part of an eminent group of national programs.

"It has offered rigorous and comprehensive inter-disciplinary education and expert training for scholars and professionals seeking to become deeply knowledgeable about South Asia, a region including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka."