Rice launches partnerships with Indian universities

By Nandini Dasari     12/3/24 11:39pm

Thirty members of Rice leadership and faculty convened in Bengaluru, India Nov. 18 to launch Rice Global India, an initiative to bolster Rice’s network of academic collaboration abroad. According to Caroline Levander, Rice’s vice president for global affairs, the trip was the largest international delegation in the history of the university.

Rice’s presence in India is not new, according to President Reggie DesRoches. DesRoches said that Rice Global India formalizes a sentiment for cooperation with India that has been in the works for decades.

“This country of nearly 1.5 billion people represents a dynamic and rapidly growing landscape of entrepreneurial and strategic opportunities,” DesRoches wrote in an email to the Thresher. “With its burgeoning economy, diverse talent pool and vibrant innovation ecosystem, India will play a pivotal role in our global strategy.” 

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Aside from hiring staff in India and organizing legal matters, Levander said that one of the most important considerations in preparing for Rice Global India was finding a location to call home. After a multi-city tour of India last November, Rice administration agreed to establish their center of operations in Bengaluru due to shared prominence and research priorities.

“My work is to identify institutions that are like Rice: high-caliber, highly research [oriented], rigorous and selective,” Levander said. “And amongst those, [I] see where we have possibility for faculty collaboration. Because if you get faculty working together, the rest tends to follow.”

Rice has partnered with the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and the Indian Institute of Science Bengaluru, two of the country’s most prestigious educational institutions. According to DesRoches, Rice hopes to offer unique opportunities for students through these partnerships.

“Through these joint education programs, internships and collaborative research projects, students from both countries will gain valuable international exposure, furthering their academic and professional development,” DesRoches wrote.

Levander also said that Rice aims to prioritize India as a pool of academic talent, especially at the graduate level. As a part of the program, the university plans to offer merit-based Rice Excellence scholarships to Indian students.

“We will be focusing on growing awareness of Rice as an academic brand in India. We want to be known in India, and right now, we’re largely not,” Levander said.

Lovett College freshman Vinati Pillutla said that she is interested in the personal and professional opportunities at Rice Global India.

“Apart from the fact that I have family there, I think that India is quickly becoming the center of research and innovation, especially in the biotechnology field, which is what I’m interested in pursuing,” Pillutla said. “I’ve always been in the American schooling system, and I’m interested in exploring the school systems of other countries as well.”

Rice has already started to take steps in further enhancing its presence in India, DesRoches wrote. In addition to its partnerships with IIT Kanpur and IISc Bengaluru, the university recently entered similar agreements for academic collaboration with IIT-Madras and the India-based Amity Education Group, a worldwide organization of 25 schools and 11 universities with over 175,000 students. 

India’s rapid advancement in the technology and education sectors make the country a significant part of Rice’s ultimate vision for worldwide interconnection, according to DesRoches.   

“Together, we are creating a global network that empowers students, researchers and industry leaders alike, fostering solutions that resonate on a worldwide scale,” DesRoches wrote.

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