Experiences with Amma
Amrita University: A Visionary Institution
Stephen C. Dunnett
Professor and Vice Provost for International Education
University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
As a faculty member and international educator at the University at Buffalo (UB), which is one of a growing number of leading U.S. institutions partnering with Amrita University, I want to emphasize the importance of Amrita University as a model for higher education in India and beyond.
Under Amma’s inspired leadership, Amrita University has experienced remarkable growth and development in the few short years since its founding. With five campuses, 15 schools and 75 degree programs, Amrita is rapidly emerging as a major institution of higher education in South Asia.
Having visited the Amrita campuses myself and having met with many Amrita faculty and students, I am deeply impressed by the quality of the university’s faculty, students, facilities, and programs, and with the Amrita commitment to academic excellence. Thanks to Amma’s unique and compelling vision of higher education, Amrita University has distinguished itself from many other universities. One distinctive feature that I would highlight is the strong emphasis placed on service and the role of higher education in contributing to the public good. This is one of the core missions of public higher education in the U.S., and I admire the extent to which Amrita University research, teaching and outreach have a strong service dimension.
This service orientation is exemplified by many Amrita initiatives such as the use of computer networks and satellites to extend higher education opportunities to remote and underserved regions of India, innovative research efforts including one to develop systems of wireless remote sensors to monitor areas prone to natural disasters in order to provide early warning to potential victims, and the deployment of extensive biomedical expertise and technology to extend provision of health care treatment and prevention to much larger numbers of people throughout India. Many of these examples also illustrate another important dimension of Amrita University--its commitment to harnessing science and technology for the relief of suffering and the betterment of the human condition. In fields such as biotechnology, telemedicine and digital health, Amrita is greatly expanding the circle of its service activities and its impact.
Building capacity and expanding service activities far beyond the campuses of Amrita University have also involved creating strategic partnerships with leading institutions overseas, including many of the finest institutions in the United States. Amrita’s success in forging these alliances has been truly remarkable. For example, my university, the University at Buffalo, is now partnering on a number of joint initiatives including a dual master’s degree program in IT-Enabled Services, offered to managers in the critical IT industry in Bangalore. A second dual master’s degree program between Amrita and UB is currently being planned. This model of cooperation involves a balanced partnership that benefits the partners equally. This model for cooperation in India seems wiser and more appropriate at present than do so-called branch campus arrangements for foreign partners, the status of which under Indian law is still unclear. One of the keys to Amrita University’s impressive growth and success has been Amma’s extraordinary ability to recruit and inspire some of the best and brightest individuals from around the world to work with her in building a great university.
At UB we have had the privilege of working with extremely talented and accomplished Amrita colleagues who themselves are highly successful graduates of premier U.S. institutions, who understand our higher education system exceptionally well, and who know how to achieve creative and productive synergies between Amrita and their American partners. Our Amrita colleagues’ familiarity with U.S. higher education helps make their institution a preferred destination for UB students interested in studying in India. It is vital that more American students gain firsthand experience of India, and Amrita provides unique opportunities for students of different fields to do so. For example, Amrita offers UB students in underrepresented fields such as social work and medicine the opportunity to gain study, research, and field-work experiences of great value through the network of Amrita institutions. I look forward to strengthening UB’s ties to Amrita in the years ahead.