International Student Exchange: An Indian Perspective on the Khorana Scholars Program in the US

Lecture by Dr Perveen Kumar. Convenor: Dr M. Baas

During the past three decades, international student exchange programmes have gained immense popularity among the universities as well as among students. Under this mode, exchange students visit foreign universities for short-term educational exposure. Besides getting opportunity to study in the new (and different) academic environment of the partner institutions, students are also expected to develop the understanding of the host institution and the host culture and thereby contribute to the socio-cultural harmony in the world. Increasing number of countries as well as individual institutions across the world today are engaged in signing MOUs with partner institutions for faculty and students exchange programmes. India and the United States (first one a major source country and the latter a major destination country) are important participants facilitating the exchange of students.

The Khorana Program for Scientific Exchange was founded at the University of Wisconsin, USA in 2008 in honour of Professor Hargobind Khorana, who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine (1968) while being a faculty member of Indian origin at the University. The programme is supported by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, and Indo-US Science and Technology Forum. The Khorana Program provides opportunity to certain specified number of Indian students every year to visit the University of Wisconsin for short periods. Students pursuing their bachelor degrees in science and technology in India are selected to work in the University of Wisconsin for the summer and come back to India to complete their degrees. Later on, some ‘Khorana Scholars’ join the UW for pursuing an integrated PhD programmes in the sciences. The program also provides some American students the opportunity to visit India. Present paper is based on the case study of Khorana Program which was conducted as part of my PhD to assess the contribution of student exchange programmes in human and social capital formation. The study found that participation in ‘Khorana Program’ was a very enriching experience in terms of improving career prospects, developing traits like cooperation and empathy, and broadening of socio-cultural understating. While the Khorana Program is designed to provide students with transformational, scientific and cultural experiences and foster partnerships between academia and the private sector it also caters to the need of the American universities to attract foreign students in the US at a time when there is a global competition for enrolment/recruitment of foreign students.