campusreview.com.au
INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
VU’s vice-chancellor, professor Peter Dawkins, with delegates from Ganpat University in India. Photo: VU
Lands of opportunity
VU has expanded into
India to open a campus
focusing on IT courses.
Steve Berridge interviewed
by Loren Smith
V
ictoria University (VU) has had an eventful 2017 – and it’s
only June.
After slashing staff and creating a separate teaching
model for first-years, a new research school and an academy
for high-potential undergraduate students, VU is now opening a
campus in Ahmedabad, India. Ahmedabad is the largest city in the
state of Gujarat, and is close to the southeast Pakistan border.
The tripartite offshoot – between VU, the Education Centre of
Australia and Ahmedabad’s Ganpat University – will offer a suite of
IT master’s courses in project management, enterprise resource
planning systems and business analytics. Master’s courses in
engineering (telecommunications and electrical power), business
administration and applied information technology are earmarked
for future provision.
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In opening an Indian campus, VU targeted one of the fastest
growing tertiary education markets worldwide. Between 1983 and
2014, university enrolments in India grew by 12 per cent. The Indian
government is targeting a 30 per cent enrolment rate by 2020.
However, quantity doesn’t necessarily predicate quality, and many
graduates have been left jobless.
Steve Berridge, VU’s vice-president of engagement, marketing
and international, doesn’t seem too concerned about this. He says
the prestige of Australian universities in India makes them well
placed to produce employable graduates, especially domestically.
Berridge sits down with Campus Review to discuss the reasons
behind VU’s decision to expand into India and its broader
international engagement strategy.
CR: Why did VU decide to open a campus in India, particularly in
Ahmedabad?
SB : Firstly and most importantly, we have a fairly deepened, long-
running international engagement strategy which has a number
of different strands to it around attracting students here to study
with us in Melbourne, and also through sending our own students
overseas to give them experience studying and working abroad as
well. Research collaboration is also a pretty big part of our strategy,
but the fourth part is about delivering our services, courses and
education in-country, which is something we’ve been doing for