It was quite the coming together of cultures as Australian cricketer Adam Gilchrist launched the new University of Wollongong (UOW) logo for its India Campus at the GIFT City Club on Monday. The ceremony began with the lighting of lamps and the recitation of a Sanskrit invocation to Lord Ganesha, led by Ram Gorlamandala, founder CEO of the Sydney-based TAT Capital, which used the occasion to sign an agreement with UOW for two PhD research scholarships worth 25,000 Australian Dollars.
The 48-year-old UOW, which is the first foreign university to open a branch campus in India, is scheduled to open the doors of its GIFT City campus in July 2024. Addressing a news conference, UOW vice-chancellor Patricia Davidson said that the initial course offerings in the new “vertical” campus will be geared towards finance and computing, in line with the needs of GIFT City. “We expect placements for our graduates to be within GIFT City. Companies here are expected to generate many jobs in finance and computer science,” she said.
Annual fees at UOW GIFT City have been pegged at around Rs 8 lakh, which is less than half the fees paid by international students at the Australia campus. Professor Davidson said that the campus will be ideal for those students who cannot afford to go abroad for studies. “It will also be an opportunity for women to get an international education at home. There have been more women than men in our scholarship programs in Australia and we are working on arranging scholarships for the new campus.”
On the occasion, Professor Davidson announced a vice-chancellor’s scholarship for 17-year-old Chaitanya Vishwajit Ambike from Bangalore. The young man, who was present at the ceremony with his parents (both doctors), will be enrolling in the Bachelor of Mathematics Advanced at UOW’s Australia campus in February.
UOW opened its first international campus in Dubai in 1993, where it now has 3,500 students, followed by Hong Kong in 2015 and Malaysia in 2019. The UOW GIFT City campus aims to enroll 5,000 students once the infrastructure at its campus is ready. Addressing the news conference, UOW’s brand ambassador of 15 years, Adam Gilchrist, said the 30-year experience in Dubai has given the university valuable insights into the running of an international campus. “We will tap into this knowledge in India,” he said. Earlier, the famed cricketer played a game of cricket with youngsters at the Jamnabai Narsee School in GIFT City and presented them with autographed bats.
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