MONTREAL/February 10, 2010—
The President and Vice-Chancellor of Concordia University, Judith Woodsworth, has just returned from a most productive trade mission to India. Woodsworth was a member of the Quebec trade delegation, led by Premier Jean Charest, which has spent the past week travelling to three cities in India.
Concordia’s focus on this trip was to renew or extend educational and R& D collaborations in five distinct areas of expertise: aerospace engineering, information and communication technologies, life sciences, sustainability, and energy and the environment. Woodsworth is particularly proud to have signed partnership agreements with eight educational institutions in India, including TERI (The Resource and Energy Institute) University, the National Institute of Design, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, and VIT (formerly the Vellore Institute of Technology) University.
“I am delighted to have expanded Concordia’s partnerships with new institutions -in addition to renewing current partnerships- where our expertise will undoubtedly play a key role in significant research findings”, says Woodsworth. “Under our agreement with TERI, to take just one example, our researchers will be working on climate change, biofuels and sustainable business, all recognized areas of strength here at Concordia.”
Other agreements facilitate mutually rewarding activity for partner institutions which are now linked to experts in Concordia’s John Molson School of Business, the faculties of Fine Arts, Engineering and Computer Science, and Arts and Science, notably through its Centre for Structural and Functional Genomics.
The partner institutions are located in several states across India. This latest visit to India allowed Woodsworth the opportunity to meet with a number of Concordia alumni. They clearly take pride in their Concordia experience and share with Woodsworth their hopes of building an association of alumni in India, along the lines of alumni chapter in locations such as Hong Kong.
A closer look at Concordia University’s faculty, students and alumni further illustrates its deep connections to India. Fully 5% of Concordia’s full-time teaching and research faculty were born in India. As well, the number of students with Indian citizenship has fluctuated between 300 and 350 for the last few years.
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Source:
Fiona Downey
Media Relations Advisor
Concordia University
Phone: 514-848-2424, ext. 2518
Cell: 514-518-3336
Fax: 514-848-3383
Email: fdowney@alcor.concordia.ca
