'Our aim resonates with Indian students'

Notre Dame Provost Thomas G. Burish

University of Notre Dame Provost Thomas Burish speaks of the recent Mumbai trip and why Indian students are ideal for his campus

Tell us about the Mumbai Global Center.
Notre Dame created the Mumbai Global Center in 2016 to facilitate faculty and scholarly exchanges, student visits, and faculty lectures and conferences. The center serves as a hub of information and activity for Notre Dame scholars, students and alumni in India. Notre Dame selected Mumbai as the location because we have many alumni there and it is among the most international cities in India. Since its creation, the center has recruited Indian students for Notre Dame's international summer study programmes, which are designed to recruit students from around the world. The two most prominent of these are the International Leadership Enrichment and Development (iLED) for high school students and the International Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (iSURE) programme which brings international undergrads to Notre Dame for research. More than ÂÂu00c2u0099" students from ÂÂu00c2u0095ÂÂu00c2u0095Indian high schools in India have participated in the iLED program since ""ÂÂu00c2u0095ÂÂu00c2u0096ÂÂu00c2u009a and this year we changed the schedule to allow more students from India to attend. Thus far, eight undergraduate students from three universities in India have participated in the iSURE at our South Bend, Indiana campus.

Why is India an important country for the university?
It represents an important element of Notre Dame's effort to become a more global and international university. India has the world's second largest population. It's a nation with growing importance in the world. Students from India do very well in our school and they enrich our academic environment with the backgrounds and knowledge they bring.

Indian students from the class of 2022 are welcomed on campus

What will you take back from your visit to Mumbai?
During the visit, I developed an even better understanding of why Indians do well with us. I think some people might find it surprising how compatible our Catholic university's values, ethics and approach to undergraduate education are with students and families in India. In fact, the Indian students and their families told us that they appreciate our focus on ethics as well as academic excellence.

What are your thoughts on taking forward the research building projects in the country.
More than 30 Notre Dame faculty members are involved in research projects with collaborators in India. These collaborations are advancing knowledge and understanding in fields such as physics, medicine, economics, and anthropology. The research is also providing solutions and having an impact in areas such as historical preservation, social design for the visually impaired, forecasting weather, and malaria eradication.

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