Irish Education Minister looks for collaboration and strengthening ties with Indian institutions

James Lawless, Eire’s Minister for Additional and Increased Education, Analysis, Innovation and Science in an interview with The Hindu in Chennai on Saturday.
| Photograph Credit score: AKHILA EASWARAN

“Now we have €16 billion price of commerce change between India and Eire. Now we have a big variety of Indian college students finding out in Eire, sometimes postgraduates. However we’re wanting on the undergraduate choices as nicely,” stated James Lawless, Eire’s Minister for Additional and Increased Education, Analysis, Innovation and Science, who’s at present in India on an official go to. In an interview with The Hindu, he spoke on plans to collaborate with instructional institutions.

Chennai was his third cease on the journey, which included New Delhi and Mumbai. He’s within the nation “to advertise coaching and instructional hyperlinks between the 2 nations.”

Indians are the only largest group of scholars in Eire outdoors the European Union member states’ residents. “They make very valued contributions. Indian nationals have made essentially the most impression over the past 20 years in info and communication know-how and in healthcare,” he stated. Of late, Eire has seen extra college students specialising in disciplines reminiscent of huge information, AI, renewable vitality, and information analytics, moreover conventional engineering, STEM, enterprise, and regulation.

In Chennai, he met with the Chief Minister, whereas his delegation visited the Indian Institute of Know-how, Madras and IIT Madras Analysis Park. “They’re very revolutionary. They’re doing groundbreaking analysis. And we’re positively making an attempt to develop collaborations there,” he stated.

Among the plans for collaboration embrace joint diploma programmes on the undergraduate and postgraduate ranges. “One possibility could be spending two years in an Indian college and then travelling to Eire, spending two years in a European college, or the opposite method round,” he defined. “College students would full half the programme in India and the opposite half in Eire. The postgraduate programmes are for a 12 months, however intense. We discover most postgraduates get work in a short time,” he remarked. “There’s a very robust financial system. Indian college students are inclined to work in areas of excessive demand, like engineering, STEM, and healthcare. So, only a few college students find yourself wanting for work for very lengthy,” he defined.

Massive firms reminiscent of LinkedIn, Amazon, Intel, Pfizer, and Provider, moreover main corporations within the meals sector, science, and semiconductors, have a powerful presence in Eire, he added.

Candidates who take up undergraduate or postgraduate programmes additionally take pleasure in a ‘keep again’ visa that permits them to work in Eire. Gifted candidates might get everlasting residency if firms have an interest. Analysis collaborations may very well be in area of interest areas, together with interdisciplinary programmes, he advised, citing IIT Madras’ collaboration with Zanzibar.

The institute’s oceanography programme is of curiosity to Eire. “Eire is on the sting of the Atlantic Ocean. Now we have plenty of analysis tasks round renewable vitality and offshore wind specifically,” he stated. It’s one space the place Irish universities might collaborate for analysis, he acknowledged.

With a typical time zone with GMT, entry to the European Union, and robust ties to the U.Okay. and the U.S., Eire is a gorgeous possibility, he identified. “We’re additionally English-speaking, a really giant financial system. There’s a lot in widespread inside the European Union. We’re subsequent door to the U.Okay., with a typical journey settlement, and we’re yet one more cease throughout the Atlantic to the US. So, we’re in a great place for anyone who desires to be based mostly in Europe,” he stated.

Already institutions reminiscent of Trinity School, College School Galway, College of Limerick and College School, Cork, have a great variety of Indian college students.

Already, institutions reminiscent of Trinity School Dublin, College School Galway, College of Limerick, and College School Cork have a powerful presence of Indian college students.