IIT Roorkee hosts IITs international relations conclave

NEW DELHI: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee campus hosted the international relations (IR) conclave. The IR conclave was held on November 6 and 7, 2023. The IR Conclave 2023 provided a platform for a varied range of stakeholders to discuss the variety of challenges that international education collaboration entails. It offered a forum for leaders, experts, and officials from academics and funding agencies to hold in-depth discussions about internationalisation initiatives within the Indian Institute of Technology system.

This event was organised to foster cooperation, information exchange, and collective brainstorming on issues of critical importance in the field internationalization of higher education.

The panel included K K Pant, director, IIT Roorkee; S K Varshney International cooperation, department of science and technology; Nitin Seth director, Indo-French center for promotion of advanced research; B Chandrasekar, executive director, corporate planning, EdCIL; V C Srivastava, dean, international relations and Ankit Agarwal, organizing secretary, IR Conclave.

K K Pant in his speech emphasised the necessity of inter-IIT collaboration and fostering of linkages between new and old generation IITs in order to meet today's research and development challenges. Pant highlighted that events like IIT Conclave are ideal for initiating meaningful discussions regarding the exchange of knowledge and expertise, as well as the formulation of strategies for academic and research collaboration.

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S K Varshney stressed on the importance of IITs engaging in internationalisation efforts and coming together to discuss challenges in academic and research collaborations. Varshney also emphasised the importance of sharing expertise among IITs to enrich the academic and research excellence of both students and researchers.

Nitin Seth also spoke about the importance of research collaboration between Indian and French Institutions to drive scientific excellence, address global challenges, and create a better future through collaborative research and shared expertise.

The conclave also featured a series of sessions on topics such as "International students: challenges ahead," "International networking & faculty exchange," "Challenges of IR office: open discussions," and "Responsibilities and digitization of IR office."