The atmosphere at WeSchool was visibly charged as the American delegation consisting of about 75 illustrious and highly influential decision makers from the academia, politics, business and industry was visiting the campus to attend a round table meeting with Dr Uday Salunkhe, Group Director –Welingkar (WeSchool) along with Dr Rajan Welukar, Vice Chancellor-University of Mumbai, Mr Abhay Wagh, Deputy Secretary-Dept of Higher And Tech Education and other dignitaries from the state’s academic world.

After  welcoming the guests in a traditional Indian style at the beautifully decorated and lit up campus in Mumbai, Dr Uday Salunkhe ,Group Director unfolded the unique role of the WeSchool, its vision and mission, its various collaborations with foreign universities, innovative projects and ‘Destination India’ the unique programme offered to foreign B-Schools as well as corporates. “Globalization and liberalization has changed the socio-economic equations the world over, and the education platform has to change to be ahead of the times not only contain the turbulences created by the economic crisis but to create  opportunities that will benefit the young students in both countries in the long run. WeSchool believes in nurturing thought leaders and practioners through innovative education and already has a global footprint in terms of student and faculty exchange programs, foreign study tours and internships. We will be working with Harvard Business School very closely in the near future. As a leading B-school in India, we are extremely conscious of our responsibility in transformation of education and look forward to your ideas and suggestions for cooperation in this space”, said Dr Salunkhe in his opening speech.

His words were in perfect sync with the National agenda set up by Dr Manmohan Singh, our Prime Minister and President Barrack Obama during his last visit to India. While improving the quality of educational programs, removing the gender disparities, creating better access to education, E- Governance, improved Industry-Academia interaction are highlighted in the National Agenda, Interactions with foreign universities and signing of MOUs with them is its top priority. “We have already signed an MOU with University of Illinois and are looking forward to a tie-up with Harvard for capacity building of our students and beauraucrats “added Mr Abhay Wagh, Deputy Secretary –Department of Higher And Technical Education, Govt of Maharashtra while outlining the state’s educational policy and plan.

While the number of Indian students wanting to go the US seems to have declined marginally ,the number of American students coming to India to study has gone up to 44% as reported by the International Institute of education recently .The University of Mumbai has decided to reserve 15% seats for foreign students in its affiliated colleges. Universities in the USA have already begun to explore opportunities of collaboration with their Indian counterparts and some like Stanford and Wharton are looking forward to setting up campuses in India once the Foreign Universities Bill gets passed. It was therefore appropriate that the Vice Chancellor of University of Mumbai, Dr Rajan Welukar, a man at the center stage of educational reforms in the state to express , ” We have the responsibility to reach the last man. The University of Mumbai has 650 affiliated colleges and institutes, with 1, 70,000 students graduating this year. India is a young country and we need to add 1500 universities and 50,000 institutes to fulfill the national target .But increasing the quantity is not enough, we need to improve the quality as well. So as decided at the recent Indo-US Summit, our agenda is clear. We need to co-exist, Co-Create, Co-operate, Collaborate for mutual benefit. We look forward to collaboration and co-creation with you. While America has all the physical resources and prosperity, India has a 5,000 year old culture and wisdom; together we can transform the world.”

Both ,Dr Welukar,Vice Chancellor of University of Mumbai  and Mr Abhay Wagh, Dep Secretary welcomed all the efforts and complimented Dr Salunkhe and WeSchool for taking the initiative and the lead in strengthening the Indo –US Collaborations in the field of education.

Also present on the occasion were dignitaries like Dr Vijay Khole, former VC-University of Mumbai, Dr Nareshchandra, Former Pro-VC, University of Mumbai, Mr Abhay Dadhe, Chairman –Shikshan Prasarak Mandali, Mr Jayant Shaligram, Trustee- Shikshan Prasarak Mandali, Dr V Rangrajan, President of indo US Education Council, Mr Manoj Gursahani,President-Indo American Society ,Dr Suhas Pednekar, Principal –Ruia college and Dr Vasudevan,Principai-Potdar college of commerce.  Mr Steve Lekis, President- US State Legislators Leadership Forum expressed his heartfelt thanks to WeSchool for bringing leading academics, representatives of state government and other key figures in education together and arranging a wonderful interactive meeting at such a short notice.