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‘At Yale, priorities are students and teachers’
In this time of the economic slowdown, which has impacted almost every sector globally, one thing seems to have remained completely unaffected — financial grants for students at Yale University in the US.
In this time of the economic slowdown, which has impacted almost every sector globally, one thing seems to have remained completely unaffected — financial grants for students at Yale University in the US.
This is despite it having to slash its overall endowment from $24 billion to $17.5 billion (Rs 1.18 lakh crore to Rs 86,443 crore).
This is what George Joseph, assistant secretary of International Affairs at Yale University stressed on during his recent visit to the city.
“At Yale, our priorities are students and teachers. All the help that we provide the students with is need-based, and as such we are working towards increasing financial aid to students during these hard times,” he said.
He added in order to not let the grants be affected by recession, the university has been taking steps like cutting down on in-house publications and no salary hikes for staff for a year.
Yale’s India Initiative was launched in November 2008 to create new faculty positions and new curriculum across the arts and sciences disciplines and intensified student recruitment efforts, faculty and student exchanges, research partnerships with Indian institutions, and leadership education.
“We have already recruited faculty members across different departments for subjects relating to India,” Joseph said.
Yale has committed $30 million (Rs 148 crore) of its unrestricted endowment resources to this enterprise and expects to raise at least $20 million (Rs 98 crore) more from donors by 2010.
In June, the third Yale Parliamentary Leadership Programme will take place, which is held in collaboration with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the India-US Forum of Parliamentarians.
