Nauni, Western Sydney varsities sign accord

Dr. YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry (UHF), Nauni has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Australia’s premier institution- Western Sydney University(WSU). The tie-up will enable the development of collaborative projects, organization of joint academic and scientific activities, such as courses, conferences, online seminars and webinars, symposia and exchange between the two universities.
 
The MoU was signed recently by Dr. Parvinder Kaushal, UHF Vice-Chancellor with representatives from Western Sydney university joining the ceremony online. The MoU has been signed under the ICAR’s World Bank-funded National Agricultural Higher Education Plan (NAHEP). Under NAHEP, UHF has been awarded the Institutional Development Project (IDP). Both institutions will work towards the exchange of UG students and academic staff for teaching and research activities under IDP. 
 
The MoU was signed in the presence of Dr. Rakesh Gupta, Director Research; Dr. PK Mahajan, Director Extension Education; Dr. Bhupender Gupta, Dean Forestry; Prashant Sirkek, Registrar, Dr. Ravinder Sharma, SWO; Dr. KK Raina, Principal Investigator IDP; CR Sharma, Comptroller and other team members of the project. 
 
“The objective of this partnership is to provide a framework by which the two universities will undertake joint activities together. The activities undertaken under this MoU, which has been signed under the IDP, will strengthen our resolve to provide international exposure to our students and faculty. This will not only help them to compete globally but also bolster the university’s reputation,” said Dr. Parvinder Kaushal.

As part of the MoU, the University will soon start three online short-term courses with WSU on Entrepreneurship Development, Remote Sensing and Scientific Numeracy for the undergraduate students. The first group of UG students will be taking 16 week online courses from WSU which will provide them insights into the entrepreneurship technology being used in Australia. The students will get exposure on how to write projects, research documents so that they compete on the global platform 
 
The IDP project will further provide mentoring support for MSc and doctoral students of the university to avail full fellowship from the partner institution in the future. After completion of this programme, the exchange of academic staff will begin both in teaching and research fields. The students will get opportunities to visit Australia as soon as the COVID 19 situation improves and they are permitted to physically undertake the programmes. This is the first time such a programme has been started and it will help the students to undertake scientific as well as academic pursuits at the international level and improve university rankings and repute. The faculty from WSU will also collaborate to conduct online seminars, webinars and lectures.
 
“We are confident that the university will have many more such collaborations in the immediate future as talks are in the final stages with universities and institutions in the UK and the Netherlands,” added Dr. Kaushal.