Akhilesh Pandey in his laboratory at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, works with researchers in Bangalore

The lure of the East

"Studying abroad is becoming an essential component for success in the competitive global environment," U.S. Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen P. Hughes said during her trip to India in March. "The student understands that the global knowledge society knows no boundaries. Now, it remains for government and higher education institutions, working in partnership with the private sector, to match their students' ambitions."

Her accompanying delegation included presidents of a type of institution Indians have usually been unaware of: two-year community colleges whose degrees can be used for credit at four-year institutions.

Columbia University in New York City, George Washington University in Washington D.C. and the University of North Dakota are among those tying up with Indian schools to send American students over for an international experience. The U.S. government is also fostering educational collaborations like the U.S.-India Agricultural Knowledge Initiative, which allows students from both countries to do joint degree programs.

The American Society of Engineering Education is working with Indian engineering educators on an action plan to strengthen engineering programs, and recently had a high level meeting at the Infosys campus in Bangalore. Darryl Calkins of Linden Tours organizes education fairs where U.S. university officials can meet prospective Indian students. He says the new push toward India comes from increasing international awareness and also the concerns that U.S. universities have about meeting the demand from potential students in America. By opening up joint programs and campuses abroad, they can provide the same quality education to students who would have otherwise come to the U.S. campus, he says. Yet, they still have an opportunity to grow their school and their alumni. Calkins also says U.S. universities have realized that in a fast globalizing world, they have not sent enough American students overseas to study and gain perspective. Programs in India give students a somewhat familiar environment to step into. It "makes it easier for U.S. students who have never thought of it before" and might have been afraid of all the unknowns in going abroad, he says.

And it is not only traditional universities that are responsible for growing ties. The Simmons School of Management in Boston, Massachusetts, is creating a student exchange program with the Indian Institute of Management in Kolkata so that students from both schools can gain global experience, and women MBA candidates, in particular, can be encouraged to take on leadership roles and become entrepreneurs. "My fundamental belief is that to be a successful manager in organizations today, you need cross-cultural competencies and global experience," says Simmons' dean, Deborah Merrill-Sands.

Johns Hopkins University Professor Akhilesh Pandey set up the Institute of Bioinformatics in Bangalore in 2002 to help him evaluate huge amounts of data generated by his experiments in isolating and studying proteins to help fight cancer. Even though many people doubted his idea, Pandey put up his own money to get the institute running and later received grants to step it up. Now, it operates the Human Protein Reference Database, which contains information on more than 24,000 human proteins. It gets thousands of hits a month from laboratories around the world, and Pandey has helped many of the institute's Bangalore-based researchers complete their PhDs in India and study at Johns Hopkins in Maryland. He hopes to set up more collaborative projects with American institutions that want to expand their research by taking advantage of lower costs in India.

Private corporations also play a role in helping universities set up these collaborations. The University of California at Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania, Cornell and other U.S. universities have started a science and engineering electronic-learning program with Amrita University in Tamil Nadu, thanks to funding for travel and salary supplements from Qualcomm, Microsoft and Cadence Design Systems.

The draw of the West

Though there are growing opportunities to get an American education in India, it hasn't dampened the desire to study in the United States. India's Knowledge Commission estimates 160,000 Indians are studying abroad, spending an estimated $4 billion a year. More than 76,500 of them went to the United States in 2006. Most of these Indian students pursue masters and doctoral programs, though about 20 percent now go into undergraduate studies, says Vijaya Khandavilli, who recently retired as country coordinator for Educational Advising Services of the U.S. Educational Foundation in India. USEFI is on hand to help Indian students, scholars and researchers navigate the visa process and figure out which is the best university or college for their needs, how to pay, find housing, fill out applications and transfer academic work for credit toward a degree.

Aspiring scholars tend to gloss over the more personal trials of cultural adjustment and homesickness. USEFI helps with that, too, inviting prospective students to seminars, workshops and interactions with returned Indian students and Americans.

Deepak Goyal, a PhD student in Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been studying in the United States since 2001. At first he was just excited, like nearly all Indian students arriving for the first time. "I came out of my shell and it opened up my mind to new things," he says of his first year in the States. But after that, he felt tired and confused by the American system, and even saw some of his Indian friends leave the country, depressed. "Everyone feels these things to some extent," he says. Often, Indian students come with a very specific idea of what America will be like, and it doesn't often turn out exactly as planned. Goyal says it was hard getting used to cooking for himself and not having the support of family and friends around him. To beat the blues, Goyal advises taking new kinds of classes, finding supportive professors and giving oneself time to settle in. Goyal took advantage of the flexibilities in American higher education, and took courses outside of his field: economics and ballroom dancing. And he enjoyed the freedom he was given to debate what is taught. "If you don't agree with a professor, you can openly talk about it…and your entire life does not depend on one professor's opinion," Goyal says.

Even with scholarships, the average cost of studying in the United States is $20,000 per year for an Indian student, cautions Khandavilli. This is another ­reason why earning a U.S. degree in India may be a solution for many. With this in?mind, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, during a visit to the United States in May 2007, signed a memorandum of understanding with Stanford University and Satyam Computers Emergency Management and Research Institute in California. It would provide for a Stanford University branch campus to be set up in Hyderabad to educate Indian emergency medical professionals, or paramedics.

Sreenath Sreenivasan, dean of students and associate professor at Columbia University's School of Journalism, says U.S. schools need to step up their marketing in India, and emphasize their diverse student bodies and Indian student leaders. "On a recent trip to southern India, I met lots of savvy potential students," Sreeni­vasan says. "They seem to have done a lot of research and spent time connecting with Indian alumni groups."

Another issue is simply one of structure: India tends to operate on a year-based calendar, while American schools use the system of fall and spring semesters, with winter, spring and summer breaks. "With disparity in the two systems, credit transfers are a challenge," Khandavilli says.

Some schools solve this through something called "twinning." Manipal Academy in Karnataka initiated the idea in the 1990s with the University of Ohio. In such a program, a student studies for a certain numbers of years in India, then completes the rest of the degree program in the United States. The schools synchronize their schedules and mutually recognize course work. However, Khandavilli suggests that students should have a backup plan, in case they are unable to go to the United States, and should make sure there is real parity between the two systems so that their academic work can be transferred. Despite the obstacles, any student with dreams of succeeding in U.S. schools should know it can be done. Mel Rosso-Llopart, associate director of the Masters of Software Engineering program at Carnegie Mellon University in Pitts­burgh, Pennsylvania, says the Indian students who study with him through an exchange program with SSN College of Engineering in Tamil Nadu are always well qualified and provide hot competition for their American classmates. In addition, he says that American students should take note: Indians' respect for knowledge and drive to succeed sets them apart from the rest.