Dr.Kishan KPC is the director of International Affairs at GITAM University, Visakhapatnam. He handles all the operations of internationalisation, right from networking with foreign universities, International student admissions and their welfare. He has held various administrative roles at GITAM while being a professor for 20 years. He acquired his Ph.D. from Acharya Nagarjuna University in Business/Commerce, and he has completed his MBA at the United States International University in San Diego, USA.

GITAM Visakhapatnam

As you have held key positions in various organizations before visiting GITAM. What is something about GITAM in particular that excited you to come along with the institution in Journey?

I started my work with GITAM in 2003 as a placement officer and held many positions across my 20+ year stay here. So, with that experience, I've seen how GITAM is different from other organizations because I've worked as a faculty member and placement committee member as well. GITAM is quite different from other Institutions with its open-door policy; people can reach out to anyone, either a student or a parent can meet anybody, which is not the case in many institutes, you need to make appointments. So that way, it is a very transparent and friendly environment where irrespective of how many students we have, everybody is approachable. Even students have the opportunity to meet the Vice Chancellors directly. As an employee of this organization, I can probably say that the kind of encouragement that you get from superiors and the opportunities you get to experiment with your thoughts, creativity, and innovation are seldom everywhere. So, I initiated many things as a staff member here. It's my pleasure that I could bring a sponsored Language Laboratory where HSBC donated 60 lakhs worth of equipment to set up the state-of-the-art Language laboratory way back in 2004. I was instrumental in getting the first collaboration agreement with the University of Glasgow, which is ranked among the top 100 in the world. What I like about this university is the freedom to experiment with your thoughts, the encouragement that you get from seniors, and transparency.

What steps do you take to assess foreign students in adapting to the new academic and social environment here in our country?

As a director of international affairs, my role here started way back six years ago. We have been attracting students from across the world. Currently, we have about 400 students from 40 countries. Diversity is what we focus on, and the reasons are obvious when you want to become a global university. International students are important as they will become our ambassadors when they go out. We try to give them the feeling of a home away from home. When the student comes here, we provide free pick-up from the airport so that they are taken care of coming from the airport to the campus, and throughout their stay till they graduate, we provide them the required support. Right from the orientation program that we conduct, it’s all the hand-holding that we do during the first week until they get used to the environment. We help them with other facilities regarding bank accounts, SIM cards, medical services, etc. We try to make sure that the students do not feel lost.

What kind of steps do you implement and provide assistance for them to secure internships or placements ?

Unfortunately, in India, under a student visa, they are not allowed to do any paid internships. So, the students undergo unpaid internships, which are helpful for them to experience practical learning. For those people who are economically poor, we have a special system where we provide them with part-time opportunities within the campus to support them with pocket money, and we do that for people who are coming from economically weaker countries. Recently, there were political conflicts happening in Afghanistan, Sudan etc, so students in Afghanistan were taken care of for almost two years. The university provided financial assistance because they were not getting financial support from their country. We have several such cases where students approach us, and we provide assistance to them immediately. To make them employable after their degree, we have the VDC, which is a Venture Development Center where every student learn entrepreneurship while they're studying. The idea is that when they go back home, they will be more confident about being self-employed on their own after experiencing GITAM.

Can you provide us with examples of a few initiatives that you've implemented to promote cross-cultural exchange and understanding, between domestic students and foreign students?

Club activities and sports are the places where they interact with each other, and even within the classes, they do a lot of teamwork in terms of assignments, team presentations, and projects. Without any intervention, especially from our side, being at the University, they get several such opportunities. We conduct International festival every year where Indian students will witness international cultures. It includes International Food Festival and the International Cultural Festival.

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How do you foster a culture of positivity and inclusiveness among the students and the community towards foreign students?

There are some committees where students are part of them, which are constituted as per the University Grants Commission (UGC. As part of that, some of the students act as representatives on committees like Student Affairs, the Association for International Students, etc. They have meetings and discussions with the management, including the senior leadership team, to express any grievances or anything happening with the open-door policy. The management always strives to cultivate a positive and lively environment within the community.

What can a foreign student who is aspiring to study in India expect from joining GITAM?

GITAM is a place for quality education, and at the same time, it is a very safe and secure environment. And most importantly, we offer them attractive waivers to extend a very affordable fee structure to make every international student to study here. Student is going to have complete holistic development and a fruitful time throughout their stay at GITAM.

Can you describe to us how GITAM is maintaining relationships with foreign universities to implement global standards into our educational curriculum?

We have had a few collaborations, especially in the last five years. These collaborations are enablers in terms of faculty exchange and student exchange. We have Indian students who go abroad and experience it either through summer school, semester abroad, or twinning programs, and similarly, faculty exchange happens for teaching and training. International faculty give lectures here at GITAM to our students both physically and virtually, and our faculty go to the partnered universities to teach the students over there, and they come back with new experiences that help us implement all of them here.

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What is your vision for the coming years as a director of International affairs for GITAM University?

We are looking at internationalization within the organization as a whole, and admitting international students is just one of the activities. We don’t want to focus only on admission; I’m also responsible for collaborating with foreign universities and offering opportunities for Indian students to go there and study abroad. So overall, internationalization is part of university mission that we are pursuing. And with the new UGC guidelines on collaborations and partnerships that were announced last year, we are more optimistic in terms of getting every student in GITAM to have an opportunity to experience international culture and international diversity, either on this campus or abroad, and that is our objective. So, every student, be it international or Indian student, should experience internationalization either while studying here or going abroad. There will be more focus on faculty exchange, student exchange, and international students coming here either for a semester or a degree.