SWEDISH SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES NETWORK

---

Background material to
SASNET’s workshop 2006 on
the role of South Asia in the internationalisation
of higher education in Sweden

Presentation of the two speakers invited from South Asia

Dr. Rubhana Raqib
Scientist at the Immunology Unit, Laboratory Sciences Division (LSD). International Centre for Diarrheal Diseases Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B), Dhaka-1212
• Completed her PhD degree in October 1995 in a sandwich program between ICDDR,B and Karolinska Institutet, with SAREC/Sida funds; PhD supervisor was Professor Jan Andersson. Joined ICDDR,B immediately thereafter.
• Active collaboration with Professor Jan Andersson in SAREC/Sida funded studies; New collaborations with other Swedish Scientists in diverse fields. Sharing PhD students with the Swedish scientist in a sandwich program.
• Current research interests involve (i) alternative therapeutic strategies in combating infectious diseases, (ii) rapid diagnostic methods of tuberculosis, (iii) effects of maternal nutritional interventions on the immune function outcome of infants and children, (iv) effect of maternal exposure to toxic elements on the immune functions of infants.
• Research in tuberculosis diagnostics lead to a Patent for an immunodiagnostic method of pulmonary tuberculosis.

Mr. Sunandan Roy Chowdhury
Editor-publisher of Sampark Journal of Global Understanding, Kolkata, India. Each issue of the journal focuses on the political, cultural and social issues of a nation state through essays and creative pieces by eminent writers, academics and intellectuals of that particular nation state. In 2001 Sampark published a special issue on Sweden, ”Children's World In A Scandinavian Nation”.
His research interests are history of ideas, social transformations, higher education, worlds of Islam, and meanings of globalization and cosmopolitanism. His first book, ”Campus Nation – Student Activism and Social Change in Slovenia, Poland, India and Bangladesh” (Worldview, Kolkata) has been published in 2006. He was a fellow of Open Society Institute (OSI) in Budapest, Hungary in 2002-03. He co-edited a volume called ‘Islam and Tolerance in Wider Europe’ under the aegis of the International Policy Fellowships programme of OSI. While at OSI, he also published a report titled ”Mapping Minds, Changing Maps: Comparative Understanding of the Role of Universities in Societies Undergoing Transformation” (read the report, as a pdf-file). Besides, he has been a past fellow of the Salzburg Seminar in Austria and has lectured in universities and academic institutes in Kolkata, Delhi, Budapest and Ljubljana.
Presently he is visiting lecturer, co-teaching a course on Asia, to Satakunta University of Applied Sciences in Kankanpaa, Finland. He is also pursuing a PhD in the field of higher education policy at Delhi University’s Department of Education. He has written articles on politics for Mainstream (weekly, New Delhi) and Ha’aretz (daily, Jerusalem).

Links to relevant articles, papers and documents

Below we give some useful links to relevant articles, papers and other material. Unfortunately, some of these items are only available in Swedish. We also attach some relevant documents, see the end of this text.

Article published by ITPS (Swedish Institute for Growth Policy Studies)
”Studenter lönsammare än vapen”

Article in Businessweek
“Will Foreign Universities Come to India?” For decades, the country has sent its best and brightest away to study, sometimes never to return. Now leaders want the schools to come to them. http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/oct2006/gb20061009_517543.htm

Sida’s (Swedish International Decelopment Cooperation Agency) India Strategy 2006–2008 ftp://www.lwr.kth.se/Common/Indien/632c6b0c.pdf

Indo-Swedish Knowledge Facility on Environment
ftp://www.lwr.kth.se/Common/Indien/SWECO_EKF_Final_Report_20060522.pdf

Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) links:
ftp://www.lwr.kth.se/Common/India/

Fees for foreign students Proposal
Statens Offentliga Utredningar (SOU) 2006:7
http://www.regeringen.se/sb/d/6293/a/57100
SULF’s response to the proposal:
http://www.sulf.se/templates/Page.aspx?id=5418

European Higher Education Fairs (EHEF) in Asia
http://www.ehefs.org. News about the 2007 and 2008 events organised by EU’s Asia-Link Programme, the first held in Bangkok 10–12 November, followed by New Delhi 24-26 November 2006
http://www.ehef-newdelhi.org/. Information about the New Delhi symposium.
Each event starts with a day-long Asia-Link Symposium, discussing and reviewing EU higher education cooperation initiatives and projects with Asia in general and the venue country in particular. The Asia-Link symposia will focus on the theme "Academic cooperation and student mobility between India and Europe", setting the platform for high level international dialogue between high ranking Indian and European officials and relevant stakeholders. The discussions will be on sharing experiences on the relevance of the Bologna Process to India, on strengthening the India-EU academic/institutional collaboration including Joint Study Programmes.

Study and scholarship opportunities for Asians in Europe or for Europeans in Asia
http://ec.europa.eu/comm/europeaid/projects/asia-link/scholinfo_en.htm. Website page created by EU’s Asia-Link programme.

Reports attached:

1. Indian-Swedish Collaboration for Sustainable Development and Environmental Technology (pdf-file)
Report from a first series of meetings in New Delhi, June 13 – 17, 2006

2. Proposal for a national centre for Indian-Swedish Collaboration on Technical Research and Education (INSTEC), December 2005 (pdf-file)

3. Indo-Swedish Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in the fields of Science and Technology, December 2005 (pdf-file)

4. Swedish student’s report from studies at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay. By Markus Kirsten (pdf-file)

Some interesting articles in the Swedish Press

Articles focusing on South Asian students in Sweden, and the proposed introduction of fees for non-European students at Swedish universities. (pdf-file)
• ”Indiska studenter försvann från svenska skolor” (Dagens Nyheter 20 October 2006)
• ”Studentvågen från utlandet: 800 gäststudenter för masters-utbildningar på Blekinge Tekniska Högskola” (Sydsvenskan 13 November 2006)
• ”Högskolor fruktar studieavgift” (Dagens Nyheter 27 October 2006)
• ”Studentkårer kritiska till nya studieavgifter” (Sydsvenskan 27 October 2006)

– Indian students go missing in Sweden (The Local – Sweden’s News in English, 20 October 2006)
– Universities oppose fees for international students (The Local – Sweden’s News in English, 27 October 2006)