Tamil Nadu - Tiruchi

Fellowships almost double

TIRUCHI: The mentoring workshop conducted here by the United States-India Educational Foundation (USIEF) in the backdrop of the Fulbright agreement signed last year for strengthening educational exchanges between India and United States that provides for the governments of both countries to implement the scholarship programme as full partners, benefited 60 potential applicants.

Faculties of Bharathidasan and Anna Universities and Colleges, besides Ph.D and M.Tech students took part in the workshop organised by the Foundation in association with the Department of Women’s Studies, Bharathidasan University, at the Academic Staff College, with the objective of making applicants from the Tiruchi region realise their strengths and enabling them to avail themselves of the benefit of the opportunity.

Fulbright Fellowship awardees G. Kannabiran of National Institute of Technology and M. Ravichandran of Bharthidasan University, and Vasudevan of USIEF deliberated on the methodology of generating research proposals, explaining how a strong case must be made for pursuing research in the US, and listed the fields in which the Fulbright Fellowships, renamed as Fulbright-Nehru Fellowships after the agreement, were available.

Owing to the agreement, the number of Fulbright Fellowships has increased from 45 to 85, Mr. Vasudevan said. The Foundation has so far conducted such programmes at universities in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, and institutions in Chennai, reaching out to about 2,000 potential applicants comprising faculties and research scholars, he said.

Later, a similar programme was held for the benefit of about 50 faculty members of the National Institute of Technology.

The last date for submission of completed applications for the Fellowship is July 15. For complete details, visit www.usief.org.in.

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