Education is not just an investment in relationship between countries but is important for matters of foreign policy, international diplomacy and cultural understanding, said Chris Evans, Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations, Australia.
In his address at the Australian Alumni Excellence Awards 2011, Mr. Evans said education provides the bridge in bilateral relations to take it to a greater level. The educational relationship, apart from studying abroad, has to be at the level of partnership between universities, research, and exchange of students.
Mr. Evans presented the alumni awards under the following categories. Alumni award for business leadership – Arvind Jadhav, CMD, National Aviation Company; outstanding young alumni award – Sahil Shroff, actor; innovation and research – Jayaraman Gowrishankar, director, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad.
Alumni award for arts and culture – Raghav Sachar, singer, musician and actor; sports – Shanket Shetty, operations manager, Sports Education Development India Limited; community service – Karthikeyan Vaitheeswaran, national consultant, FAO; distinguished alumni service award – Ravi Lochan Singh, MD, Global Reach, honorary award – N.R. Narayana Murthy, chief mentor, Infosys and outstanding Australia awards endeavour alumni – Ameeta Wattal, principal, Springdales School, Delhi.
Later, Mr. Evans told reporters that there was a large decrease in the number of student visa applications for vocational education. We are looking to attract postgraduate students, ” he said.
