Chinese students write new 'Journey to the West'

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-04-07 15:21

Li Ming, an IT student from Sichuan Province, said that she has learned a lot since coming to India one and a half years ago and has matured a lot when being away from home.

She said her number one concern is how to get a job after graduating next year with a degree from VIT. Her plan is to work for a Chinese company which has projects in India, because she can put what she learned here into use better in India than in China.

G. Viswanathan, the Chancellor of VIT and former Member of Parliament of India, told Chinese and Indian students Monday that he was proud to be the pioneer in building a close relationship with China in education.

Viswanathan shared Ambassador Zhang's view that as two most ancient civilizations and fast growing economies in the world, India and China should join hands in build a world for the future generations.

He said that dating back to the fifth century, India already had an early center of learning similar to a university, the Takshashila which drew a lot of foreign students including Chinese students who came to learn Buddhism. The ancient Nalanda University was another example of the brilliance of India's ancient education and its internationalism.

Viswanathan said his ideal is to build VIT into a modern-day Takshashila or Nalanda, and he chose China as a cooperative partner because China is bound to become the world's largest economy in future and India the third largest.

With some 1,000 professors and 14,000 students, VIT has become a new star in India's colleges since its establishment in 1984, particularly the taking over of Chancellor's seat by Viswanathan, said Rao, director of international relations of VIT.

Rao said he likes his Chinese students very much and has learnt how to help them overcome all kinds of their problems ranging from observing the college discipline to accommodating with Indian students and teachers.

"There are a lot of cultural differences between Chinese and Indian students, and sometimes there are disputes between some students with laboratory managers and teachers, but I know how to solve them," he said.

Sathya Moorthy, chairman of the Sino-India Education and Technology Alliance in Beijing, is the key promoter of the cooperative program between VIT and Chinese institutions engaged in sending Chinese students to India.

A Malaysian national of Indian ethnic origin, Moorthy has been working on the program since 2003. His latest program is to introduce the Chinese Language Study Center to VIT with support from Chinese Ministry of Education and the Zhengzhou University, Henan Province of China.

"I wish to make VIT a true center of Sino-Indian cooperation. I know the easiest way to build a better relations between the two countries is through education," he said.

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