Five researchers at the Waikato University have received total funding of almost $130,000 to conduct separate studies on international students from India and other issues connected with India.
The amount, granted by Education New Zealand, is stated to be the largest granted by the Government body to conduct India-related research, out of a total amount of $500,000.
Professor Alison McIntosh has been awarded about $50,000 to lead the Study, which will examine the experience of Indian students from India.
He said that Indian students are the second largest contributors to New Zealand’s international student population.
Understanding students
“The research should improve information, strategy and policy around a big industry. New Zealand has about 7000 students from India and if we have a better understanding of what brings them here, what keeps them here and what happens to them once they graduate, we will then be able to sustainably develop this lucrative market,” he said.
Economics Professor John Gibson is another recipient of the grant. His $40,000 research will be based in India, which converts land to urban use an area the size of Chicago every year.
“As India becomes more industrialised and urbanised, its agricultural land and food security is threatened. To a certain extent, that urban growth will be justified, but it needs to be measured against population and GDP growth, transport costs and land productivity,” he said.
Professor Gibson said that he would focus on rural-to-urban land use change and development of India’s National Capital Region, land allocation and the outcomes of land conversion and agricultural land loss.
Media explosion
Waikato University Screen & Media Studies Senior Lecturer Dr Adrian Athique has been awarded $30,000 to run a workshop in New Zealand to consider a wide spectrum of developments (political, technological, commercial and sociological) in the Indian media economy.
The workshop will be hosted by the University’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS), Bangalore, Centre for Culture, Media and Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi, and supported by the New Zealand India Research Institute.
“As India races to prominence as a global service-provider, there has been rapid growth in its media sector, including the Indian film industry, domestic television, mobile telecoms and cross media advertising,” he said.
Technology transfer
Dr Surya Pandey, Senior Research Fellow at the Waikato University Management School’s Institute of Business Research, has been provided with $5000 travel grant to travel to India at the invitation of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur to talk about technology transfer in agribusiness.
PhD Psychology student Sripriya Somasekhar has also been awarded $5000 travel and research grant for her study titled, ‘Navigating safety in the context of conflicting socio-cultural values: Indian immigrant women experiencing domestic violence in Aotearoa/New Zealand.’
