STRAIGHT ANSWERS

ashok kolaskar, vice-chancellor, university of pune, on the youth festival for international students, held for the first time at the university. could you highlight the specific objectives behind this festival? we are trying to harness the large potential the university of pune has, with its 250 colleges. the idea is to initially fill the 15 per cent foreign quota and design additional modules in areas like yoga, indian art and so on.we intend to cater to the dynamically changing scenario in the international education market. another objective, is to expose indian students to the cultures of other countries. how would you the gauge the feedback to the festival? there were consul generals and ambassadors from over 13 countries, interested candidates from sri lanka, south africa, korea and of course, student representatives of the pune university. in our open session, we received useful suggestions. one grouse was the inadequate accommodation and infrastructure for visiting students. the proposal was to set up youth hostels or intransit housing for low-cost lodging. any immediate plans to put the university on the international educational map? we plan to set up an international centre at the university for which i have invited an academic expert from florida to serve as director. also on the cards is international accreditation for our various courses and iso accreditions.