By Ryan Girves 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 17, 2024) —  Sue Roberts, University of Kentucky associate provost for internationalization and member of the Department of Geography in the College of Arts and Sciences, recently was selected to participate in the 2024 Fulbright-Nehru International Education Administrators Program to India.

The Fulbright Scholar Program offers more than 400 awards for U.S. citizens to teach, conduct research and carry out professional projects around the world. 

Roberts also was a Fulbright Scholar for the 2012-13 academic year at the University of Turku in Finland and a Fulbright Specialist in 2016 at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa.  

Roberts believes the experience in India has been crucial for both her growth personally and for the growth of the university. 

"Since India is home to the second largest group of international students at UK, and since Indian higher education has been going through some major changes lately, I felt I could benefit from knowing more about how the university sector operates in India and what the opportunities for UK might be in this large and important country,” Roberts said.

India is the world’s most populous country with 1.43 billion people. India is harnessing their tremendous pool of educated talent to produce breakthroughs in many tech sectors, and these developments are reverberating across the globe. 

“Ahead of the trip, I hoped I would learn about the rapidly changing national policy environment in India, because they have enacted pretty sweeping deregulation of higher ed, and that has been a disruption that has unleashed a lot of creativity and innovation in the sector,” Roberts said. “I also hoped I would learn from others in the program, and I did. There were 10 university administrators participating, and over the course of our two weeks together we shared our observations and thoughts, and it resulted in a very rich learning experience for us all.”

During the two-week experience, awardees attended meetings with representatives of Indian universities, private-sector agencies and organizations and selected government agencies to gain better insight into India’s higher education system. U.S. administrators had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with program and curriculum designs, organizational structures, quality assurance procedures and credit and degree expectations in Indian higher education. Participants also gained first-hand knowledge of a cross-section of Indian institutions and met with high-ranking university administrators and public sector officials. The seminar aims to achieve a balance of topical discussion, knowledge sharing by both the U.S. administrators and Indian representatives, experiential excursions and exposure to societal and cultural facets of India.

“Indian universities are under pressure to educate more and more students, to produce research and innovation to help fuel continued economic dynamism, and they are actively designing and implementing inventive curricula to spark student learning and creativity. I saw a variety of ways that UK could engage with different institutions in India in mutually beneficial ways,” Roberts said. “For example, there are some universities where we would find great matches for collaboration in health research areas, while there are others that could be amazing hosts for an education abroad program in business, say. There are also ways we could partner with Indian institutions to identify top talent for our master’s and PhD programs in STEM and related areas. And, of course, there is ample scope to collaborate with partners in India through virtual connections – in teaching and in research.”

The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program designed to forge connections between people of the United States with those in other countries. The Fulbright Program is funded through an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations and foundations around the world also provide direct and indirect support to the program, which operates in over 160 countries worldwide.

Since its establishment in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the Fulbright Program has given more than 390,000 students, scholars, teachers, artists and professionals of all backgrounds and fields the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns.

As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.   

In 2022, UK was ranked by Forbes as one of the “Best Employers for New Grads” and named a “Diversity Champion” by INSIGHT into Diversity, a testament to our commitment to advance Kentucky and create a community of belonging for everyone. While our mission looks different in many ways than it did in 1865, the vision of service to our Commonwealth and the world remains the same. We are the University for Kentucky.