Ahmedabad University is set to engage with one of the leading transformative universities in the USA through its latest Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The university has signed a MoU with University of California, Riverside (UCR) agreeing to collaborate on several areas of common academic interests such as exchange of faculty, PhD scholars, graduate and undergraduate students, and administrators in the area of education, research and outreach; exchange of academic information and research material; as well as explore ways to cooperate in postgraduate education and training.

The institutions are also exploring avenues for graduate and professional students exchange during the academic year or summer terms. The MoU also encourages the institutions to develop joint research collaborations, workshops, conferences and academic programmes.

Interim Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor at University of California, Riverside, Professor Thomas M Smith said, “Ahmedabad University is one of India’s most progressive universities, and we are delighted to formalise our academic understanding with them.  We look forward to several initiatives between the two universities that would impact the research and teaching agendas of students and faculty alike”.

Speaking about the MoU, Senior Dean of Strategic Initiatives and Planning at the Ahmedabad University, Professor Bibek Banerjee said, “This collaboration with UC Riverside is in line with our internationalisation strategy wherein we seek to provide exposure to our faculty and students that are potentially transformational, especially when they get to collaborate with other world-class institutions. This understanding with UCR will promote academic exchanges from which our two institutions will benefit in a variety of areas”.

Based on how its students beat the odds by doing better than would be expected from their academic and economic backgrounds, University of California, Riverside has been identified among the top transformative universities in the United States for 2019-20 by the Money Magazine.

The MoU between Ahmedabad University and University of California, Riverside was signed on Thursday, March 12, 2020.