Dundee University must develop its ”global reach” by attracting students and staff from overseas, its principal has argued.
Professor Pete Downes said he also wanted to see more Scottish students spending part of their courses abroad.
He has recently returned from a mission to India, led by Education Secretary Mike Russell, to build on links between higher education institutions in the two countries.
Speaking at the university’s winter graduation ceremony on Wednesday, Professor Downes said: ”Our international students comprise around 10% of our student body and they come from an impressively diverse range of countries around the globe.
”Our university is also a magnet for the recruitment of international staff, and we provide a world of opportunities for those who work and study here.
”I am personally very proud of the global reach of the university and I am passionately committed to ensuring we develop it even further.”
He noted that India and China both growing sources of students were investing heavily in universities to meet skill shortages in their expanding economies.
Professor Downes said: ”As they are likely to dominate world trade in years to come it is important that we understand their cultures and, of course, with more students coming from such countries we must realise that there will be many of our alumni living and working there.
”It is difficult, sitting here, to grasp the sheer enormity of the changes taking place in other parts of the world. India, for example, needs to build 1,000 new colleges and universities by 2020 and accommodate an increase in student numbers equivalent to several hundred universities the size of Dundee.”
He added: ”Even more astonishing was the meeting I had during my visit to Delhi just last week with the senior vice-president of the largest metal forging company in India with a turnover of several billion pounds per year.
”He proceeded to tell me his company was building a city the size of Glasgow between Pune and Mumbai in the west of India, complete with two new universities and a community college serving around 50,000 students.
”This is so staggering it is hard to comprehend, but it is the reason why it is so important that our students grasp the opportunities provided by an internationally-connected university and why in the future I would like to see more of our Scottish students studying abroad for at least a part of their degrees.”Family affairThe graduation ceremony saw a husband and wife celebrate the completion of their degrees.
James and Amanda Hegarty were among more than 700 students to be joined by family and friends at the Caird Hall, only the second time the university has held a graduation outside summer.
The couple’s success is all the more remarkable as they have had to combine their studies with looking after their three children Sean (9) and six-year-old twins Hannah and Ryan.
Amanda studied nursing and James mental health nursing.
His mother Catherine said: ”We are so proud of how well they have done. They have achieved so much.”
The ceremony saw students from subjects as diverse as accounting, architecture, computing, medicine, education and psychology come up on stage to receive their degrees and diplomas.
They were joined by Professor Sir John Bell, a Canadian immunologist and geneticist, who was being conferred with an honorary degree.
He is president of the Academy of Medical Sciences and holds the regius chair of medicine at Oxford University.