Dr. Rof Appekvist, Head of School of Business and IT, University of Borås, while
introducing his school,said the trend in Sweden is towards tertiary
education and vocational training, prompting universities to offer new
type of programs. He cited the program of a “University Diploma in Real
Estate Agency” as an example. Similarly the Bachelor’s program in
Business Administration at their university has a strong orientation
towards either public service administration or event management, he
added.
Dr. Hans Björk, Head of School of Engineering, University of Borås,
said the partnership with AIT has already resulted in exchange of
students and staff. Commenting on the current cohort of Swedish
exchange students in Bachelor’s program at AIT, Dr. Björk remarked that
some of these students might return to AIT to pursue their research
work.
Welcoming the delegation, Prof. Said Irandoust, President, AIT, who
has earlier served as Vice Chancellor, University of Borås for a
period of five years, remarked that the mission of the University of
Borås of “Science for the Professions” is an idea worth emulating.
Increasingly the trend is towards imparting professional education to
ensure that graduates are employable, he added.
The delegation from University of Borås also included Dr. Mikael
Löfström, Program Director, Business School; Dr. Roy Andersson and Dr.
Jonas Stray of School of Engineering; Ms. Grace Zhe Gu, International
Secretary and Ms. Håkan Alm, a Doctoral candidate of University of
Borås and AIT. The delegation later visited the three schools at AIT,
namely School of Engineering and Technology (SET); School of
Environment, Resources and Development (SERD) and the School of
Management (SOM).
AIT officials who participated in the meeting included Prof. Joydeep
Dutta, Vice President for Academic Affairs; Dr. Nitin V. Afzulpurkar,
Dean, SET; Dr. Donyaprueth Krairit of SOM; Dr. Jiri Basta, Visiting
Faculty, Pulp and Paper Technology (PPT); Dr. Pritam Krishna Shrestha,
Head, External Relations and Communications Office (ERCO); Ms. Wannapa
Pliansri, Coordinator, RTG Relations Coordinator; and Dr. Othniel
Mintang Yila, Program Coordinator, ERCO.
