Sweden’s famous University of Professions, University of Borås, has a new address – Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Thailand. The first batch of 16 students from Sweden is already at AIT paving the way for a much larger cohort next year.
This development is courtesy a program titled ‘International Business
Engineering’ run jointly by the University of Borås and AIT. But the
program is much more than a mere student exchange. Says Håkan Alm,
coordinator of Campus Bangkok of University of Borås, “The program is
set to scale up from 16 students to nearly 40 students next year, which
shall go upto over a 100 in three to four years time.” Apart from the
students, four faculty members from Borås are also delivering courses
at AIT during the spring semester, and these courses are open to all
AIT students.
The students are describing their experience as “perfect” in every
possible way. Says Mr. Daniel Görander, an exchange student, “I know of
no other place apart from AIT, where I can meet people from so many
different nationalities.” Apart from their own courses, the students
are also studying the political economy of Thailand as well.
Interestingly though all students come from Borås, one of them in from
US, while two are from China and Iran each.
Some students are clearly interested in staying in Asia for longer. As
Dr. Hans Björk, Head of School of Engineering, University of Borås,
commented on the current cohort of students, “Some of these students
might return to AIT later to pursue their research work.”
AIT’s President Prof. Said Irandoust stresses that while Sweden-AIT
relationship has been very strong, it was more focused on capacity
building in Asian countries. “Now we have ventured into a totally new
domain – of providing Swedish students with an Asian experience in
AIT’s international setting.”
It is not just the present batch of students who are excited at this
development. Even the University of Borås is widely publicizing this.
Their website now has a section called “Campus Bangkok” where they
stress AIT’s internationality and provide tips to students on how to
become an exchange student at AIT. Their head of communications Mr.
Sten Delby loves to call AIT as “Sweden’s least known university.”
Meanwhile the exchange is continuing. A seven member strong delegation
visited AIT early this month, and the local media in Sweden is
featuring the students prominently. As Daniel says, “AIT is a beautiful
mix.” We agree.
This feature was published in The Nation newspaper on 21 March
2011.
