Ireland and India have been involved in joint research since the 18th century. With more than two decades of teaching in Trinity and research in oesophageal and prostate cancer, Prof. Juliette Hussey, Vice President Global Relations, TCD Global confers how Indian students still have retained that ground and have been gaining more in AI, Semantic Web, information retrieval and deep learning with Higher Education Plus.
What skills does the university encourage students to develop to ensure their academic growth and career?
Throughout their time at Trinity, our students are provided with opportunities to develop a number of graduate attributes which support their academic growth and career. Graduate attributes can be achieved through both academic and co- and extracurricular activities such as summer work placements, internships, volunteering and involvement in student societies. In essence, these attributes are: to think independently, communicate effectively, to act responsibly and to develop continuously.
Is there any noticeable shift in choice of stream or enrolment in UG/PG/ PhD by Indian students in the university?
For Undergraduate there is strong interest in Business, Science, Medicine, Engineering, Psychology, and Social Sciences. There is also strong interest in our new 2+2 Dual Degree with Columbia University, New York in humanities majors such as English, History, European Studies and Middle Eastern and European Languages and Culture.
For the Postgraduate study, there is a strong interest in pro-grammes related to Data Science such as the MSc in Computer Science, the MSc Interactive Digital Media and the MSc in Management of Information Systems. There is also considerable interest in postgraduate programmes in the Business School.
Compared to disciplines in Science and Technology, the Arts and Social Sciences have a lower number of scholarships. What is your opinion on that?
In general, Trinity offers scholarships for study across all disciplines based on outstanding academic and personal achievements. For example, our Global Excellence Scholar-ships do not make a distinction on the basis of subject area and are available to all incoming students. Similarly, our Foundation Scholarships are open to every Senior Freshman student, irrespective of their course of study at Trinity. Our India Undergraduate Scholarships also accept applications from all full-time undergraduate programmes (except Medicine, Dental Science and Acting).
Additionally, Trinity has some subject-specific scholarships such as the School of Business Postgraduate Scholarships, Government of Ireland Scholarships, Constantia Maxwell Faculty Studentship for our MPhil programme in Race, Ethnicity and Conflict and The Grattan Scholars programme which supports exceptional Ph.D. students who are selected to study on a priority research topic within the disciplines of Economics, Philosophy, Political Science and Sociology.
How is innovation promoted and encouraged amongst Trinity’s student body?
Innovation and entrepreneurship are at the heart of Trinity’s learning experience, as we encourage students to challenge themselves. Trinity has been ranked as the leading European university in terms of producing entrepreneurs. University-wide entrepreneurial opportunities include undertaking the Undergraduate Certificate in Innovation & Entrepreneurship (10 ECTS) which is open to Senior Fresh and Junior Sophister students from all Schools and Disciplines. This programme enables students to be innovative in their approach to problem-solving and to develop essential skills to tackle global societal problems. Secondly, Launchbox (Trinity’s start-up summer accelerator programme) has seen the creation of 40 start-ups that went on to raise €6.1 million in investment. Launchpad (experiential entrepreneurship programme open to Trinity students) provides thousands of students with a major network of venture coaches and an entrepreneurial support system.
What specific discipline are Indian students engaged in research?
In terms of research, Trinity’s engagement with India dates back to 1762, when the university founded a chair in oriental languages and one hundred years later, appointed an Indian scholar Mir Aulad Ali, as Professor of Arabic and Hindustani, and later Persian. Our library collections reflect multi-faceted engagements with Asia and include rare 19th/20th-century gramophone recordings made by the Trinity scholar, George Grierson, who compiled a linguistic survey of India which described 364 languages and many more dialects.
In current times, Indian students at Trinity are engaged in research in a wide variety of disciplines ranging from Science and Engineering to English Literature, Economics, Philosophy, Political Science and Sociology.
We have several Indian scholars involved in ground-breaking research related to topics such as Artificial Intelligence, Semantic Web, Information Retrieval and deep Learning at ADAPT- a dynamic Research Centre within Trinity’s School of Computer Science. Energy Research in Trinity’s School of Engineering has Indian students working on the development of next-generation renewable energy technologies, while also examining topics such as energy recovery and behavioural change to address sustainability.
Indian scholars are also a part of Trinity’s prestigious community of Grattan Scholars. Their research spans a wide range of topics aligning with Trinity’s areas of strength and expertise, including The Global Financial System, Migration, Cultural Economics, Political Careers, Development Aid and others.