This document summarizes Careers360's experience organizing the India Pavilion at the 2016 NAFSA conference in the United States. It discusses how the large annual NAFSA conference brings together over 100 countries and thousands of universities to network and form partnerships. Though India had been absent previously, Careers360 invested in creating a large India Pavilion this year to represent Indian education on a global scale. The pavilion was a success, with 21 Indian universities participating and over 900 meetings held. Several potential partnerships and collaborations were identified that could benefit Indian higher education.

1. Head Office: 6, Panchsheel Shopping Centre,
Off August Kranti Marg, New Delhi -110017
INDIA PAVILION
AT NAFSA2016

3. DEAR SIR,
When we took up this task, we were unsure. We have failed at times,
but this was about representing the country and failure was not an
option. A few big universities also pulled out at the last minute after
confirmation, citing incoherent reasons.
NAFSA is the largest, the smartest and most productive of any
convention. At NAFSA 2016, just Japan had 150+ Universities
as Exhibitors! 100 countries were showing themselves off as a
destination for higher education. Every University was looking
for partnerships - Student exchanges, faculty exchange, twinning
programs, dual degree programs, joint research. The world of
education was here, but INDIA WAS ALWAYS ABSENT.
This had to be corrected. So CAREERS360 decided and invested
money and took the largest pavilion possible. The size and scale
of ‘India Pavilion’ represented the global aspirations of Indian
education.
We feel proud. We feel happy. We feel satisfied. We hope MHRD will
take notice and do its bit next year. India was noticed. And we hope
that India will continue this journey in 2017 too.
Warm regards
MAHESHWER PERI
Chairman & Founder,
Careers360
Over 11,000 delegates
4-day conference
3 days of pre-conference workshops
300+ exhibitors, represented by 1200+ Universities
100+ countries represented
2000+ universities/institutes/organizations participated
Plenaries, workshops, joint sessions, lectures and dialogues
MOUs, partnerships, joint programmes, joint research and international
recruitments
India Delegation size: 60
University Participants: 21 Universities
Total Meetings by all participants: 900+
Meetings considered as good prospects: 160
WORLD AT NAFSA
INDIA AT NAFSA
NAFSA SNAPSHOT

4. WORLD AT NAFSA

5. WORLD AT NAFSA

6. OUR ACTIVITIESINDIA at NAFSA
“NAFSA has given me enough insights
to undertake innovative initiatives
for nurturing global ambitions of our
University. I have identified 24 universities
for academic partnerships.”
Prof. M. S. Moodithaya
Registrar, NITTE University
“With the global mobility being the talk of
the hour, NAFSA brings a paradigm shift
on how we need to scale up our activity
to match the global needs and also
stakeholder’s aspirations.”
Ashok Verghese
Director at Hindustan University
“The global learning initiatives of NAFSA
provide an excellent platform and meeting
point for the leaders across the world to
share and enrich experience.”
Sila Singh Ghosh
GM (Corporate), JIS Group

7. “NAFSA had been a truly eye-opening
experience for us. We met a number of
like-minded people from universities from
different parts of the world.”
Debapratim Purkayastha
Associate Dean, ICFAI Business School, ICFAI
University
“The real impact I feel comes from direct
networking with universities from over
100 countries, it’s important we continue
going to NAFSA, to build bridges for bright
futures.”
Arjun Puri
Head of Admissions, Outreach & Institution
Building - JSLH at O.P. Jindal Global University
OUR ACTIVITIES
“NAFSA was a great place to connect with
delegates from the education sector.
The world was well represented and the
opportunities numerous.”
Praveen Dwarakanath
Director (Business Development), Accendere
“NAFSA also provides an opportunities to
expand other areas of Internalization
such as opportunities exist for student
recruitment, and other services concerning
student mobility.”
Dr. C. Vijayakumar
Director - International Relations, VIT University,
Vellore
“NAFSA is a good platform to forge
linkages with universities, it is a
unique blend of information gathering,
networking, professional development, and
learning about international education.”
Akhil Bhardwaj
Asst Director, International Affairs at Amity
Education Group
“NAFSA is a good platform to meet people
who are interested in forging partnerships
and collaborations, from across the world.”
Kartar Singh
Director, International Relations, SRM University

8. OUR ACTIVITIES
“The networking and interaction with
overseas participants was quite educative,
it was realized that one had to think
beyond mere MoUs of faculty, student
exchange programmes.”
Prof Amit Banerjee
Vice Chancellor, Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan
University
“NAFSA 2016 enabled me to interact with
multitude of individuals; major gain was
networking and possibilities of
collaborative arrangements with
universities all over the world.”
Col. Girish K Sharma
Director, Planning & Coordination, Manav
Rachna Educational Institutions
“This year while attending NAFSA after so
many years gave me good impact that so
many universities were eager to organize
meetings with Indian institutions.”
Dr. Mangesh T. Karad
Trustee at MIT Group of Institutions
“NAFSA is a very big platform which
provides an opportunity to network and
build strong partnership, a pleasant
and fruitful experience to establish new
contacts.”
Dr. B.P Divakar
Director R&D, REVA University, Bangalore
“NAFSA was a very good experience.
Things like NAFSA should happen often. I
would give 10/10 to NAFSA.”
Dr. Marivina Kishore Babu
Director, International Relations, K.L. University
“The experience at NAFSA was great and
I had excellent networking opportunities
and I could achieve my planned objectives
at NAFSA.”
Prof. S. R. Shankapal
Vice Chancellor, M. S. Ramaiah University of
Applied Sciences

9. “India platform at NAFSA 2016 was a
thoroughly fulfilling experience. The new
contacts that we got would surely help us
in furthering our institutional goals.”
K.V.D. Kishore Kumar
Vice President, Vel Tech University
OUR ACTIVITIES
Mr. Dhruv Galgotia
CEO, Galgotias Education Group
“NAFSA created the relevant platform in
higher education space to interact with
potential partners around the world,
appreciate and explore synergies across
institutional competencies.”
Sudhakar Rao
Director - Branding, ICFAI Group
Dr. Madhu Chitkara
Vice-Chancellor, Chitkara University
Mr. Arup Bhattacharya
Chief Manager - HR and Staff Welfare M. S.
Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences
Dr. Sekar Viswanathan
Vice President VIT University
Sekar Viswanathan, VP, VIT Vellore

10. NO BEL LAUREATE KAILASH SATYARTHI AT INDIA PAVILION

11. INDIA SHINES AT NAFSA
Sekar Viswanathan
Vice President,
VIT University
Session on India:
Potential &
Possibilities
Dr. Mangesh T. Karad
Trustee at
MIT Group of Institutions
Mahesh Sarma
Chief Editor,
Careers360
Maheshwer Peri
Founder & Chairman,
Careers360
Prof. (Dr.) Gurinder Singh
Pro-Vice Chancellor Amity University &
Director General - Amity International
Business School

12. MoU signing by MIT Group of Institutions
Four MoUs have been signed at the conference venue.
Participating universities have reported the following possibilities:
MoUs To Be Signed
80 over the coming year
Joint degrees
4 No (one is a dual degree possibility and the other is a foreign degree)
Joint Research
6 Proposals, especially under the EU Framework programmes
Faculty Exchange
11 institutions are working on this domain
Twinning programmes
21 (most at the UG level and dominated by Engineering schools)
Associate country Joint research
30 proposals with 12 countries
IMPACT