CQUniversity reflects on two decades of excellence in India and South Asia

Education sector personnel from across South Asia have congregated in New Delhi to pay tribute to CQUniversity Australia's 20 years of operation in the region.

CQUniversity' Australia's largest regional university and a leading educator of South Asian students' held a prestigious gala event this week to celebrate two decades in the Indian capital.

The event recognised CQUniversity's impact' welcoming more than 28'000 students from Bangladesh' Bhutan' India' Nepal' Pakistan and Sri Lanka' as well as providing hundreds of jobs and scholarship opportunities to local people.

CQUniversity Vice-Chancellor and President' Professor Nick Klomp' warmly thanked the assembled crowd of Delhi-based CQU employees' education agents from across the region' charitable partners' and dignitaries for their support over the years.

"While we started from humble beginnings' we now proudly have a team of 120 people in the South Asia region that has seen our university go from strength to strength'" Professor Klomp said.

"[CQUniversity focuses] on providing our students with not only access to a world-class education' but a holistic and quality experience that enhances their employability' skills and learning through internships' industry placements' engaged research' scholarships' and work-integrated learning opportunities.

"We fully appreciate the great cost and sacrifice that not only a student but their parents and extended family bear in order to send their child abroad' so we want to ensure that we meet the challenge that the student sets us' by providing them with an outstanding return on investment.

"And that extends to ensuring they gain employment after graduation. It's this commitment that has seen us achieve some of the best graduate outcomes in Australia; so much so that we were confident enough this year to go that extra step further' giving our graduates surety of employment [through the] Australian-first Graduate Guarantee.

"The Graduate Guarantee is a fully flexible' fee-free Graduate Certificate in Leadership and Entrepreneurship that is offered to all eligible domestic and international undergraduate students who don't secure full-time or part-time work within six months of completing their undergraduate degree."

India is CQUniversity's largest source of international students' and is the ancestral home of many CQUniversity colleagues in Australia.

"We're really proud of the graduates we produce and the success they create' and even prouder that those graduates return to India and South Asia and impart their new knowledge and skills to positively impact the industries and communities here'" Professor Klomp said.

"This is just one small way we can give back to India and the South Asia region' for all you have given us in Australia' and our Australian higher education sector."

He said CQUniversity had "a very special affinity with India and [we] have always felt very welcomed by the Indian community. We take that show of faith from the Indian community as a huge honour and a vote of confidence in our ability to deliver strong outcomes for your students' and your regions."

Professor Klomp also paid tribute to CQUniversity's 10-year partnership with Delhi-based charity Salaam Baalak' with more than 85 former street children accessing higher education thanks to CQUniversity financial scholarships.

"I am so pleased to hear from our colleagues at Salaam Baalak that our efforts are more far-reaching than just the immediate children we have assisted'" Professor Klomp said.

"[Their] hard work and dedication to their studies has impacted many of the lives they touch too such as their parents' siblings and even their own children."

Finally' Professor Klomp gave special recognition to CQUniversity's South Asia regional director' Mr Sumit Aggarwal' who is not only a successful CQU alumnus but also the University's senior leader in the region.

"[Sumit's] continued commitment to our university has seen thousands of students receive a world-class education and experience in Australia though CQU' and we are very proud to have [him] as a member of our team'" Professor Klomp said.