Twitter
Advertisement

For education, Aussie is the way to go

Neena Bhandari reports on what makes Victoria and its capital of enduring tradition and endless innovation, design and creativity such a hit.

Latest News
article-main
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

A year on from when we first did it, DNA investigates why Australia continues to attract more and more Indian students for higher studies and tertiary education. More than half of these students choose educational institutions in Victoria. In a new series, Neena Bhandari reports on what makes this south-eastern state and its capital of enduring tradition and endless innovation, design and creativity such a hit

For Ganesh Tryambak Behere, growing up in a close-knit farming family in Mehergaon village of Jalgaon district, enrolling for Ph.D at the Centre for Environmental Stress and Adaptation Research, Department of Genetics, Bio21 Institute at the University of Melbourne, was a dream come true.

“My father cultivated cotton, pulses and cereals, but always gave high priority to his two sons and two daughters education, like almost all Indian parents do. My background enticed me to pursue higher studies in agricultural sciences”, says Ganesh, who pursued his M.Sc in plant pathology at the College of Agriculture in Nagpur.

It was during his post graduation and later working as a Research Associate at Central Institute for Cotton Research in Nagpur that he realised the immense importance of cotton as a cash crop and the constraints affecting its productivity and economy.

“The havoc caused by insect pest especially the American or cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera) was of serious concern. I was inspired into research on this world’s most destructive pest by India’s renowned entomologist Dr Keshav Kranthi at CICR”, says Ganesh.

The cotton bollworm is an International collaborated project managed by Dr Derek Russell from CESAR. As Ganesh says, “Today management of this pest is an issue of prime concern to all the researchers associated with plant protection, marginal success of conventional control strategies has motivated me to search for alternate avenues of pest control.”

CESAR’s Philip Batterham and Dr Russell are collaborating with Dr Kranthi and other groups across India to combat the cotton bollworm, an agricultural pest that causes US$5 billion damage across the world each year.

“Cotton farmers in India were spending up to half of their income on insecticides each year, whilst still failing to control the pests. This extensive use of insecticides was affecting the health of the farmers. Suicides were not uncommon as farmers sometimes faced a total loss of their crops”, says Ganesh, whose research is focusing on understanding the moth’s population dynamics, their movements from one crop to another in the field and ultimately building up strategies to limit their effects.

The research encompasses an integrated pest management which means not using insecticides that kill the biological control agents. The group has had some major successes, recently identifying resistance genes for two important classes of insecticides. The next crucial step is to sequence the moth’s genome, to find its Achilles heel.

Ganesh says, “This is truly a land of academic opportunities and the flexibility offered by its educational system is amazing. Excellent infrastructure, advanced equipment and multidisciplinary conducive environment, where individual merits and abilities are given due recognition, are the strongest reasons for me to study here. My supervisors Associate Professor Batterham and Dr Russell are both experts in the field and it’s a very fulfilling experience to be working with them”. Ganesh wants to hone his learning and skills and take that knowledge to India and serve the large agrarian rural population back home.

In Victoria, as at March 2007, 47% Indian students were undertaking higher education programs, a growth of 16%. 121 students were undertaking PhD programs. Over two-thirds of Indian students in higher education are pursuing Masters Coursework programs, which had moderate growth of 9%.

However, full Bachelor degrees are becoming increasingly attractive, with a 43% increase. Business Studies remains the most popular course of study for higher education students, recording an increase of over a 1,000 or 29%.

The numbers undertaking nursing has also expanded significantly. Only 37 were enrolled at this stage last year, whereas this year’s enrolments to date are 157. Hi-tech fields such as Computing and Engineering are becoming less popular.

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement