Digital Sciences looks to grow enrollment from India

Digital Sciences Program

Erica Batyko

The School of Digital Sciences and Kent State’s India Office work together to promote their programs to potential master’s students. 

Robert Walker, director of the School of Digital Sciences, recently returned from a nine-day recruitment trip to the Liaison Office in New Delhi. While there, he visited academic fairs and recruiters affiliated with the office.

Walker said the school recruited a large number of master’s students from India. 

“Currently, digital sciences and computer sciences each have about 130 master’s students from India, mostly from Hyderabad or other cities in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana,” Walker said.  

Walker said this semester, he brought about 90 students to the digital sciences program. The students usually come from four years of engineering school in India and then choose what area they want to specialize in for their master’s.

“In digital sciences, almost two-thirds of the Indian master’s students are in our Digital Systems Telecommunication Networks program, and the other one-third are in our Digital Systems Software Development program,” Walker said. 

Jyotsna Misra, director of the Liaison Office, said good promotion, outreach and visibility help make the office successful. 

Walker said the Liaison Office also gives Kent State an advantage over other universities because it has recruiters in India year-round. 

Provost Todd Diacon said almost 10 percent of Kent State’s students are international students. Being around people of different nationalities is a learning experience, he said. 

“We think it’s good to have a number of international students on our campus,” he said. “We think it enriches the education of all our students.”

Diacon said students also learn critical skills when they study abroad. 

“I feel strongly…that our students in this century are going to need great global skills and experiences,” he said. “At Kent State, we want you to study abroad because we think that experience is going to impact positively both your academic experience and your professional career.”

Contact Erica Batyko at [email protected].