Mumbai, Sep 18 (PTI) The University of Western Australia (UWA) on Friday officially launched its Mumbai campus, marking a significant milestone in the growing education, economic and people-to-people relationship between the Aussie state and Maharashtra.
The campus was launched by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Premier of Western Australia Roger Cook.
The UWA has committed around AUD 80 million to establishing and operating its wholly-owned campuses in India, underscoring its long-term commitment to the country and its ambition to build a permanent presence that connects education, industry, research and talent between India and Western Australia.
The Mumbai campus is the first of two UWA facilities in India, with the Chennai centre scheduled to open next month.
Located in Andheri (Eas)t, the Mumbai campus features modern, technology-enabled classrooms, project and innovation spaces, group-work areas, student hubs and collaboration facilities. Students will have opportunities for industry engagement through projects, internships, mentoring and networking, supported by career coaching and employer engagement, the UWA said.
Speaking on the occasion, Fadnavis emphasised on Mumbai’s long-standing status as India’s financial and entertainment capital, and one of its great centres of entrepreneurship.
“The Mumbai we are building for the next generation must be more. We want Mumbai to become one of the world’s great centres of knowledge, innovation, technology and talent. That is why we are building Mumbai 3.0 adjacent to Mumbai,” he noted.
He informed his government is creating an education city, medi-city, innovation city, a global capacity innovation city and new centres of research and enterprise.
“World-class infrastructure must attract world-class institutions, world-class institutions must attract world-class talent and world-class talent must create the industries of future. This is also the larger transformation taking place in India,” Fadnavis maintained.
“Our objective is not to recreate Perth (capital of Western Australia), London or New York in Mumbai, but to create something uniquely powerful here — global education connected to Indian opportunities,” he said.
The CM highlighted Mumbai’s potential to become a laboratory for research and innovation.
“Let us build a joint programme in Artificial Intelligence, cyber security, health care, critical minerals, clean energy, sustainability and advanced manufacturing. Let our universities, industries, researchers and start-up collaborate,” he said.
The launch of the campus is not the culmination of partnership, but just its beginning as Western Australia has extraordinary capabilities and Maharashtra has exceptional scale and talent, the stressed.
“Together we can build knowledge partnerships that become one of the strongest pillars of India- Australia relationship,” the chief minister said.
In his remarks, Premier Cook noted the opening of UWA’s Mumbai campus marks a significant milestone in Western Australia’s growing relationship with India and Maharashtra.
Western Australia has maintained a presence in Mumbai for 30 years, that relationship is deeply rooted in people, knowledge, skills, technology and shared opportunity, he said.
The Mumbai campus of UWA is a tangible expression of that relationship, bringing the expertise and global outlook of a Western Australian university to Maharashtra, while creating new opportunities for students, businesses and institutions in both India and Western Australia, Cook added. PTI PR RSY
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