Indian faculty delve into WMU business and engineering programs

Left to right: WMU's Dr. Ajay Samant and Dr. Nancy Schullery, Doctoral Associate Rosemary Varhese, Professors Manoj George and Veeva Mathew

Rajagiri School of Management Professor Veeva Mathew and Doctoral Associate Rosemary Varhese, and Professor Manoj George from Rajagiri's School of Engineering and Technology arrived in Kalamazoo on May 30 and plan to stay through June 27. A welcome reception for the group was held June 5 in The Oaklands, the on-campus former home of WMU presidents.

Varghese and Mathew will be working with faculty at WMU's Haworth College of Business and George will spend most of his time working with colleagues in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Varghese is working toward her Ph.D, in English Language Teaching at Mahatma Gandhi University. She received her MA from the University of Kerala. Currently, Varghese teaches economics, marketing and business ethics in the MBA Transnational Education Program at Rajagiri.

Mathew received his advanced diploma in finance from the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad) and an MBA from the University of Madras. He is currently teaching the following courses in the Rajagiri MBA program: Quantitative Methods for Management; Operations Research; Research Methodology; and Marketing Research. He also offers a certificate program in data analysis using SPSS and conducts training programs for research scholars in methodology and data analysis.

George received his M.Tech from Cochin University of Science and Technology and teaches engineering graphics, thermodynamics, and machine drawing in the WMU/Rajagiri undergraduate engineering transnational education program. He is also conducting research in the use of coconut oil as a lubricant and performance evaluation.

"We have had a wonderful round of business meetings, Mathew said. "The first of these was with David Shields, dean of the Haworth College of Business, along with other faculty members. Soon after we were taken on a campus tour to see the state-of the–art infrastructure that supports a pedagogy and teaching methodology that demands serious learning."

The Indian professors have also had an extensive tour of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences and met with Dean Timothy J. Greene and engineering faculty.

"The tour of the facilities was truly impressive," Mathew said. "The labs are well equipped and the capability that WMU has to give its students hands-on practical exposure to apply theoretical concepts was plainly evident."

He said George is now well settled in the engineering college, following his special interests in engineering graphics and exploring his specific area of research, rapid prototyping, with interested faculty. He will also be intermittently attending a few business classes.

Mathew is scheduled to attend classes in business process productivity at Haworth and the course, "Continuous Improvement in Operations," offered at the engineering college. He will also be pursuing his research interests in brand popularity.

Varghese will be following the courses in Communication for Second Language Learners to supplement her research in that area. She will also attend undergraduate business communication classes to make pedagogical and curriculum observations.

"We've settled in well, with time enough for work and study and fun-filled weekends," Mathew said. "Our month-long visit is certainly turning out to be a rewarding experience as we share teaching methods and research interests with the faculty at WMU."

For more information about the Rajagiri visitors or transnational education at WMU, contact Cathleen Fuller, director of transnational education at (269) 387-3958 or fullerc@wmich.edu.