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Indian journalists take home VU safety message

VU International (VUI) has hosted a delegation of Indian journalists last week to showcase the University's highly regarded student safety program.

The delegation of six visiting journalists, from prestigious media outlets including the Times of India, The Hindu and NDTV, toured Australia as part of the media program sponsored by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Vice-President International, Andrew Holloway, said VU was chosen as the only Victorian university the delegation visited during its four-day tour of Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney.

He said: "Our safety program has developed a reputation for its excellence and the Indian journalists were especially interested in the familiarisation activities bringing together students and the Victoria Police."

"They had heard about the recent Laneway Cricket match between the police and Indian students, but we were able to tell them this idea originated with VUI. Our Harmony Day cricket match with police from the western suburbs and our students in March this year was supported by Cricket Victoria."

"It's one of our many initiatives we are sharing with other universities that has caught the public eye."

Welcoming the delegation, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Anne Jones said that VU's dual-sector courses across vocational education and higher education placed us in a strong position to offer programs from Certificate level through to Masters in many areas, including cookery.

"The cookery programs we are developing with the internationally renowned Le Cordon Bleu group, for example, are highly attractive to a broad range of international as well as domestic students," Professor Jones said.

One of the journalists on the delegation, NDTV news anchor Natasha Jog, interviewed VU's Professor Hurriyet Babacan about the study being conducted by the Institute for Cultural and Policy Alternatives (ICEPA) into the motives for the recent spate of attacks on international students.

She said: "We were able to get the message to India directly that with our research activities and our student support services, VU is part of the solution to the attacks, and not part of the problem."

VUI's Andrew Holloway speaks to Indian journalist

 

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