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Interesting Views

Speaking to Metrolife, he says travelling through the City was quite a task. He cites short-sightedness and lack of expert planning as the main reasons for the slow-moving traffic.

“Buildings have sprung up and the whole landscape has changed since the last time I visited the City,” George says.

His mission here was to popularise the new courses at Yale University, especially those at the International Affairs Centre.

George points out that contrary to what people have to say about students not opting for higher education abroad, Yale has registered a steady rise in the number of students who apply to the University every year, especially from India.

“At Yale University, students can’t really compete with each other but are forced to compete with themselves to prove their worth and get to the top. Only the bright ones get in,” he observes.

There are students from about 110 countries studying at Yale and there are Chaplins who work among the students to promote a deeper understanding of different religions.

There’s a Hindu priest and an Imam on the campus. There are also separate spaces for Hindus and Muslims to worship undisturbed,” George explains.

He says that the culture on campus is such that students are encouraged to know and understand other religions. “That is crucial to us,” he adds. He points out that every festival is celebrated on campus, including Deepavali and Eid.  

Commenting on the state of politics in India and the number of politicians who are caught in various scams, George points out that there is a lot of similarity between the politics in India and back home. “Any active democracy will have a lot of drama and an active electorate,” he says. 

George has served in the Office of International Education and Fellowships Programs’ in Yale College and in the South Asian Studies Council at the Yale Centre for International and Area Studies before joining the Office of International Affairs.

Prior to the positions in the University’s international initiatives, Joseph was a doctoral student at Yale.