Dr Geetika Madan Patel, Vice President of Parul University, a Panellist at the Universities Australia Summit: India Offers Global Higher Education

• Aimed Leadership: As Vice President and Co-Founder of Parul University and Medical Director of hospitals at the university. She combines academic excellence with exceptional healthcare delivery.
• Institutional Growth: She has been a driving force in founding various medical institutions, focusing on quality-centric administration and creating innovative pathways for student success.
• Research Guidance: Under her management, the university has seen a rise in interdisciplinary research, including high-impact studies like the Alzheimer’s research published in Pharmaceuticals (Impact Factor 4.8).
• Social Responsibility: She believes in giving back to society through welfare initiatives targeting health, education, and women’s empowerment.
• Recognition: Her contributions have been honoured with respected accolades, including the Icons Award in Healthcare and the Top Women Edupreneur Award.

Visit Parul University leadership page to explore your career options.

The Universities Australia Solutions Summit is the premier national forum for higher education in Australia. Its tagline: Big ideas. Bold conversations. Real solutions. It brings together 1,000+ leaders including vice-chancellors of all Australian universities, chancellors, senior parliamentarians, business leaders, researchers, and international education specialists. The Summit Dinner was held at the Great Hall, Parliament House, Canberra, with a keynote by The Hon. Jason Clare MP, Australia’s Minister for Education. Over 42,500 Australians voted in the Shaping Australia Awards as People’s Choice category announced at the dinner.

Dr. Geetika Madan Patel was a featured panellist in the session titled Australia and India in Partnership: Opportunities for Growth. The session description stated that India has become the primary engine of global student mobility and a hub for large-scale educational equity and innovation. It examined how innovation, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement are changing India’s higher education landscape and asked what India can offer the world of higher education globally. The panellists were:

• Dr Geetika Madan Patel, Vice President and Co-Founder, Parul University
• Dr Ashwin Fernandes, Executive Director and Chair, QS India, and Vice President QS for Africa/ME/South Asia
• Dr Raj Singh, Vice Chancellor, Bennett University
• Professor Adam Shoemaker, Vice-Chancellor and President, Victoria University (Australia)

Dr Geetika shared after the session: It was an absolute pleasure participating in a compelling discussion on the Australia-India relationship and the opportunities for growth during the Universities Australia Summit. It was great to see both public and private universities in Australia actively engaged in the conversation. There could be no better time to enhance the academic cooperations and partnerships between India and Australia with great synergies lined up in the areas of student and staff mobility, research and innovation collaborations, and more structured transnational collaboration partnerships. Thankful to Austrade for this initiative.

Find out more at Careers360 coverage of Dr Geetika at the Summit.

The Indian University Founders and Vice Chancellors’ mission to Australia was led by the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade), headed by Mukund Narayanamurti (Minister Commercial, General Manager and Head of Austrade South Asia) and Vik Singh (Trade and Investment Commissioner, South Asia), with Tomas O’Brien (Senior Global Engagement Manager) and Anita Wang (Global Engagement Adviser). Australia hosts such an exclusive educationist delegation only with India. No other country receives this treatment. Of all the universities in India, only seven institutions were selected:

• Parul University (Gujarat) represented by Dr Geetika Madan Patel, Vice President
• SRMIST (Chennai) represented by Prof. C. Muthamizhchelvan, Vice Chancellor
• Jain Group (Karnataka) represented by Mr. Varun Jain, CEO and Co-Founder
• Vignan Group (Andhra Pradesh) represented by Mr. Srikant Nandigam, CEO
• Bennett University (Greater Noida) represented by Dr. Raj Singh, Vice Chancellor
• KIIT (Odisha) represented by Dr. Amareswar Galla, Pro-Chancellor
• Poornima University (Rajasthan) represented by Mr. Rahul Singhi, Co-Founder

Parul University’s profile in the official Austrade delegation brief listed NAAC A++ with 3.55 CGPA, 70, 500+ students, 120+ international partners, key strengths in Healthcare and Research, and interest areas in Research Collaboration (Commercial), Student Mobility (2+2), and Sports Science/Infrastructure.

• Education is Australia’s largest service export to India, valued at $4.4 billion (2022)
• 120,020 Indian students were studying in Australia as of February 2024, making up 17% of all international enrolments. India is Australia’s second-largest source market.
• Two-way trade between Australia and India reached $49 billion in 2023. Indian investment in Australia stands at $34.5 billion. Australian investment in India is $17.6 billion.
• Australian universities hold 450+ active MOUs with Indian higher education institutions. Nine Australian universities rank in the QS World Top 100.
• India’s tertiary-age population (18-22) is the largest in the world. One million Indians turn 18 every month. NEP 2020 targets lifting higher education enrollment from 27% to 50%. If met, one in four graduates globally would be from India. .

Viksit Bharat has a vision for 2047 to lead India towards a developed nation. For this India will have to partner through education and student flows, be it domestic or international. It also covers research associations, transnational education models, and innovation corridors. The New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 opened the gates for international campuses, joint degree courses, and co-designed curriculum.

The panel at the Universities Australia Summit was positioned to address exactly this: not what India needs from Australia, but what India can offer global higher education. Parul University, with NAAC A++ (youngest in India), 70,500+ students, 120+ international partners, Alzheimer’s research in Pharmaceuticals (IF 4.8), Scientific Reports Q1 publications, and 230+ PIERC startups, was at that table because the institution’s trajectory under Dr Geetika Madan Patel and Dr Devanshu Patel‘s leadership justifies the seat.

The delegation’s work list first had to meet the consultants and make high-level strategic discussions with the Australian Department of Education and the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), focusing specifically on systemic policy reforms and international quality assurance. These diplomatic relations further became strong through an official meeting with the Deputy Indian High Commissioner at the High Commission of India in Canberra to align on bilateral educational priorities. Going ahead, the dinner was hosted by the University of Australia at the Hyatt Hotel, where delegates participated, which gave them an opportunity to interact directly with the Australian vice chancellors. Focusing on their meeting, it can be concluded that interactions circled around education policy, regulatory standards, and diplomatic agendas. All this is making India-Australia relations stronger.

Study there where international relations lead you to a path further like Parul University international partnerships. Find more at INSPIRE India’s first NZ Centre of excellence.