A visit by senior academics from the other side of the world to a university is rarely just a one-day affair. It is about what comes next. A team of three from Auckland University of Technology (AUT) arrived in the first week of September 2026 to explore concrete ways to connect with Parul University, Vadodara. By the time they left at 3:15 pm, the two institutions were moving towards a plan that included expert sessions, faculty exchange, and a study tour of Auckland by Parul University students in early 2027. This plan is particularly important for students in civil engineering, architecture, construction management, or public health.
The partnership between Auckland University of Technology and Parul University is also notable for what it is built around. While some international visits remain limited to handshakes and group photographs, this one was organised by discipline, with AUT delegates teaching and meeting the specific departments aligned with their areas of expertise. The visit was hosted by Parul University’s Centre for International Relations and Research (CIRR).
Who came, and what did they do?
The delegation was small but senior, and each member represented a clearly defined academic area:
- John Tookey, Associate Dean (Postgraduate), Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies at AUT, covering architecture, construction management, and civil engineering.
- Meenal Rai, Deputy Head (Academic), School of Community and Public Health at AUT.
- Sahil Sharma, Senior Student Recruitment Advisor (South Asia) at AUT, connecting the academic partnership with the students who would eventually benefit from it.
Construction, civil engineering, and architecture: the Tookey sessions!
At 10:15 am, shortly after a traditional welcome, Prof. John Tookey led a session for Civil Engineering Department students, held within the department itself. The session focused on global construction methods and building management, explained in accessible terms so that every student could follow the material, not just the top performers. Students familiar with local construction practices could use this exposure to understand alternative regulatory and economic environments in civil engineering and construction management, broadening their perspective on what they could achieve as graduates.
Prof. Tookey subsequently met two academic leaders: Dr. Bhagyajit Raval, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Planning, and Dr. Komal Mehta, Head of the Civil Engineering Department. These meetings marked a shift from a guest lecture to more structured discussions about how departments could coordinate curricula, organise sessions, and collaborate across architecture, construction management, and civil engineering. Bringing the dean of architecture and the head of civil engineering into the same discussion highlighted the close relationship between these disciplines in practice: a building is both a design challenge and a construction project.
Public health: knowledge sharing and take a look at Pragya
Meanwhile, Dr. Meenal Rai conducted an interactive session with Dr. Parthasarathi Ganguly, Dean of the Faculty of Public Health, along with the faculty and staff members in another department. The exchange discussed the experiences of public health in New Zealand and India, where the scale and structure of the services are very different, and areas where the two departments could collaborate. Such discussions about comparison, or comparative discussions, are the starting point for real collaboration, since one side of the discussion learns that something it assumes is local, rather than universal. Dr. Rai also visited the Pragya Advanced Skills and simulation centre, Parul University’s hands-on training facility for emergency medicine and first-line medical care. For a visiting academic, a simulation centre is one of the clearest windows into how a university actually trains, as opposed to how it describes itself, because it shows the practical work students do rather than the syllabus they are handed.
The real outcomes!
The visit concluded with high-level meetings, including one with Dr. Devanshu Patel, President of Parul University. This signalled that the partnership has institutional backing rather than being limited to the departmental level. Five concrete outcomes were agreed upon or opened for development. Together, they outline what students could potentially experience through this partnership over the next year or two.
- Regular expert sessions
AUT faculty will continue teaching and engaging with Parul University students, turning the sessions led by Prof. Tookey and Dr. Rai into a recurring opportunity rather than a one-time event.
- Faculty mobility
Academic exchange in both directions will allow Parul University faculty to travel to New Zealand and AUT faculty to visit India to teach. Faculty who work across different academic systems can bring those comparative perspectives back to their classrooms.
- IVPP participation
The institutions will explore including AUT academics in Parul University’s International Visiting Professor Program (IVPP), the formal framework through which overseas faculty teach at the university.
- A study tour to Auckland in early 2027
One outcome likely to interest students most is the initial planning for a special study tour to Auckland University of Technology in January or February 2027. Such a tour could turn an abstract institutional partnership into an opportunity for students to participate in person.
- Collaboration across all four disciplines
The institutions intend to continue collaborating across civil engineering, architecture, construction management, and public health, the specific fields represented by the visiting delegation.
Future collaborations with New Zealand!
It is part of a broader and intentional initiative by Parul University to enhance its connection with New Zealand. In the same period, a Victoria University of Wellington delegation visited the campus to participate in a similar program of sessions, leadership meetings, and an education fair, and Parul University kicked off an India-New Zealand Centre of Excellence during its International Week 2026, which it reported to national education media as a step towards co-teaching, collaborative research, and mobility of its students with Wellington institutions. It’s the establishment of a long-term relationship between a private Indian institution, developing a sustainable bridge to New Zealand higher education, involving a variety of partners and disciplines. For a prospective student, that pattern matters more than any single visit. A university with one overseas memorandum has a photo opportunity. A university building repeated, discipline-specific partnerships with several institutions in the same country are building infrastructure that a student can actually use through exchange, study tours, and visiting faculty.
Where this sits for students!
The value of the AUT partnership is dependent on the program a student is in. It provides students of civil engineering, architecture, and construction management with exposure to international construction practice, a visiting-professor channel, and a potential study tour to Auckland. For public-health students, it opens a comparative link to a New Zealand school of community and public health. In every case, the mechanism is the same, bringing a global environment to students in Vadodara and, increasingly, giving them routes out to experience it directly. That is the quiet logic behind Parul University’s international strategy: exposure first on campus, then mobility beyond it.
FAQs
What is the collaboration between Parul University and Auckland University of Technology all about?
The team from Auckland University of Technology, N.Z., visited Parul University, Vadodara, to set up an academic tie-up with Parul University, Vadodara, in the field of civil engineering, construction management, architecture, and public health on 16th September, 2026. They shared their ideas on regular expert sessions, a student exchange program, a two-way faculty exchange, and a faculty member exchange program
Do students at Parul University have an opportunity to visit New Zealand via this collaboration?
Initial planning started on the visit for a study tour for Parul University students to be held in Auckland University of Technology (AUT) in January or February 2027. Faculty mobility both ways was also discussed as part of the partnership. These are preliminary plans that have been finalized during the delegation visit, and students should check the current plans with the Centre for International Relations and Research (CIRR) at Parul University.
What kind of subjects is the AUT partnership for?
The four disciplines that were chosen to form the partnership were civil engineering, architecture, construction management, and public health. The AUT delegation comprised Prof. John Tookey (across architecture, construction management, and civil engineering) and Dr Meenal Rai (School of Community and Public Health), and the sessions and leadership meetings were held at Parul University in the related faculties.
