April 8, 2013 — Representatives from D’Youville College flew more than 7,300 miles to India to bring chiropractic information to doctors and medical students in one of the most populous countries in the world.
Chiropractic is non-existent in India according to Dr. Arup Sen, vice president for academic affairs at D’Youville and a native of India.
“There is only one chiropractor in Delhi that has a population of more than 20 million people,” he said. “There is a huge, huge potential for chiropractors in India, an untapped market, and we want to be first in there with our program.”
D’Youville started their chiropractic program in 2004, the first in the U.S. at a liberal arts based, traditional healthcare focused institution.
The group from D’Youville that travelled to India included Dr. Sen; Dr. Kathleen Linaker, director of the chiropractic program; Ronald H. Dannecker, director of International Admissions and Marketing; and Brandon L. Moran, an international recruiter.
Presentations for Indian doctors and medical students were arranged by Dr. Vidur Jain, who travelled with the team from D’Youville. Jain is an orthopedic surgeon with a practice in New Delhi who is currently attending D’Youville and will complete his degree in chiropractic in May.
“Dr. Jain came to me with the idea of offering the program to medical students and physicians in India as it would provide a low cost medical option for patients and allow doctors to expand their practice,” Sen said. “I immediately saw the potential for the college.”
Presentations to approximately 150 medical students at a major university in New Delhi were well received and prompted a “lot of medical and technical questions” about chiropractic.
In other sessions, the D’Youville group explained to the medical doctors how chiropractic can be used for treatment, how it could eliminate the need for surgery for some patients and at a lower cost to the patient.
“We received a good number of applications from the medical students and some doctors,” Dannecker said.
Program presentations were also made at a university in Hyderabad, a city in the south of India.
D’Youville produced a 20-minute video with demonstrations of various chiropractic adjustments. The video was shown at all presentations and features Sonni Gill, a current D’Youville student from Toronto, Canada.
“The presentations were very well received and there was a high level of interest. I think it will result in students applying to D’Youville,” Dr. Kathleen Linaker said. “It was a very successful trip and we need to keep up the momentum.”
The D’Youville representatives also attended the “Indo-American Education” summit in Hyderabad. It is billed as the biggest networking event for leaders in education from around the world. An estimated 1,000 leading Indian and foreign universities were on hand for the educational event.
“We presented information about D’Youville and our programs to a large number of university officials,” Sen said.
While in India, Moran spent 10 days traveling to five Indian cities to make presentations at some 18 secondary schools. He traveled with 17 other college and university recruiters from around the U.S., Germany and Liberia. Moran visited Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai (formerly Bombay) also with a population of 20 million, Jaipur and institutions in New Delhi.
“The tour proved to be an excellent opportunity to learn more about the Indian education system, connect with school administrators and faculty, and share information about D’Youville and the U.S. education process with their students,” he said.
Moran was amazed by the amount of interest expressed by administrators and students about opportunities to study in the United States and elsewhere. “The demand for higher education far outweighs the number of colleges and universities in India, and for many, the U.S. and the U.K. are popular options,” he said. “With the various challenges facing India, many see education as the panacea. Because of the problems at home, they take education very seriously.”
Initially, D’Youville hopes to recruit 10-15 students for the 2014–2015 academic year and will continue developing collaborations with appropriate institutions and individuals in India to increase those numbers.
The trip was a part of the private college’s strategic plan to expand international enrollment.
“Something like this takes time,” Sen pointed out. “You have the distance, language, and culture to work with but we have successfully planted the D’Youville name in India.”
D’Youville also signed a collaborative agreement with St. Andrew’s, a Catholic college located in Mumbai.
Source: D’Youville College, dyc.edu
