New course is a win-win for students, university

MUMBAI: The University of Mumbai has tied up with UK varsities to offer a one-year master's courses from next year. Some foreign universities have adopted collaborative arrangements with Indian institutions, mainly deemed universities, to offer programmes where students are taught on a desi campus for a part of the programme but take home a foreign degree. But the University of Mumbai will be the first state varsity to enter into such an arrangement which, incidentally, will reach out to over 5 lakh students.

The university's academic council, which is meeting later this month, is likely to clear the draft curricula for the one-year courses. They include a master's in management, master's in international business, master's in human resource management and master's in medical technology and laboratory management (see box). Affiliated arts, science and commerce colleges will then be permitted to apply to the varsity to offer these courses, which will take off from the 2009 academic year.

Currently, the university has a similar tie-up with the University of Westminster for a course in animation, in which students can start the course on the Kalina campus and then move on to London for the remaining six months and receive a master's degree from there. But this new initiative for the master's courses will allow thousands of city college students to get a degree from a world-class foreign university.

The Mumbai varsity and UK colleges will soon plan details on fees and scholarships. The arrangement, city college principals feel, will allow students to avail of an international education and degree at a lower cost. This, apart from allowing the Mumbai university and its affiliated institutions more flexibility in course-designing at a time when foreign varsities are knocking on Indian gates.

SUBJECTS ON OFFER

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