Twinning courses achieve popularity in face of spiraling foreign education costs Twinning courses have been steadily gaining in popularity in the face of spiraling foreign education costs. With the rupee taking a downward plunge against the dollar, foreign education has become a distant dream for many. Hence, twinning courses have become a blessing assuring an international degree while not making too deep an impact on the pockets of the students. The International Centre for Applied Sciences (ICAS) under Manipal University has already received applications from 175 candidates in 2013. Students pursuing such courses will undergo 2 years of engineering studies in Mangalore by making a payment of Rs 8 lakh post which they will pursue the rest of the higher education course in one of the 70 partner educational institutes in countries such as Germany, United States (US), Canada, France, Australia or Britain. They are required to pay around $40,000 per year for this purpose. On completion of studies, they will graduate from the foreign institute. With rupee taking a nosedive, Twinning programs are gaining momentum. ICAS was established in 1994 for around 200 students. Merely 6 students had enrolled at that time. The count increased steadily and around 150 students enrolled in 2012. As per officials of ICAS, they are expecting around 250 students before the conclusion of the admission season of 2013. As per sources from Lovely Professional University (LPU), 48 students had enrolled for its twinning programs in 2011, whereas there are 80 students in 2013. Other than enhancing accessibility to quality higher education, the Twinning programs have the added advantage of retaining in India a chunk of the funds (approximately £8 billion or US$13 billion) that students need to part with for acquiring foreign education. Moreover, international universities are keen to sign joint-venture agreements with Indian institutes in order to woo Indian students. As per officials from Carleton University, Twining programs are a better option for students also as it implies less time spent in a foreign country as well as lesser costs for residence or tuition. Universities are also beneficiaries as the partnership of faculty members augment various joint research projects. Enhanced collaboration leading to optimum utilization of resources and joint goals widen the scope of higher education. Hence, the Canada-based University is constantly striving to enhance collaboration with various institutes in India as well as other countries. These programs are extremely sought-after at present and their popularity will grow even further, the officials added. As per a study conducted by the Association of Indian Universities (AIU), the number of foreign education providers has increased in India from 144 in the year 2000 to 631 in 2010. Out of these, around 49 are offering twinning programs, with Hotel Management and Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs ruling the roost. However, as per the regulations under the University Grants Commission (UGC), a mere 32 out of the total 49 twinning programs have approval from the relevant sources. Hence, students need to be very cautious before enrolling into one such program, as per experts. Moreover, students need to carefully assess the twinning programs on quality parameters. They need to evaluate that the programs are well integrated with the educational subsidiaries. A twinning program will suit a student who is aspiring for a degree only. However, if a student wants a comprehensive overseas academic experience, then the student should opt for a full degree course. The cause for concern is that several twinning programs are money-making machines used by the sponsoring universities, in the guise of providing collective and exhaustive higher education to the students.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Aug 2013 08:58:30 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015