The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Madras varsity, British institute join hands

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 17, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Madras varsity, British institute join hands

Special Correspondent

Sign MoU to offer fast track post-graduate courses

— Photo: M. Vedhan

a first: Muhammad Farmer, Principal and Director, BITE (left), exchanging documents with S. Ramachandran, Vice Chancellor, Madras University in Chennai on Monday.

CHENNAI: The British Institute of Technology & E-Commerce (BITE) on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Madras for offering one-year, fast track post-graduate programmes.

BITE principal and director Muhammad Farmer and university Vice-Chancellor S. Ramachandran signed the agreement. With this, the University of Madras becomes the first university in the country to get associated with the BITE to offer specialised courses in biotechnology, nanotechnology, IT security, data mining, communication, biometrics, energy, finance, human resource management, business law and travel and tourism.

As per the agreement, the BITE will offer MBA Innovative Management and MSC Innovative Technology in London for students enrolled through the Institute of Distance Education. The students will be offered 45 per cent scholarship. On completion, they will get to work and stay in London as full-time employees for a year.

Talking to The Hindu, Mr. Muhammad Farmer said the institute was ready to enrol 30 students for the MBA course and 50 for the MSC course, which will begin in September. “Though we have the capacity to admit 1,500 students in a year, we don’t enrol more than 600. We are a private institute, but we don’t act like one in terms of admission. This tie-up will help knowledge-hungry students from India enrich their knowledge and excel in chosen field. Right now, there is a huge demand for biotech and nanotech courses.”

BITE Regional Manager for India Mohammed Ghani said the institute would offer counselling for Indian students at its Royapettah office from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesday. “These courses cost around £10,000, but we offer 45 per cent discount to students, if they enrol through the Institute of Distance Education. Soon we will be setting up our office on the University of Madras Campus to offer help continuously.”

Mr. Ramachandran said: “We are … restructuring and reorienting the university to offer value-added services to the students. Today, we are not able to provide Master’s degree equivalent to those courses in other countries. Hence, we have tied up with the BITE. Slowly, we are acquiring the capability to offer these courses for students from India and abroad.”

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