Global varsities look for bright students

PERHAPS GLOBALISATION has something to do with it. Either that, or the fact that Chennai students are so bright, they are crying to be swept off to foreign shores the moment they step out of school.

It should be true, considering that the country's hottest southern metro has been one of the most popular stop-over spots for foreign universities. Over the last few years, universities from different countries: England, Australia, Germany, Canada and the United States have looked for and successfully found those that `bright young sparks' who have their eyes fixed on `destination abroad'.

The British Education Fair is once again in town and this time with many more universities than the previous year. Statistics point out that annually, more than 5000 Indian students choose to go to Britain for higher education.

It is to enable these students to make the right choice that the Education Counselling Service of the British Council brings the education fair to four cities in the country every year.

This year, the fair is being held in Chennai on February 19 and 20 and representatives from nearly 50 colleges in England will speak to interested students and their parents. The fair makes its last stop in Chennai at Taj Coromandel after doing the rounds in Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad. It provides students an opportunity to speak directly with those associated with the colleges and get advice on the best courses, fees, scholarships available suited to them.

The elaborately planned sessions, spread over a couple of days have been targeted to address general questions such as `why study in Britain' and more specifically, clarify the alternatives available for study at different levels.

Academicians provide exposure to undergraduate, post graduate, vocational, engineering, management and distance learning courses in England.

Some of the educational institutions represented this year are Cardiff University, Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), Coventry University, University of Greenwich, Leeds University, King's College and Manchester University. For the representative from CIMA, it was an opportunity to hit several birds with one stone: apart from participating in the fair, CIMA also hoped to increase awareness about the institute among accountancy professionals, corporates and educationists.

The Deutsch folk are not far behind the British. Germany, they say, has now decided to throw open the gates of its universities to students from developing countries. To further this end, a consortium of six universities of applied sciences in Germany, focusing on India as one of the most important partners, has been formed. The better part of this deal is that students do not really require even a nodding acquaintance with German, as the consortium will impart education in English to aspiring candidates. The leader-university, the University of Applied Sciences, Esslingen, will present the prospects of higher education in Germany in a series of presentations all over India, of which the Chennai leg is February 26-29.

The other members are the Universities of Applied Sciences from Bremen, Aachen, Dresden, Pforzheim and Regensburg.

The consortium guarantees practical and application oriented education, with a frequent and flexible curricula. Besides knowledge in technical subjects, essential for the degree, further qualifications can also be picked up to promote their job prospects.

The study fee will be sponsored by the government and financial assistance for students is possible through scholarships apart from salary for internships provided by the companies.

By Ramya Kannan

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