Going beyond borders

Ranchi, Feb. 12: French fancies continue to grip students.

After the increase in the number of students taking up French language courses, studying in France is the new aspiration. And to make this true, French universities and institutes would offer around 120 scholarships to nine of their Indian counterparts this year and BIT, Mesra, and XLRI, Jamshedpur, are gearing up to reap maximum benefits.

The scholarships would ensure that the Indian students would be able to study in France at almost the same cost as here, said S.K. Mukherjee, the president of Association of Indian Universities (AIU), who signed the initial memorandum of understanding (MoU) on January 26 on behalf of nine Indian institutes.

Mukherjee, who is also the vice-chancellor of BIT, Mesra, said the possible areas of co-operation with French universities include pharmaceutical, environmental science, nano-science and bio-technology.

Sources revealed that XLRI is aiming to tie-up with Lille Catholic University in the area of Human Resource (HR) management. XLRI would also take the services of French professors for its Dubai and Singapore extension centres.

Other than scholarships, BIT, Mesra, has entered into a separate agreement whereby 74 advanced-level engineering institutes in France, would act as “partner institutes”.

“Under this agreement, BIT, Mesra, would first identify possible areas and partner institutes. The syllabi will be compared for compatibility. Thereafter, students and faculty would be identified for exchange programmes and dual degree possibilities,” said Mukherjee.

The steering committee of Indo-France Consortium of Universities would meet on April 1 in New Delhi to finalise areas in which partner universities of both countries would decide on details.

Three universities of France — Bordeaux University, Grenoble University and University of ULCO — are at present on the radar for BIT, Mesra, as far as future collaborations are concerned.

The government of India is yet to come up with a clear-cut policy on double or dual degrees.

Mukherjee said that such matters would be taken up this June when another round of meeting in Paris is scheduled.

The AIU would hold talks with UGC and Union ministry of human resource development on this matter.