NIIT opens a not-for-profit technology university

IT education services provider NIIT today opened a not-for-profit university here and said it is looking at enrolling 500 students in the next academic session.

Spread across 100 acre, the university commenced the session from this September with a founding batch of nineteen BTech and ten MTech students.

"We expect to have 500 students in the next academic session starting July 2010. The number will scale up to 5,000 in the next ten years," NIIT Chairman Rajender Pawar said.

The project will cost over Rs 1,000 crore over 10 years.

Pawar said based on four core principles of being industry-linked, technology-based, research-driven and seamless, the university will focus substantially on research.

"The concept that knowledge should be looked upon from a holistic rather than a sectional point of view is gaining acceptance. NIIT University gives a glimpse of what future education institutes should be," Member of Parliament and Chancellor of NIIT Karan Singh said after inaugurating the university.

The university will offer PhD programmes in Computer Science and Engineering, Educational Technology and Bioinformatics & Biotechnoloy.

Its MTech programmes will cover Computer Sciences and Engineering and Educational Technology, while BTech programmes in Computer Sciences and Engineering will be offered through customised curriculum aligned to the industry needs.