Manipal in tie-up with varsities

The HRD ministry’s pro-active stance in encouraging foreign universities to tie up with domestic ones has found more takers. The University of Melbourne and University of Nottingham have entered into a collaboration with Manipal University to work together on areas like offering joint programmes, dual degrees, research, student and faculty exchanges.

The tripartite partnership will see individual areas being identified on the basis of which specific working agreements will be finalised. Officials of the institutes said the MoUs will translate into joint programmes which will initially focus on India. Later, based on the experience gained, the MoUs allow for programmes to be extended to other countries where Manipal Education is present.

 

“Under the agreement, we have decided to form specific focus groups in areas like health sciences, public policy and sustainable development,” said Anand Sudarshan, CEO and managing director of Manipal Education.

Both foreign universities said there were no plans to set up a campus or invest in physical infrastructure in India.

“A campus is not something to rush into. One has to see whether there is capacity to deliver. It also involves a risk to reputation. One has to think very hard before making such a decision,” said David Greenaway, vice chancellor, University of Nottingham. The university has offshore campuses in Malaysia and China.

The University of Melbourne is a stakeholder in U21 Global , the online university promoted by a consortium of international universities. U21 Global is a Manipal group investee. Glyn Davis, vice chancellor, University of Melbourne said that the MoU has come about owing to collaboration between the three universities over a number of years.

The Manipal group has three universities under its fold which include Manipal University, Sikkim Manipal University and American University of Antigua and over 30 institutions in India besides colleges and campuses in Antigua, Dubai, Malaysia and Nepal. In addition to formal university programmes delivered through five campuses in India and four abroad, Manipal Education also has offerings in distance education, vocational skills education as well as industry partnerships like ICICI Manipal Academy for banking.