Foreign varsities woo state with tie-ups

With the economic slowdown hitting campus recruitments, top foreign varsities are queuing up to collaborate with the state in fields of research, student and teacher-exchange programmes.

While vice-chancellors of four foreign varsities have visited the state in the past six months looking for students for their undergraduate courses, the Mumbai University along with its affiliated colleges has received six proposals from universities like Tianjin, Deakin, Oxford and Said, with most in the final stages of talks.

Going in the footsteps of the Pune University, which has developed a relationship with a dozen foreign varsities like Cornel, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Oxford, Westminster, North Carolina, Indiana, Tehran to name a few, the Mumbai University is collaborating with universities of Bonne, Hamburg, Cologne and a few others. The latest in the series was the visit by top officials of UK’s Salford University on Monday. Its pro-vice chancellor (media and digital futures) Brain Longhurst, who flew down to meet VCs of the state’s varsities and industry representatives, said, “As of now, we want to focus on collaborations in media, digital and entertainment industry.”

While confirming that Maarashtra had got most the number of such collaboration offers, a higher education official said, the huge student population in Mumbai and Pune was one of the major attractions for the foreign varsities.

Also, Maharashtra enjoys a better economic status with 21% gross enrolment ratio in higher eductaion, added the higher education official.