Deccan Education Society (DES) has entered into a pact with Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) to provide postgraduate degrees in Food Bioscience and Clinical Microbiology for its Fergusson Centre for Advanced Studies (FCAS). The courses are scheduled for offer from July 2011. The courses are of 18-month duration, with a choice to quit at the first term’s end. Students will receive a certificate issued by GCU and those who decide to continue with the second term of 11 months will study at GCU, Scotland. The fee that will be charged to the students will range from Rs. 1.5 lakh to Rs. 1.8 lakh. GCU may give a discount of 20 per cent on the second-term fee.
The agreement between GCU and FCAS has been aimed for academic partnership in life sciences. It also aims to establish a variety of postgraduate science (MSc) and top-up programmes in biological and biomedical sciences. With the Foreign University Bill coming through, the number of universites that offer twinning programmes with institutes outside of India may see a large increase. Students should carefully check the credentials of such foreign universities before enrolling in any such course.
Vikas Kakatkar, vice-chairman of the DES, stated, “In the first part of June, details about the admissions procedure for the two PG courses would be released. Before VC Pamela Gillies’ travel to Pune to announce admission data, GCU officials are busy completing necessary requirements in accordance with government regulations. Each of the PG courses will have a class size of 30 students.”
Apart from the GCU, the DES is now in talks to start joint academic projects with the University of East Anglia in Norwich, the Cork Institute of Technology in Southern Ireland, and Griffith College in Dublin.
