US, UK universities want tie-up with college; some varsities want its professors to teach their students

Fergusson to hold virtual classes for foreign universities?

US, UK universities want tie-up with college; some varsities want its professors to teach their students

Students across universities in the UK and US may soon attend virtual classes conducted for them by Fergusson College.

Representatives of at least four foreign universities visited the college over the past few months, and followed it up with formally writing to Fergusson authorities that they were interested in tie-ups for exchange of teaching expertise.

"Yes, it is true that some foreign universities have shown interest in having tie-ups with our college. Most universities have appreciated our method of teaching and the expertise of our faculty. Besides introducing joint programmes for students, they are quite interested in having some of our faculty teach their students," said Fergusson College Principal Dr R B Pardeshi.

He added that some of the universities that had expressed interest included University of East Anglia and Glasgow Caledonian University in the UK and Cork Institute of Technology in the US.

Permission sought
"For an official tie-up for a joint academic programme, we have already approached the University of Pune for permission to do it. We cannot start this programme on our own as we are affiliated to the university and need its go ahead. But the virtual classes might start soon, as we can do so on our own," said Pardeshi. "We will seek a couple of more meetings to decide on courses, faculty and technical know-how, but this shouldn't take too long."

Win-win situation
Saying he was excited his college professors' work had been appreciated, Pardeshi added that there was a lot to learn from their foreign counterparts as well. "They appreciated our teaching methods; we must learn how they expose their students to the industry and give them hands-on training," said Pardeshi.

Principals from other city colleges said they had not received any offer of teaching exchange from a foreign university yet.

"So far we have not received or heard of any foreign university asking colleges here to teach their students. Though tie-ups and student exchanges are not uncommon, asking teachers to teach via satellite is certainly new," said Garware College principal Dr Shrikanth Gupta.

Dr Rajendra Zunzarrao, principal of Modern College of Arts, Commerce and Science in Shivajinagar, said his college had also received offers for joint programmes.

"A German university has even set up a language lab on our campus, and a few faculty members from that centre have also visited Germany. But so far no foreign university has said it wants our teachers to teach its students," said Zunzarrao.