Indian and Western Colleges Set Up Joint Study Programs

As colleges and universities worldwide wait for India’s lawmakers to approve a bill granting full access to the country’s vast education market, some institutions are reaching Indian students through twinning programs.

Twinning, where participants complete part of their studies in their own country and the rest abroad, is not widely known in India. But local partners of foreign institutions — usually from Britain, the United States and Canada — say Indian students and their families are starting to appreciate the benefits of this option, which includes lower costs than a full overseas degree and a readymade peer group.

At ECube Global College in Mumbai, which has offered entry to undergraduate engineering and computer science programs at Newcastle University in Britain since 2010, the adjustment process begins with the way academic sessions are structured. During the first year in Mumbai, classes do not exceed 10 students and professors are trained by Newcastle University. The following year, students can enter their second year at Newcastle.

These efforts have paid off, according to Hitesh Juthani, whose son, Vivek, is about to enter the third year at Newcastle, having completed his first-year studies in Mumbai in June last year.

“Vivek was keen on pursuing engineering from a reputed U.K. university, but we were worried about sending him away so soon,” Mr. Juthani explained. He said that after spending his first year in the twinning program, Vivek had “settled well at the university and is doing well academically.”

Twinning programs can bring significant savings compared with the cost of obtaining a full degree abroad, especially when participants spend more time in India. A three-year bachelor’s degree at the India campus of Britain’s Leeds Metropolitan University, for example, costs just over 1.5 million rupees, or $27,000, including travel and living costs for a mandatory six months in Britain — well below half of what it would cost to study for the same degree as an overseas student in Leeds.   

For the complete article by Vir Singh, please visit Indian and Western Colleges Set Up Joint Study Programs