Slowdown boon for Pune students

The recession has proved a golden opportunity for foreign universities looking to attract Indian students for their postgraduate courses...

Foreign universities come calling,fee waiver scholarships on offer

The recession has proved a golden opportunity for foreign universities looking to attract Indian students for their postgraduate courses,with more students inclined to pursue higher education in the current economic scenario. The visit of a representative of University of Western Australia (UWA) to at least 10 top engineering colleges in the city is a case in point. The university also announced fee waiver scholarships worth 25,000 Australian dollars per

student.

Hema Sharda,director of South Asia Relations,UWA,visited a few colleges in the city,including CoEP,VIT,MIT,Cummins Women’s Engineering College,PVG and PICT,last week. The idea was to have a direct dialogue with students, she said.

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An alumnus of IIT-Delhi,Sharda is working with the UWA for the last 15 years.

The best foreign universities,which were till recently looking at IITs for students,are now scouting for students in other institutes, said a faculty member of VIT.

Sameer Dua,joint managing director of city-based TASMAC,said the economic slowdown had benefited the education sector. It is the time for students to sharpen their knowledge and then go for even higher paid jobs once the recession ends, he said. We are even ready for tie-ups with the institutes the students represent, Sharda said. The other reason is to banish misconceptions such as the US being the only good place to go to for higher studies.

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