‘Tie-up with US varsities will benefit engineering students’

Indo American Chamber of Commerce plans workshops

The foreign exchange going out of Andhra Pradesh to the United States in the form of fee can be saved to a great extent if the best engineering colleges here enter into Memoranda of Understanding with the U.S. universities.

The Indo American Chamber of Commerce (IACC), in association with the Andhra Pradesh government, wants the top 100 engineering colleges in the State to enter into MoU with the U.S. universities at a 1:10 ratio, that is, one engineering college with 10 US universities.

‘In state’ status

Students who study in engineering colleges that have entered into an MoU with an American university will immediately gain ‘in state’ (similar to domicile) status, and will also be eligible for research funding from the university.

Talking to

The Hindu, IACC A.P. coordinator Annavarapu Kumar said, unlike in India, the American universities were funded directly by the industries and were therefore plush with funds. The bright students of an engineering college that had a tie-up with 10 U.S. universities would have direct access to the funds given by the industries for research and development.

Mr. Kumar said there were 5,800 universities in the US. If the colleges were able to tie up with 1,000 universities, the students of the State would benefit tremendously.

To begin with, the students would get dual degrees, that is from both the Indian and US universities.

US universities had the best faculties in the world and the Indian students would benefit from the faculty exchange programmes. When the students go for higher education, Telugu students would enjoy the ‘in state’ status, which would given them a two-third fee discount as per current norms, he said.

The bright students who bag research projects would getting funding directly from the US industries, he explained.

According to a study, Indian students had spent $ 6.54 billion in the US in 2016-17, a 30% increase compared with previous year, dwarfing its FDI of just $2.37 billion, Mr. Kumar said.

The IACC has submitted to the government proposal to conduct workshops on “required skills.” The Chief Minister has forwarded it to the AP Skill Development Corporation to be processed on a priority basis, Mr. Kumar said.