Wigan and Leigh College expands operation in India

Kolkata, Jun 20 (UNI) Wigan and Leigh College(WLC), one of the largest International educational institutions in the world, plans to open 15 more centres in India to take their total number in the country to 25 by August 2007.

Announcing his growth plan in India, WLC's Head of International Operations Trevor Ashton and Chairman of its Indian operations Vinay Pasricha told newsmen here today that while at present WLC had its own campuses in all the major cities in India, including in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune, soon they would open new centres at Srinagar, Jammu, Bhubaneswar, Jaipur, Ranchi and Goa.

" We would spend about Rs ten crore for setting up each of these new centres with boarding and all other modern facilities for students. Moreover, before Auguast next we also plan to spread our wings in several other states, including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand and Assam, " Mr Ashton announced.

Moreover, Mr Ashton said WLC since its coming to India about ten years ago had joined hands with a number of other reputed international educational institutiobns like the York College and Yule College to open a new window of opportunity for the aspiring students, who wanted to study abroad.

He said since 1998 about 8,000 students have passed out from WLC under-graduate and Post-graduate coureses in Business Management, Fashion Technology, Media Mangement, Advertising and Graphic Design and about 80 per cent of them had found suitable placement in various industries throughout the world.

Asked whether WLC planned to broadbase its courses in the face of stiff competition from similar other institutions in the country, Mr Pasricha replied in the positive but did not elaborate his plan.

About the increasing demand for suitable faculty in each of the courses, both Mr Ashton and Mr Pasricha said keeping this in view they had embarked on a multi million rupee programme for recruiting the right faculty for each course and hoped like other institutions WLC would not face any such problem in near future.

" Moreover, we have now started recruiting visiting professors from reputed universities to meet the increasing demand for having one of the very best faculties in respective areas, " Mr Ashton informed saying about Rs 20 crore had been earmerked for this purpose during the current fiscal for India alone.

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