Bihar universities to tie-up with foreign universities

Patna, June 24: In its bid to upgrade the standard of technical education in the state, the Bihar government has chalked out a plan to join hands with several renowned universities in the US and UK.

Sources at the Science and Technology department here today informed that under a joint initiative, efforts would be made to invite senior faculty members from a number of world renowned educational institutions from developed countries to provide technical education of the highest standards to the students in various universities of Bihar so that they could be judged at par with the best in the world.

To begin with, formal tie-ups in this regard would be made with the university of Iowa in the US and with the university of Edinburgh in the UK, the sources said, adding that Professor B Sinha, presently the Professor Emiritus in the Institute of Infrastructure and Environment in the School of Electronics and Engineering of the University of Edinburgh had taken the initiative in bringing about a sea change in the study of engineering in Bihar.

Incidentally, due to the lack of facilities and necessary environment for higher studies, a large number of aspiring engineers in Bihar were leaving the state every year causing concern to the government for huge loss of talents.

Elaborating his plan Professor Sinha had recently written a letter to Chief minister Nitish Kumar seeking his cooperation and infrastructural support for the promotion of this venture to bring about a rapid change in the situation.

To begin with, Professor Sinha wanted to bring with him a delegation of senior faculty members of different engineering colleges of Edinburg university, including those from civil, mechanical, chemical, electrical and electronics departments for suggesting ways to improve standard of technical education in the state, the sources said.

Similarly, another successful engineer from Bihar Rajendra Singh, who is presently associated with the University of Iowa in the US as its Chief Instructor, International Business and Technical Education, has offered to extend help for the upgradation of technical education in his former home state through a formal tie-up.

In another letter, he also urged the chief minister to visit the US with senior Higher Education officials soon to discuss the modalities of formal partnerships with different world class universities for launching world class technical and vocational studies in various universities back home.

Regarding the provision of huge funds required to implement the project, the sources said while a portion of expenditure was likely to be met by both the foreign universities, the rest would be sought from various other sources by the state government, including from the World Bank, USAID and the Bill and Merinda Gates Foundation.

On its part, the state government would provide the entire infrastructural support for realisation of the project on time.

If implemented, the tie-ups with world class universities would change the face of Bihar in terms of the provision of technical and engineering education in the state besides preventing the exodus of the talent pool, the sources pointed out.

UNI