TN univs to offer dual degree in pact with foreign varsities from next year

Universities accredited by the NAAC with a minimum score of 3.01 can tie up with foreign institutions Senior official, Higher Education Department

CHENNAI: For the first time, higher education institutions in Tamil Nadu will enter into an academic collaboration with foreign institutions to offer joint degree or dual degree programmes in both Under Graduate (UG) and Post Graduate (PG) disciplines from the coming academic year.

A senior official from the Higher Education Department told DT

Next that the University Grants Commission (UGC) had recently released a draft regulation under which students could get a dual degree from Indian and foreign higher education institutions, separately and simultaneously.

Stating that all the universities affiliated with the UGC had received the circular concerning the dual degree, he said the State government is also looking into the aspects of the UGC’s proposal and would give its feedback to the commission.

Explaining the UGC’s initiative, the official said the twinning arrangement — joint degree programme — will be a collaborative arrangement whereby students enrolled in higher education institutions here could undertake their course of study partly here and partly in the foreign higher education institutions. “Higher education institutes in the university category of National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) or institutions of eminence can collaborate with the top 500 institutes abroad,” he said adding “universities accredited by National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) with a minimum score of 3.01 can tie up with foreign institutions”.

Stating that the university’s proposal to collaborate with its counterpart abroad will be considered by an expert committee constituted by the UGC, he said: “The approval will be granted for a period of five academic years at a time and the renewal of approval should be done six months of its expiration”.

Pointing out that once the university gets the approval from the UGC, the institution must have an office for international affairs which shall function as a single point of contact, he said:

“The office will address matters related to the students proceeding abroad under collaborative arrangements besides maintaining records and disseminate information related to international collaboration”.

The official also said if a higher education institution issues an advertisement that it is offering a degree or diploma from a foreign university and if such collaboration does not have the approval of the UGC, the Commission will conduct a preliminary inquiry and on completion of its investigation, the regulatory body will initiate appropriate penal action against the institution.