The Citys renowned Fergusson College will tie up for student and faculty exchange,as well as for a joint academic programme with Scotlands Glasgow Caledonian University in the field of Life Sciences. This was announced by V B Rale,director of the research division of life sciences of Fergusson College on Tuesday. The collaboration has come out as a result of the British Council initiative Education UK Scotland to promote Scottish universities in tier II and tier III cities in the country,including Pune. Though the details of the collaboration are yet to be worked out,the department of biological and biomedical sciences of Glasgow Caledonian University has shown its intent to tie up with the division of life sciences of Fergusson College, said Rale. A delegation of representatives of Scottish universities was in the city recently to discuss the opportunities of tie-ups with the Pune based educational institutes and industries in the life science sector. The institutes showed interest in collaborating in specific areas in life sciences such as clinical microbiology,biotechnology and development in drug discovery. The delegation talked to the representatives of colleges such as Fergusson,Modern,Vidya Pratishthans School of Biotechnology and Bharati Vidyapeeths Rajeev Gandhi Institute of Information Technology and Biotechnology during their four-day stay in the city. It was as a result of detailed discussion that the representatives of department of biological and biomedical sciences Glasgow Caledonian University showed their intent to establish link with the division of life sciences of Fergusson College, said Rale. He said Glasgow University was interested in a joint academic programme in life sciences at the under graduate level with an arrangement of completing two years in Pune and two years in Scotland. We also discussed the possibility of setting up of Glasgow varsitys campus in Pune with the help of Fergusson College, said Rale. Though the primary draft is ready,we will work out the modalities in our next meeting, he added. Liz Speake,manager of Education UK Scotland said the visit was a part of the three-year Education UK Scotland strategy. As per the strategy,British Council will be campaigning for the 43 colleges and 13 universities of Scotland in China and India in the field of life sciences,creative industry,business and finance and energy and environment, she said. She also said that the Scottish institutes would be concentrating on tier II and tier III cities in India for tie-ups. Why Pune?According to V B Rale who taught in the department of biology as a professor in the University of Pune for 35 years,Pune has been growing as a hub for the life sciences sector in the last few years with around 15,000 students studying at the graduate and postgraduate level. Many foreign institutes are interested in collaborations in life sciences as there are quality students in the city in areas such as microbiology,biotechnology,bio-informatics and environment science, said Rale. Even as per the survey of British Councils Mumbai office,Pune has been identified as a hub for the life science sector.
