The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), the US, is looking for collaborative arrangement with city engineering colleges, in which students can have a common engineering degree and an opportunity to study for two years in Pune and two years at UAF.

With the education sector in India opening up and the foreign universities bill under consideration, the UAF, which has a sister city agreement with Pune, is all set to eye for tie-ups with the city engineering colleges. “It will be a long-term target, but we are keen on such tie-ups,” said Shirish Patil, associate director of institute of northern engineering affiliated to UAF.

Patil was in the city for an information and admission session for Pune students. This was the fourth successive year that the UAF was conducting such a session. “The UAF has a similar agreement for petroleum engineering course with China University of Petroleum, Beijing and we want to develop a tie-up along similar lines with a Pune institute.” “We will have an arrangement in which students will have a common syllabus developed by UAF and the college concerned. Students will do their first two years in Pune and next two years in UAF. They will get a common degree,” said Patil.

“Marathwada Mitramandal College of Engineering in the city has already shown interest in similar tie-up. However, we will have to evolve the arrangement in a way that all the requirements of regulatory bodies here and in the US get fulfilled. It will take some time,” he said.

... contd.