MANGALURU: Mangalore University's ambitious plan to attract more foreign students has hit an infrastructure roadblock. With its proposed international students' hostel at least year away from becoming a reality, the varsity plans to restrict their intake to 100 students.
The university is faced with the prospect of having to accommodate more foreign students who have applied for post-graduate and PhD programmes. Despite having initiated the plan to attract foreign students in the middle of academic year 2014-15, the university could attract just 19 foreign students - two for post-graduate programmes and the rest for doctoral research. But for the forthcoming academic year, 2015-16, the university has received more than 530 applications. The deluge of applications has set the university thinking on where to accommodate them.
Acknowledging this, vice-chancellor K Byrappa on Thursday said: "While the high number of applications is a vindication of the quality of education that the university offers, we need to have the facility in place for these students." The issue will be addressed once the international students' hostel is constructed on the sprawling Mangalagangothri campus.
Ravishankar Rao, director, International Students' Centre, said the university has for now accommodated the 19 foreign students in a floor of its refurbished Nethravathi guest house. "The surge in applications will be a logistical challenge for us," Rao admitted. The vice-chancellor is seized of the matter. "Applications have come in from Asian and African countries, and even from neighbouring Nepal."
The vice-chancellor said: "We will accommodate the new foreign students in a refurbished wing of the Souparnika hostel for boys. Likewise, women foreign students will be put up in a refurbished wing of the working women's hostel on the campus. The shortfall in accommodation for local students will be met by extending the existing boys' hostel."
An international students' hostel will encourage foreign students to consider studying at Mangalore University. "While PG students will get the hostel facility for two years of their stay on the campus, we are thinking of restricting this period to three years for PhD students. From the fourth year, the students can find accommodation on their own," Byrappa said. This is the norm followed in universities in the West so as not to inconvenience newcomers.
The university is faced with the prospect of having to accommodate more foreign students who have applied for post-graduate and PhD programmes. Despite having initiated the plan to attract foreign students in the middle of academic year 2014-15, the university could attract just 19 foreign students - two for post-graduate programmes and the rest for doctoral research. But for the forthcoming academic year, 2015-16, the university has received more than 530 applications. The deluge of applications has set the university thinking on where to accommodate them.
Acknowledging this, vice-chancellor K Byrappa on Thursday said: "While the high number of applications is a vindication of the quality of education that the university offers, we need to have the facility in place for these students." The issue will be addressed once the international students' hostel is constructed on the sprawling Mangalagangothri campus.
Ravishankar Rao, director, International Students' Centre, said the university has for now accommodated the 19 foreign students in a floor of its refurbished Nethravathi guest house. "The surge in applications will be a logistical challenge for us," Rao admitted. The vice-chancellor is seized of the matter. "Applications have come in from Asian and African countries, and even from neighbouring Nepal."
The vice-chancellor said: "We will accommodate the new foreign students in a refurbished wing of the Souparnika hostel for boys. Likewise, women foreign students will be put up in a refurbished wing of the working women's hostel on the campus. The shortfall in accommodation for local students will be met by extending the existing boys' hostel."
An international students' hostel will encourage foreign students to consider studying at Mangalore University. "While PG students will get the hostel facility for two years of their stay on the campus, we are thinking of restricting this period to three years for PhD students. From the fourth year, the students can find accommodation on their own," Byrappa said. This is the norm followed in universities in the West so as not to inconvenience newcomers.
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