City-based PGP Educational & Welfare Society, which runs engineering and arts colleges, is now planning to become an integrated one stop point by including medical education. The trust had already applied for a university status.
Speaking to Business Standard, Palani G Periasamy, founder and president of the trust, said the trust will start the process of adding medicine and management studies to its portfolio once it gets the university status. “We will be investing Rs 100 crore in the proposed expansion over the next three years.”
PGP Educational currently runs arts and science, engineering and technology, hotel and catering management, polytechnic and nursing colleges in Namakkal, Tamil Nadu.
The trust’s other focus area will be research and development (R&D), Periasamy said, adding that the institution was planning to have tie ups with various traditional industries operating in the state to address their issues including technology.
According to him, one of the major challenges that is currently being faced by the education institutions is faculty. To address the issue, the society is planning to collaborate with various foreign universities and colleges for both faculty and student exchange programmes. Some of the important areas which the institution is planning to have tie ups for include biotechnology and energy-related industries.
Currently, over 7,000 students are studying in the institutions run by the trust. “To attract more students, especially from rural areas, we are planning to provide fellowship and scholarships, which in one way will bring them back to the institution as faculty,” Periasamy said.