Canada Institute mulls Gujarat campus

The Canadian Institute for International Studies (CIIS) in Mohali, which is operating as an extension of overseas campus of foreign universities and colleges, is scouting the country to open more centres and has zeroed-in on Gujarat and Punjab as the probable venues for its next campus.

In this regard and to interact with students interested to enrol for CIIS' courses for the upcoming academic year, a team of officials from the organisation and it is collaborating with colleges, including those from Thompson Rivers University (TRU) and Georgian College, Canada would also be travelling to Rajkot, Surat, Vadodara and other cities in Gujarat.

CIIS presently offers a B Tech Applied Computing Science, Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com), PG

Diploma in Business Marketing through TRU, Automotive Manufacturing and Automotive Product designing through Georgian college and other courses through the AYR College Scotland and Universal College of Learning, New Zealand at its campus in Mohali.

Since the inception of the centre at Mohali, close to 400 students have studied a year in India and transferred to the collaborating college's campus abroad.

"One of the reasons why the centre is mulling to open a centre in Gujarat is the large number of students expressing interest in studying abroad or studying with an offshore campus which offers the same curriculum, faculty and facilities that are available at its campus abroad, " said Amit Sood, Manager Marketing CIIS.

There are about 100 students from Gujarat who have applied for various courses in the institute.

He also said that in a bid to make fees more affordable, CIIS has decided to offer scholarships of Rs 6 crore in all of which a student will be eligible for scholarship upto Rs 1.5 lakh per annum. The centre charges around Rs 2 lakh as its fees per annum.

Paul Stevens, Associate Dean, Engineering Technology, Georgian College ,which offers automotive manufacturing and product designing courses in Mohali says that a huge demand has been observed in the automobile sector which provides global opportunities to the students.

Through the course, students have had interactions with automobile companies including Mahindra and Mahindra, Mercedes and Toyota among others.

Faculty for the courses are all visiting professors from the collaborating college's main campus.

"Our faculty members from Canada spend a few semesters here by turns and ensure that the teaching standards are similar. Like students from India moving to the Canadian campus, some Canadian students have also evinced interest in relocating to the Indian campus, " said Geoff Wilmshurst, Coordinating Director TRU India programme and Paul Stevens from Georgian College.