Varsity to offer course on insurance

The Bangalore University has signed an MoU with the National School of Insurance Education and Research (NASIER), a non-profit organisation represented by the insurance industry, to offer courses exclusively designed to create manpower required for the burgeoning insurance industry in the country.

The courses will be offered from the next academic year, for which the university in partnership with NASIER is preparing a comprehensive course module.

The university aims to offer the new courses at the undergraduate and graduate level to start with. The two programmes that the university intends to offer include "" Bachelor of Insurance & Actuary (BIA) and Postgraduate Diploma in Insurance & Financial (PGDIF).

The number of seats for both courses will be limited and the students have to clear an entrance test to get enrolled in the programmes.

The BIA course will be of three year duration and the students after completion of their pre-university course (10+2) can join it.

The PGDIF course is meant for graduates who needs to specialise in Insurance, as well as insurance professionals who are already working with the industry. The duration of this programme will be of one year's duration.

B C Sanjeevaiah, Professor & Coordinator, School of Business Studies, BU said this would be the first time that any university was coming out with courses on insurance. "The Insurance sector is expected to be the biggest recruiter of manpower in the years to come."

"This will be a unique course catering to the insurance sector. The course is being designed as per the requirements of the industry, and will be offered through a joint programme in partnership with NASIER," he said.

Insurance industry is among the top five recruiters in India presently. There are 16 companies offering services in the life insurance space, and 15 companies are operating in the general insurance space in the country. Besides, 10 new companies are waiting for licences to start their operations in the Indian market.

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India has projected a five-fold increase in the size of Indian insurance business to $60 billion by 2010. Of this, life insurance business alone will be about $35 billion, while the rest are estimated to be non-life insurance business.

According to C K Karun, Chief Promoter & Secretary, NASIER, the partnership will be exclusive to BU. About half of the faculties required for the new courses will be from the industry, while rest will be provided by BU.

"We are designing the course to make the course more practical oriented so as to make the students to visit Insurance houses and understand the area thoroughly before they come out with the certificates," he said.

Meanwhile, the BU is also planning to introduce new programmes to create resource pool required for the banking industry.