'KSOU to have partner institutions in many foreign countries by 2011'

Speaking after inaugurating the MBA course in Safety Management in Mangalore Institute of Fire and Safety Engineering (MIFSE) at Hotel Gateway here on Thursday, Rangappa said that the University already has 45 partnership institutions in India and in foreign countries including Malaysia, Singapore, UK, Mexico, South Africa. A MoU will be signed with more institutions in the days to come. KSOU is working on bringing new courses in Yoga, Information Technology, Agriculture and other new streams, he added.

Rangappa said that the KSOU offers courses in three modes including face to face, distance education and online course. “The online course started by the KSOU is the first of its kind in the nation,” he asserted adding that the University is getting ample response for the course within India and from abroad.

KSOU has taken several steps to ensure the quality of education. Certificates are distributed adhering strictly to the norms of the University and without compromising on the quality, he said. “It is not possible for any student to obtain a certificate from KSOU without showing performance as per norms. Further, KSOU does not approve courses or sign MoU with institutions, unless the University was satisfied with the infrastructure and quality of education,” Rangappa said adding that the affiliation of many institutions were cancelled during his tenure for not following the guidelines.

“It is not possible to achieve the goal of taking the higher education enrolment percentage to 20 only through conventional education system. Goal of ‘reaching the unreached’ can be achieved through distance education system,” he added.

Talking about the evaluation process, Rangappa said that only one valuation is sufficient, if the examiner is perfect. Regulations are changed and new measures are being introduced to make the examination and valuation process more student-friendly, he added.

Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilisers Limited DGM (Safety) Mariyannavar, MIFSE Chairman Ando Paul, Managing Director K J Vinod and Principal T K Sadeeshan were present.