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SPPU and University of Melbourne to open ‘Melbourne Pune Academy’
Vice-chancellors of both universities signed the letter at SPPU on Tuesday
University of Melbourne, Australia, and the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) have signed a ‘letter of intent’ to open the “Melbourne Pune Academy” here in Pune.
Vice-chancellors of both universities signed the letter at SPPU on Tuesday.
An entire delegation of Melbourne university faculty - 20 - accompanied its vice- Chancellor Duncan Maskell to the SPPU campus, where certificates were presented to the first batch of students graduating under the “blended” Bachelor of Science (Bsc blended) programme.
The Blended programme has been jointly developed by the University of Melbourne and SPPU in 2016. This three-year programme provides opportunities for students to undertake postgraduate study in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (Stem) disciplines, at the University of Melbourne.
Interacting with the media, Duncan Maskell, vice-chancellor,University of Melbourne, said, “I find this a very interesting opportunity for students and it will have good benefit to them after completion of the course. The success of this blended programme has shown that there is an opportunity for the university to do more with SPPU. In the coming week, senior staff from our university will meet with staff from SPPU to discuss potential opportunities to establish similar blended programmes in Arts and Social Sciences.”
“I would like to congratulate students who have graduated from this blended programme. In particular, I am excited to be in Pune to meet the graduates and present certificates. I look forward to returning to Pune in the future to meet many more graduates coming from SPPU,” Maskell added.
One of the first SPPU Bsc blended graduates, Rucha Patil, has now started her Master of Biosciences course at the University of Melbourne, Australia.
SPPU vice-chancellor Dr Nitin Karmalkar said, “It is a historic movement for SPPU to have a more strengthening collaboration with the University of Melbourne now. We are certainly looking forward to extend this tie-up with new courses to add on. SPPU has always tried to bring such internationally acclaimed courses to the masses and that too, at affordable fees.”
Faculty from University of Melbourne come to Pune to teach and use video conferencing for lectures. A workshop was held for the first batch at University of Melbourne in November 2018.
For this year, admissions are full now. A total of 150 applications were accepted of which 48 students were chosen for this course. Fee for the course are Rs 48,500.
Blended Bsc - how it works
1. As the title indicates, the course offers a finely balanced blend of various scientific subjects which serves as the solid basis for a specialisation.
2. Besides the blend of various subjects in Science, this three-year course offers specialisation in Physics, Chemistry, Environmental Sciences and Earth Science. One of the most attractive features of this course is that the degree is quality assured by University of Melbourne and considered “similar” to a University of Melbourne degree worldwide.
3. In the first and the second year of the course, students study subjects related all disciplines i.e. Physics, Chemistry, Biological Sciences, Environment Sciences and Earth Science. Students can then specialise in a “major” in the third year.
4. By joining hands with University of Melbourne the course opens opportunities of interactions and engagements with teachers and students from different institutions within and outside India.
5. Course is open for students who have passed Class 12 exam with Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics.
