Professors interact via EDUSAT

Updated on: Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Chennai: Professors from the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), Dehradun, will soon interact via EDUSAT with students of the department of geography, University of Madras. With a new lease of funding coming in for the current academic year, a fully functional laboratory containing necessary equipment to make it possible is being developed at the department. The laboratory is expected to be ready in three months. "We want to give students from other departments such as geology, applied geology, botany and sociology the opportunity to use the facility. Lectures on remote sensing, geographic information system (GIS) and global positioning system (GPS) will be delivered by experts from IIRS. We will invite students from city colleges affiliated to the university as well," said Dr V Madha Suresh, head (in-charge), department of geography. The department had received an amount of Rs 20 lakh as funding from the Infrastructure Fund of the University Grants Commission and Rs 10 lakh from the department of science and technology this year.

The department has also tied up with Staffordshire University, UK, to offer joint master's programmes in sustainable development that will be recognised by both universities. Speaking to students about the initiative here on Tuesday, Pratts D Derek, international programme advisor from the foreign university, said, "Since the course can be completed online, all our students study on a part-time basis. We have students from Malawi who are employed in the ministry of development and others from Pune working with NGOs."

Funded by the UK-India Education and Research Initiative, the universities are offering MSc programmes in sustainability and natural resource management, sustainable development and urban environment and international environmental management. Dr R Jagannathan, reader, department of geography, University of Madras, added that the institution was considering extending the course to South Asian and East European countries the coming year.

Professors interact via EDUSAT

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