More students opt for maritime courses

Updated on: Sunday, June 27, 2010

Maritime courses have begun to attract more students this year too with more number of candidates appearing for the common entrance test conducted by Indian Maritime University (IMU)

Maritime course have become a favorite among students including girls with more aspirants taking up the entrance exam as compared to last year.

According to P. Vijayan, IMU vice-chancellor, totally 6,093 candidates from across the country appeared for the CET conducted earlier this month which is about 25% more from the 4,538 applicants who took the examination in 2009.

Even the number of girls in the fray has gone up from 28 to 37 this year. Incidentally, to encourage girls to join maritime courses, the central government offers a waiver in tuition fees.

With about 2,130 seats available in nearly two dozen institutions, the results of the examinations will be declared on Saturday and the single window counselling for admission into various courses maritime institutions across India will be held on July 19, 20 and 21 at the IMU campus in Uthandi near Chennai.

Apart from Diploma in Nautical Science (DNS), a one-year course after which the candidates will be sent for an onboard training in ships for 18 months and return to the campus for a four-month course which will make them eligible for a BSc degree in Nautical Science, the university also offers BTech in Marine Engineering through colleges affiliated to the University.

However, admission for the BTech Marine Engineering course offered by the IMU at its campuses will be based on the scores obtained through Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) conducted by the Indian Institute of Technology.

This year, it plans to launch a unique and highly job-oriented course BSc in Ship Building and Repair. It will be offered with 40 seats each at Hindustan Shipyard in Vishakhapatnam, Cochin Shipyard and the Tebma Shipyards Ltd in Kochi.

According to the Vice-chancellor, earlier the job opportunities in shipyards were confined to countries like Germany and some Asian nations. However, in the past couple of years the number of shipyards in India has grown from just 3 to 23 with the government allowing private players into the field.

With more orders coming in from Germany and Norway, which were the leaders in this sector, all these shipyards have their order books full till 2012.

The shipping industry requires huge number of technical workforce at the level of technicians and supervisors, he added.

More students opt for maritime courses

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