NIIT, UK's Open University in pact

IT training academy NIIT on Monday forged an alliance with UK's largest university, the Open University, to offer a degree programme in IT education to students across India, Bangladesh, Botswana, Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria and Vietnam.

The three-year BSc programme is being offered at an annual fee of $1,800.  Students would be able to provisionally enroll for the Open University's degree programme while seeking admission at NIIT for two-year or above programmes.

The NIIT programme would be evaluated by the Open University to ensure its equivalence to 240 points of UK study.

The programme would be conducted by NIIT faculty specially trained on the Open University's curriculum.

Speaking on the occasion, NIIT chairman and co-founder Rajendra S Pawar said, ''This alliance further builds on the academic validation of NIIT Programmes with nearly 20 universities worldwide and brings Open University's globally accepted qualifications to NIIT students.''

Recent trends in education show more and more students are ready to cross international borders to acquire better IT training.

NIIT chief executive officer Vijay Thadani said this alliance would bring the Open University's rigorous curriculum to the students in their own country, thus making it a cost efficient way of acquiring an internationally accepted qualification.