Kerala’s state government is planning to establish an international higher education hub modelled after Dubai International Academic City (DIAC), the world’s largest free zone dedicated to higher education, to help combat brain drain and attract international students, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has announced.
“We had set up a committee of experts to look into this proposal and after visiting the Dubai Academic City they are convinced that a similar one can be set up in the state,” Chandy told reporters after a weekly cabinet meeting.
“We had set up a committee of experts to look into this proposal and after visiting the Dubai Academic City they are convinced that a similar one can be set up in the state”
“The committee has recommended different locations for establishing the Academic City,” he continued. “A suitable location will be identified and necessary follow-up action will be taken.”
Three potential sites are under consideration, close to either the Kerala University campus, the proposed Knowledge City at Thonakkal or the Calicut University campus.
The committee has also proposed a global educational meeting at the site every year to position the state as an education hub, along with global road shows and fairs to promote the city in cooperation with the state’s tourism department.
The state government will have a 26% share in the public limited company, called International Academic City of Kerala Limited, as it does with Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL).
The development, which aims to attract both domestic and international students, will be overseen by a new regulatory body, Academic City Regulatory Authority, which is to be set up under the Higher Education Department, as well as a team of industry experts.
The seven-member international academic advisory committee will be made up of experts from several different fields of education and led by “a chairman of outstanding repute”, Chandy said.
The three-member committee who put forward the proposal to the state government, consisting of Additional Chief Secretary K.M. Abraham, Calicut University Vice Chancellor Abdul Salam and Member of the State Planning Board G. Vijayaraghavan, visited DIAC in December 2012.
Since being founded in 2007, the development in Dubai is widely viewed as one of the UAE’s success stories in the realm of international education, home to more than 400 education programmes teaching some 43,000 students from 137 countries.
