July 28, 2010
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore
 

This year again, Amrita students and faculty are heading to Europe.
 

“We received over 250 applications from our students,” shared Mr. Pradeep Kumar Nair of Corporate and International Relations in Coimbatore. “After the initial screening, 162 students were asked to apply online.”
 

30 students were finally selected. As part of the India 4EU program that comes under the broader umbrella of Erasmus Mundus, the extensive faculty-student exchange program funded by the European Commission, these students will be going to Europe.
 

The students include those studying for their B.Tech., M.Tech. and M.B.A. degrees in Amrita. They will now complete part of their coursework in European Universities in Finland, France, Germany, Italy and Sweden.
 

The students will spend upto ten months at the host institution, taking classes in their respective disciplines and also participating in field and research projects. “The program is very popular among Amrita students,” stated Mr. Pradeep.
 

The program is popular with the faculty as well. Several faculty members will also accompany the students to the European universities, to work primarily on research projects in their areas of interest.
 

Dr. Ganesh Marimuthu, from ASE Coimbatore, for instance, will spend 18 months in Helsinki at the University of Technology researching Signal Processing Acoustics. Dr. E. P. Sumesh from the same Amrita department has already begun his work in Digital Signal Processing in the same university in Finland.    See News »
 

Scholarships funded by the European Commission for these students and faculty members range from 1000 euros to 2500 euros monthly. Travel and insurance allowances are also provided.
 

Other Indian universities participating in the program include Anna University (Chennai), Centre of Environmental Planning and Technology (Ahmedabad), IIT (Delhi), Indian Statistical Institute (Kolkata), Jadavpur University, Kakatiya University and University of Pune.
 

“Earlier this year, we conducted a symposium bringing together all students and faculty members who are heading to Europe this year as well as those who availed of the program last year,” informed Mr. Pradeep.   See News »
 

“Nearly 60 students and faculty members went to Europe from Amrita during the academic year 2008-09.”