VIJAYAWADA: The higher education department of the State signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Wright State University, Ohio, US, here on Friday. Addressing a press conference, human resource development (HRD) minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao said that as part of the agreement, students from the State who are keen on pursuing masters in engineering and pharma courses at Wright State, will be given 75 per cent fee exemption. Under the MoU, around `2 to 4 lakh fee exemption per annum will be given to each student and overall `40 to 45 crore will be saved on 4,000 students. As per the university’s norms, each foreign student has to pay $14,676 as fee per annum.
As per the agreement, students from the State will have to pay $8,800. Residents of Ohio pay $7,388 per annum for the courses. A screening committee will be appointed shortly by the higher education department and representatives from Wright State to start the admissions process. A team of officials from the higher education department will visit the US University soon, he said.
“Three educational cities will be developed in Visakhapatnam, Amaravati and Tirupati, where KG to PG education will be offered to students. Till date, the government allocated 3,408 acres of land for various educational institutions in the State. In this regard, `640 crore was sanctioned by the government to improve the basic infrastructure of universities,” Srinivasa Rao said.
Disclosing details of various universities coming up in the State, the minister said measures had been taken to improve infrastructure facilities at seven major varsities in the State. Regarding the establishment of Central University and Girijan University in the State, he said that the Union HRD ministry had already decided to establish a central university at Anantapur.