Anna Univ to tie-up with EdTech firms to offer certificate courses

CHENNAI: In a move to upgrade the knowledge of youth and working professionals, the Anna University has decided to allow private EdTech firms to conduct various certificate courses of the institution.

Accordingly, the selected companies will take both online and physical classes as per the instruction of Anna University. The courses are likely to be in the fields of engineering, technology, applied sciences, humanities and management.

A senior professor at the university said the courses are expected to begin from December, this year, once the selection of firms is over.

“We will be selecting the educational firms, which have offered courses to a minimum of 1,000 candidates successfully in the last fiscal year,” he said adding the firms should have offered courses with one or more institutes ranked within top 50 by National Institutional Ranking Framework -- NIRF -- (2023).

The professor said after course allocation, the companies will finalise candidate’s eligibility criteria (including prerequisites) for a specific course in consultation with the course coordinator nominated by the university.

“The course fees would be derived by Anna University”, he said and added, “however, there will be partial waiver of course fee for a group of employees or students, sponsored by any organisation, subject to the approval of the university”.

Pointing out that the EdTech firms will maintain a well-trained course advisory team, who would interact with prospective candidates, address their questions and assist in enrolment and registration, he said “it would provide dashboard access to the University so that various stakeholders of the institution track the progress of the courses in real time”.

He said training will be given through virtual labs, simulation tools beside conducting examinations, based on the course.