Experiences of the India/UK Regional Engineering College's project

The paper considers the India/UK Regional Engineering College's project, which was initiated with the aim to strengthen technical education in India, upgrade institutional management, strengthen industry links and improve teaching skills. The project commenced in April 1994 and ended in September 1999, with over pound10 million invested in the project. The project was targeted at eight of the Indian Regional Engineering Colleges (RECs) and has resulted in improvements to curriculum, infrastructure, staff development and encouraged entrepreneurship, better information for decision support, enhanced income generation capacity and increased involvement with industry. This paper considers the experiences from the design theme and, in particular, from one REC, Malaviya Regional Engineering College, now re-designated as Malaviya National Institute of Technology (MNIT). The relationships developed as a result of this project have resulted in continuing collaboration between the MNIT and Liverpool John Moores University (JMU), which led the design theme. The paper describes the initial project, experiences gained from some of the participants, and the current collaboration taking place between the JMU and the MNIT as a result of the project.