NRIs in UAE to open two colleges in Kerala; offer scholarships to needy students

P K Ashokan, Chairman, Vidya International Charitable Trust (VICT), a collaborative effort of overseas Keralites in the Gulf, said an engineering and technical college under the trust will open at Kilimanoor near Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala. Admissions for the new academic year will start next month.

 

VICT, which does not charge capitation fees from students, is using half of the income generated from its existing engineering college to give scholarships to the meritorious and needy students. Yet, VICT is earning a profit, the trustees said in Dubai.

Many self-financing engineering and medical colleges in Kerala charge huge sums of money as capitation fees from students, especially NRI students.

 

“At present we have more than 1,000 like-minded members, who believe that they should contribute to a noble cause in their homeland, without expecting anything in return, simply for the joy of giving,” the chairman said. “In the first year, we could give scholarships to only 12 students, later it was increased to 75 and the number kept growing,” he said.

“It was in 1999 that a group of philanthropic Keralites living in the UAE met and decided to do something. We thought of providing higher education to Kerala’s youth that will help them find jobs. A trust was formed in December 2000 which now has more than 1000 members from all over the world,” said B Sree Kumar, joint secretary of the trust.

 

“The new college at Kilimanoor is the second engineering college under Vidya International Charitable Trust. The first college started by the group is doing well despite giving generous scholarships,” he said.

 

“Our business model is not only to make profit but to give back something to the society. We are distributing scholarships worth Rs1.5 million a year to 20 per cent of the total number of our students,” he added.

 

The Kilimanoor campus will offer engineering courses in four streams and admit about 240 students. It will offer courses in mechanical, civil, electronics and electrical and electronics and communication engineering.

 

Vidya Academy of Science and Technology, Thalakottukara in Trichur was the first institute formed under the trust in 2003 on 23 hectares of land. Currently 840 students enrol every year in the academy for seven undergraduate and four post graduate courses.

 

The trust also plans to start short term courses using the available infrastructure of the engineering colleges to train people for technical jobs in India or abroad, especially to the Middle East.

 

“Fees for the management and government quotas will be same. Ten per cent of the management quota seats are devoted for full free scholarships, for meritorious socially and economically backward students. The scholarship includes free fees waiver, free accommodation and food. In addition, five per cent of the government quota seats also get scholarships. Any student coming in the top 5000 rank list of the state government will get full fee waiver and for those who get listed from 5,000 to 10,000 will get half fee waiver,” said Sabu Soumyan, another official from VICT.

 

The trust also operates two district training centres to provide training for entrance examinations.