Laurels Centre for Global Education now official examination centre for IIT Madras BS Course in Data Science

TDT | Manama                                                             

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Laurels Centre for Global Education, a prominent educational institution in the Kingdom, is now the official examination centre for BS Course in Data Science, conducted by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras. The examination centre for the programme was officially inaugurated by the Indian Ambassador to the Kingdom, Piyush Srivastava, during an online event held yesterday, in which Abdul Jaleel Abdulla, Director, Laurels Centre for Global Education, Prof Pratap Haridas, Dean of Academic Courses at IIT Madras and Prof Vignesh Muthuvijayan, Coordinator of IIT Madras BS Programme, attended.

Speaking at the online session, Mr Srivastava, an alumnus of IIT Kanpur, said the development is a key milestone in furthering the educational cooperation between both nations. “This is a great initiative as India is well-known for its higher education systems. I wish this wonderful initiative a great success.

I am hopeful that more Indian institutes of reputes will open their centres in the Kingdom, promoting academic and research cooperation.” Laurels Director Abdul Jaleel Abdulla said it is a great privilege for his institute to be able to partner with IIT Madras.

“Bahrain is a leader in the education sector in the region and we are happy to be further contributing towards quality education. We have successfully conducted many exams at our centre including the JEE, offering opportunity for students in the Kingdom to take part without travelling to India.” Prof Pratap Haridas, Dean (Academic Courses) at IIT Madras, said the programme is being run with a different philosophy.

“IIT Madras has been trying to break supply-demand barrier in the field of quality education. Students can directly join the programme and appear for an exam after one month, which is qualifying in nature. The exam will be held for the subjects mathematics, English, statistics and computational thinking. “Any student who secures 50 per cent will be allowed to continue the course.

Upon completion of the first year, students get foundational certificate; second year they earn the diploma, third year BSc and the fourth year BS degree. There will be online record sessions and online live sessions. This is basically a democratization of the education process.”

Prof Vignesh Muthuvijayan, Coordinator for the programme at IIT Madras, said anyone who has studied mathematics and English at Class X level can pursue the programme. “The qualifier application is currently open. We will be making sure that the quality and rigor is not compromised as it is a course conducted by highly reputed institution. This is a highly skill-oriented programme, which involves a lot of hands on training.” He added that IIT Madras will be providing placement support to final years students of the programme. As of now, students from 25 countries are pursuing the programme. Around 1500 people attended the live event.