SNDT Women University, Mumbai (India) has launched a new programme, called 'mobile education', which is aiming to provide access to higher education for those who stay in the remotest part of Maharastra.
The pilot project would be launched on January 23, 2008 and initially train the candidates for examinations like GRE, CAT and other common entrance tests. The University will collaborate with several industry representatives for the programme like Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL). The University has signed several Memorandum of Understandings (MoU) with SUN Microsystems for collaboration with IT and related services and with INTEL for partnership in educational technology. The University has also joined its hands with HP Labs as research partners, ATOM technologies as development partners, IPTL as propagation partners and ADC Krone as infrastructure support. HP Labs (Bangalore) will set up an edu-centre or promotion of e-learning in technology-based courses, while the Pay Phone Welfare Association (PPWA) will provide the students with payphones in the absence of mobiles. The edu-centre will help students in developing projects by giving them facility for capturing , storing and editing, using multimedia in educational processes made available over LAN to students on an on-demand basis. Once the piloted project is launched, SNDT will also conduct a data search as to which courses or tests students would like to be trained in, particularly in remote and tribal areas, and accordingly design them. The University will also have fee structure for different courses but not for those students who are economically not well off.
