Brainstorming on PG Accrediation for FECT

Here for some blue-sky brainstorming internally - this is what happens when you are overseas - here are some thoughts about a direction we could go - these are early thoughts - only engage with this if you want to.

Just to brainstorm about providing PG degrees through FECT as has been done by SLINTEC - which is similar to FECT in structure.

http://slintecacademy.lk/


I see that SLINTEC has registered to give mphil degrees - it is also private org so dont see why FECT cannot - at some future date. This is a more accessible option than

SLINTEC is going for Nanotech - and we can go for the Climate and Environment and Impacts fields - of course these are not just physics - but also applied areas such as health and ag and social science areas - to begin with. 

Rather than start with undergraduate degrees, where there is lot of competition in SL  - we could start with higher research based degrees.

Internationally, BRAC, TERI, and a few other orgs have started out in this way. And there are good Univ's Johns Hopkins and Rockefeller which originated like this.

Of course, this is a multi-year project and it shall require that we line up a lot of support - which I am confident we can - from local and expat scientists, local institutions,  international orgs and scientific bodies. The question is whether we can do this in small chunks at a time, whether we can have small cohort of students, and whether we can find someone to coordinate this effort with the rest of us doing the rest.  

Am writing for any feedback - you can take your time over this -  pl send to me  and I shall compile.

Cons
- lot of work to get permissions and passage
- shall take a lot of time
- may distract from research
- shall need dedicated staff
- shall need to plan for bigger space
- dont know whether we can pull this off

Pros
- shall be beneficial to some staff present and the future
- we can give people an alternative to going for substandard PG degrees locally
- we may be able to have a bigger impact on the environment field
- deeper capacity building
-  can have long term impact


if  we are positive about it, we should make the plans, recruit a coordinator and get the approvals - these usually take months if not years.

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