Outsourcing education: Malaysian doctors will be made in Belgaum

While organisations are known to outsource IT projects and various works to other countries, here is a case you might not have heard of: University of Science Malaysia (USM) has outsourced the entire process of education to a medical college in Belgaum, which caters exclusively to students from the south-east Asian nation.

KLE Group of Institutions has set up a college on a 10-acre campus in Belgaum that imparts medical education exclusively to students from south-east Asian countries, mainly Malaysia. Prabhakar Kore, chairman of the group, told DNA that they started the college after USM approached them in this regard.

“We will provide good teaching along with infrastructure but the examination and curriculum is as per their (USM) syllabus,” Kore said.

He informed that USM would select the students. The five-year course, called MD, is different from Indian syllabus.

How it happened
Kore said USM wanted to start a college in Malaysia itself but could not do so because of various hurdles posed by local rules. He said Malaysia has few teachers for medical stream and hiring Indian teachers is not practical either because getting a local licence for it is tough.

Further, he said, even his group cannot set up a college there because of the rules.

However, he said the KLE Group could cater to the needs of the foreign students with their existing infrastructure in India. He said they have been getting students from other countries since 1965. Shifting his attention to the college that is being started in association with USM, he said from this academic year they would be getting 100 students in every batch.

About fees, Kore said it was not finalised yet and a call on it would be taken after considering expenditures on lab, faculty, building, hostel and other infrastructure.