Hyderabad, June 5 - Georgia Institute of Technology of the US Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Andhra Pradesh for setting up its international campus in Hyderabad, to be operational in 2009.</p>
<p>It will become the first foreign university to set up its full-fledged campus and offer foreign degrees in India.</p>
<p>Georgia Tech plans to set up an extension unit in the coastal city of Visakhapatnam.</p>
<p>The state government will allot 20 acres of land in Hyderabad and 470 acres of land in Visakhapatnam for developing and expanding the campus.</p>
<p>The MoU was signed by Gary B. Schuster, chief academic officer of Georgia Tech, and Venkatramana, principal secretary of higher education, Andhra Pradesh, in the presence of Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.</p>
<p>C.S. Rao, advisor (information technology and communications) to the state government, said that the Georgia Tech campus here will become operational from the academic year 2009.</p>
<p>Georgia Tech will spend about $10 million a year initially for developing the campus.</p>
<p>Schuster said opening the campus in India was part of the globalisation process and the university found the country an attractive destination given the fact that many big companies were basing their operations here and IBM had the second largest strength of its employee in India.</p>
<p>He pointed out that Georgia Tech already had international presence as it had operations in Ireland, France, China and Singapore.</p>
<p>The chief minister said the university will offer courses in higher education which are presently not available in the country.</p>
<p>He pointed out that at present only 700 Ph.D. degree holders come out of the Indian universities while Georgia Tech alone will be producing 10 to 20 percent of them with in next few years.</p>
<p>Georgia Tech will offer MS degrees and Ph.D. programmes in engineering, science, management, business management and other academic streams.</p>
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