M. BALAJI

Students look at an aircraft at the National Seminar on Aerospace Structures, at Park College of Engineering and Technology in Kaniyur, in 2007.

THE Coimbatore region has eight universities – Bharathiar University, Anna University-Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and five deemed-to-be universities. About 40 new engineering colleges are to begin courses from the academic year 2009-10.

With the region having the largest concentration of textile-related activity in India, the Union Ministry of Textiles established the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Institute of Textile Management (SVPITM) in Coimbatore in 2004. Prof. S.R. Pujar, its Director, called it “the first and the only premier institution at the national level” of its kind.

The SVPITM offers a full-time two-year postgraduate diploma, equivalent to an MBA programme, for textile professionals. It conducts development programmes for National Textile Corporation employees and offers consultancy services on textile management to small and medium industries. The Union Ministry of Textiles has approved the SVPITM as a nodal centre for upgradation of textile education. “Since this is an autonomous institute, it can design curriculum to suit the trends and developments in the industry,” Pujar said.

The Park Group of institutions is a mini-empire today, comprising engineering colleges, an arts and science college, a polytechnic, a business school, a college of physiotherapy, a teacher training institute, a school of aeronautical sciences, a college of physiotherapy, and a school of architecture. The group had its genesis when P.V. Ravi set up Prema Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Tirupur in 1970.

According to Anusha R. Mahesh, chief executive, Park Group, it was her father Ravi who set up the first self-financed polytechnic. The aim was to provide technical education to students who could not afford graduate engineering programmes.

The Park College of Engineering and Technology is renowned for its aeronautical engineering programmes. There is also a Park School of Aeronautical Sciences with a course in aircraft maintenance engineering and a pilot training programme functioning since 2008.

Park Global School of Business Excellence has a tie-up with the University of Missouri-St. Louis, United States.

T.S. Subramanian