Govt clears decks for setting up country's first maritime university

MUMBAI: The ministry of shipping has cleared the ground for setting up a maritime university in the country. The ‘Indian Institute of Maritime Studies’ — which will include the four existing government-run maritime institutes — ‘Lalbahadur Shastri Nautical College’, two `Marine Engineering Research Institutes’ and ‘TS Chanakya’.
“Maritime education in India will undergo a sea change once the maritime university comes into existence. The whole idea is to enhance quality of Indian seafarers,� said a senior official from the director-general of Shipping.
The shipping ministry plans to turn it into a world-class university over the next couple of years. Indian Maritime University, as it is called, will bring in all 120 private sector institutes into its fold, and streamline the about 70 courses now available,� said the official.
A ministry official said IIMS will run all maritime post-graduate, doctorate and executive courses. The government is now looking at foreign affiliations, approved by International Maritime Organisation.
The government’s Maritime Training Institute in Mumbai is already recognised as the Asian centre for running World Maritime University (WMU)’s courses and examinations, said the official.
The ministry wants the IMU to be rated among the best maritime institutes in the world — on par with the World Maritime University (Sweden), the International Maritime Training Institute (Italy) and the International Institute for Maritime Law at Malta.
IIMS’s management will be entrusted to an expert body of 19 directors chosen from industry, government and maritime institutions. All assets, owned by the four government institutes, would be transferred to IIMS, said the official.
“IIMS will aim to improve the quality of maritime education in India with high levels of standardisation and minimal government control. This will help India supply the best seafaring talent to the maritime world,� said the official.
Over the past few years, DG-Shipping, a monitoring body for educational institutes, has adopted stringent terms and conditions, which, many think, are stricter than the current IMO stipulations.
Many institutes mushroomed during mid-90s, but all fell by the wayside, with quality institutes filling the gap. DG-Shipping officials spring surprise checks, and routinely disqualify institutes that are found unsatisfactory.
India has recently earned a bad reputation for providing sub-standard manpower. Despite having great potential to provide quality seafarers, it supplied a total of 22,000 ratings and officers, accounting for a meagre 2% of the world ship crew market compared with the 200,000 by the Philippines.
The Bimco report on manpower predicted a shortage of 33,000 officers by ’05 and 46,000 by ’10. Early this year, a high-level Bimco delegation met Union shipping minister Ved Prakash Goyal and said the industry needed more Indian maritime officers to bridge the growing gap between demand and supply.
“IIMS would aim at increasing India’s share in the global manning market,� said the ministry official.