By Mohammed Shafeeq (15:34)
Hyderabad, Nov 19 (IANS) From Indian bureaucrats to
executives from as many as 87 countries around the world, when it comes
to gaining proficiency in English, it is not England they go to but
India.
Indian defence personnel to Indian Foreign Service
(IFS) probationers, corporate executives and government officials from
non-English speaking countries, they all look to English and Foreign
Languages University (EFLU) to learn or hone their language skills. The
unique university caters to ministers, bureaucrats, doctors, engineers
and others from different parts of the world not just graduate and
post-graduate courses in English but also 11 foreign languages.
"Every
year about 400 executives from the countries right from Bhutan to
Brazil come here for English proficiency under ITEC (Indian Technical
and Economic Cooperation) programme," EFLU Vice-Chancellor Sunaina Singh
told IANS in an interview.
"These are extension services apart
from regular courses. We are completely nationalistic in our approach.
As Indian experts on English, we train foreign citizens who come to us.
They don't just learn English but also learn culture and go back as
ambassadors of India," she said.
Under a new initiative, EFLU
through the Ministry of External Affairs established Centres for English
Language Training (CELTs) in Sri Lanka and ASEAN countries like Laos,
Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam.
"We are going to set up soon more
such centres in five African countries - Sudan, Djibouti, Central Asian
Republic, Togo and Mauritania," she told IANS.
The university
engaged in research, training and teaching English language, foreign
languages and their literatures, linguistics, interdisciplinary and
cultural studies is uniquely placed at national and international
levels.
Only one of its kind in South Asia, it has its main
campus here while two campuses are located at Lucknow and Shillong.
Students from neighbouring countries come here through the Indian
Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).
EFLU offers a range of
short-term, self-financed and need-based vocational courses in addition
to MA, Ph.D. programmes for on-campus students and also diploma and
distance courses.
The university today teaches about 11 foreign
languages - German, French, Russian, Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Persian,
Turkish, Japanese, Chinese and Korean. It plans to add the Norwegian
language.
Its foreign languages courses, both regular and diploma
or certificate courses, are in great demand from engineers, executives
and others seeking proficiency in these languages. EFLU is the only
university after Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to teach maximum
number of foreign languages.
The specialised university has an
inter-disciplinary school, which teaches philosophy and culture and has a
Hindi department and also Sanskrit. "We do slightly other things than
just teaching language. We do languages and we do their cultures because
languages are born out of cultures," said the VC, who earlier headed
the department of English at Osmania University.
Under EFLU's cafeteria model, students enrolling for MA programmes in English can pick and choose the courses they want.
A
brainchild of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, it was
born in 1958 as Central Institute of English (CIE) to train Indians in
teaching of English. It became Central Institute of English and Foreign
Languages (CIEFL) in 1972 when foreign languages were added.
Growing
beyond just a training institute, CIEFL in 2000 began to offer M.A.
programmes in English literature, English language teaching, cultural
studies, linguistics and phonetics, and media and communication.
"We
are a young university with rich history. We became a deemed university
in 1973 and we became a central university in 2007. Our graph has been
going up all the time," said Sunaina, who completed two-and-a-half years
as the vice-chancellor.
She believes EFLU has a bright future as
the importance of humanities has multiplied over a period of time. "It
is more relevant today, and tomorrow it is going to be further more
relevant because languages and humanities are foundations of any
knowledge period," said Sunaina, a PhD in comparative literature.
EFLU
has linkages with 22 universities, most of them European and some
American. They have student and faculty exchange programmes. "We are
trying to do some joint courses and joint research programmes and work
on new areas."
The university today has 2,500 on-campus students while there are 1,500 more under distance and other programmes.
As
the number of students increased by four times after EFLU became a
central university, the biggest challenge faced by the VC is to augment
the infrastructure.
Taking over the reins when the university was
beset with problems like corruption, politics and caste factor, she
claims to have turned around the institution by enforcing discipline and
ensuring accountability and transparency.
(Mohammed Shafeeq can be contacted at m.shafeeq@ians.in)