Keralites welcome NRK university proposal

A prominent Indian businessman has called upon the Keralite expatriate community in the Gulf to join hands to establish a NRK (non-resident Keralite) university in the state for the higher education of their children.
“I have already presented a proposal to Chief Minister Oommen Chandy to establish the university, and he has shown special interest in the project,” said Siddeek Ahmed, an Alkhobar-based industrialist.
Addressing community leaders in Jeddah after receiving the Valapra Muhammad Kunhi Memorial Award, the Eram Group chairman urged his compatriots to work together with unity to protect their rights.
Ahmed said he was honored to receive the Valapra award instituted by the Jeddah chapter of OICC, an offshoot of India’s ruling Congress Party. He dedicated the award to his mother, brothers and coworkers.
Pappatta Kunhi Muhammad, a member of OICC's national committee, said his organization gave the award to Ahmed considering his multifarious humanitarian services to the community. Eram Group employs more than 10,000 Indians in India and abroad.
In his acceptance speech, Ahmed emphasized the importance of a university to get easy admission for NRK students to pursue professional courses.
“At present, we spend millions to get admission for our children in Indian universities. If we join hands, I think we can realize this dream in the near future,” Ahmed said and pledged his full support to the project.
Many Keralite expatriates have welcomed Ahmed's proposal and said it would bring about qualitative improvement in their children's education. “It’s the need of the hour,” said Ismail Maritheri of King Abdulaziz University.
Speaking to Arab News, he said the NRK university would benefit millions of Keralite students in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries. He said the proposed university should provide world-class education offering post-graduate courses and research facilities.
“I strongly believe that it would be a highly successful venture, given the expertise and wide contacts of NRKs in the Gulf, the US and Europe,” he pointed out. The NRK university should be able to produce globally competent graduates, he added.
Maritheri said non-resident Keralites, whose contribution to the Kerala state is seven times more than that of the central government, deserve such a university to facilitate education of their children.
“NRK remittances were 1.74 times the revenue receipts of the state, 1.8 times the annual expenditure of the Kerala government, and seven times of what the state received from the Central government,” Maritheri said quoting a study. Their remittances in 2003 reached 184.65 billion rupees or 22 percent of the net state domestic product.
He also called for opening off-campus centers of Indian universities in the Kingdom. “I am sure many Saudis will be interested to study at these centers, and it will make a profitable venture.”
Maritheri stressed that the new university should be established in the Malabar area — either in Malappuram or Calicut — where people are educationally backward, adding that all its courses including engineering, science and humanities should be made available in one campus.
K.T.A. Muneer, a senior official of the Overseas Indian Cultural Congress (OICC), urged the central and state governments to sanction the NRK university project as quickly as possible. “NRK students in the Gulf face a lot of problems in pursuing higher education. The proposed university offers a good solution to this problem,” he added.
Muneer indicated that some parents pay up to 10 million rupees (SR 700,000) to get their children admitted to medical and engineering colleges. “I believe that we can easily establish this university, as there are about three million NRKs in the Gulf,” he added.
Many NRK students go to higher education centers in Bahrain, Dubai and Qatar or universities outside Kerala.
“NRI students have to pay thrice the fees charged from other students. The new university project will help reduce our financial burden,” said Pathuthara Ayyoob, a social worker, adding that the university should aim at providing quality education.