Beyond Science & Engineering

Off-beat courses: Curatorial Science, wine making, more

Until 2006 Karan Kumar was a dance aficionado with a zest for life who would bear no more than a customary Bachelor’s at Delhi University. The “mundane nature” of the BA course, he now believes, may have added fuel to his passion for dance and choreography, and helped him find his vocation.

He had by that time plunged wholeheartedly into learning Indian contemporary and Chhau dances, which were available locally and conveniently. Karan’s big break came in 2008 when he got a chance to take up a one-year course in Ballet and Contemporary Jazz at Broadway Dance Centre, New York, under the International Students Visa Programme.

“It was an incredibly exciting opportunity that allowed me to learn dance from the best teachers in the world and to transform my personality,” says Karan.

Located in the Broadway Theater District in New York City, the Centre offers education and training in a wide range of dance disciplines - Ballet, Lyrical Jazz, Contemporary Jazz, Hip-Hop, Pilates, Yoga, to name a few - to students coming from across the globe.

By the time Karan finished his course and returned home, he had enough confidence to start working on setting up his own dance school in Delhi. He is now the Director and core member of the faculty at Big Dance Centre, which is located inside a shopping mall at Rohini in North-West Delhi and offers an array of dance courses to another breed of youngsters seeking to jazz up their lives.

Karan’s experience also fits neatly into a trend: a growing number of Indian students are moving abroad to enrol on courses that represent a clear break from the conventional programmes dominated by the trinity of engineering, medicine and management.

These are courses that take you off the beaten track, require, to some extent, an attitude towards academics that not many Indian students exhibit, and yet have the potential to make a mark in a lovely career.

Why abroad?

The dynamics of Indian education and job market has been such that students receive very little encouragement to go beyond a narrow range of courses of study. It is inherent in the system from senior secondary school to higher education to push students into one of the three streams of science, commerce and humanities. There is little scope to introduce courses that go beyond these domains and address the changing requirements of the younger generation. Going abroad thus becomes an important option.

Now large numbers of parents with increasing global exposure understand that when you study abroad you have opportunity to explore an exciting world of education in which India still lags behind. India’s fast growing economy, on the other hand, has diversified and enriched the job market for those who take up non-conventional or niche courses,” says Shivani Manchanda, Director, Career Track, an educational consultancy firm based in Mumbai.

Studying an off-beat course overseas is, however, just a part of the story. The overall experience includes getting exposed to a different cultural and social milieu, which provides a context and relevance to a course. Indian students generally expect this experience to endow them with new ideas, perspectives and belief systems that will give them an edge in the job market back home or the creative energy to start their own businesses.

Leisure and Sports

The Internet has fired the imagination of young Indians curious about the things that people across the world like to do to in their leisure time. The next logical step for them could well be an experience of the leisure activities they fancy and formally learning about them. Shravan Reddy, for instance, went on a few adventure sport expeditions with his friends before realizing that he could actually get trained in things like mountaineering, paddling, kayaking as also the entire business of adventure tourism. University of the Fraser Valley, Canada, has exactly such a course. A bit of coaxing persuaded his parents to let him go to do the one-year certificate programme in adventure sports and tourism in Canada. “I am satisfied that I chose to follow my passion and study a subject that was just so much fun. I plan to start my adventure tourism company and am working on the logistics,” says Shravan.

Australia is another country that offers numerous Bachelor’s and Master’s courses in subjects related to sports. University of Western Australia, for instance, has a Bachelor’s degree in Exercise Rehabilitation Science and Edith Cowan University offers a Master’s in Sports Science with options to do research in Exercise Physiology, Sports Psychology or Biomechanics. “Over the last few years we have seen a steady rise of students having a knack for exciting and fresh courses in Sports Science, Psychology and Exercise Rehabilitation offered in countries like Australia, Canada and New Zealand, among others” says S. Nagarajan, Business Development Manager at Ahmedabad-based Rao Overseas Consultancy.

More Indians are travelling abroad than ever before, and experiencing hitherto unfamiliar cultures, societies and economic opportunities. Some of them also see value in importing ideas. “Apart from courses on professional wine-making for enthusiasts, there are formal degrees and diplomas in wine-making that have generated interest among the Indian students. Another very exotic course that has recently caught our eye is casino management,” says Sushil Sukhwani, Director of Edwise Overseas Education Consultant.

For Eva Ningjoutham, who hails from Mizoram and completed her schooling at Bangalore, a B.Sc in Gaming and Hospitality Management at University of Macau looked more exciting than doing a simple Bachelor’s in Hospitality Management at home. Eva moved to Macau in 2010 after leaving school. “Gaming and hospitality is a dynamic course instead of a mundane degree. Students can take advantage of the numerous casinos and resorts in Macau. We learn the same thing as other business courses as well as gaming management, logic, and probability,” she says.

Creative Media

Universities across the world have ever greater offerings in the domain of creative media, art and culture, partly because employers, particularly in ‘creative’ industries like digital media, animation and advertising, seem to have developed a better appreciation of artistic talents and aesthetic taste of their employees. So for the students set to go abroad, courses in Digital Media and Animation, Creative Writing, Drama and Theatre studies have growing appeal. Sub-domain specialisation has become the buzzword in studying abroad, according to the education counsellors at the Chopras Overseas Education Consultancy.

With a spurt of interest in filmmaking, screen-writing and shooting documentaries, USA now offers a range of courses in filmmaking and its technicalities. Universities in France have witnessed a rise in demand for experimental and exclusive courses in the area of Fashion and Lifestyle. There are also Indian students who go abroad to study curatorial studies in the Netherlands or shoe-making in Italy.

“As the economic scenario in the country changes, it becomes easier for students to start their entrepreneurship ventures. For instance, a person who has chosen to take up a course in Pet Grooming abroad has ample opportunities to establish his own animal parlour,” adds Manchanda.

Environmental causes

Most of the young Indians with basic education are plugged into the great debates surrounding the earth’s environment, be it over climate change or the growing frequency of natural disasters. That explains increasing uptake for courses in Environmental Impact Assessment, Carbon Management and Environmental Economics at foreign institutions, as also the fact that institutions in India have yet to offer a diversified range of options under environmental studies. Vayshnavi, for example, chose to pursue a Master’s in Carbon Management from University of Edinburgh after doing English Literature in India. She feels that her interest in environmental studies would not have been satiated with the choices available in India.

As more Indian students move abroad, it’s only natural for them to explore deep and wide. So the range of exotic courses is wide for them. Who knows what will catch their fancy tomorrow?