The University of Madras is all set to collaborate with the University of Passau, Germany, to conduct research in media and journalism and facilitate industry-academia partnership under the Erasmus+ project.

A European Union-funded project, it requires a formal agreement between the collaborating institutions. In the Erasmus programme, students from countries in the EU can travel to Germany, study a few semesters and earn credits. When the programme was extended worldwide, it was named Erasmus+, said Hellmann-Rajanayagam, former reader in Passau University’s Department of Southeast Asian Studies.

Under Erasmus+, the university departments collaborate, receive funds for staff exchange programmes for up to three months in foreign university and students can apply for a year of scholarship which can be extended as well, she said. A historian by education, she had helped establish an MoU with Madras University earlier. Her specialisation is in conflict studies in Sri Lanka and Myanmar.

Oliver Hann, professor of Journalism in Passau University, said: “It is fascinating that people find out after quite a long time what is really important. Editors and chiefs of news bureaus want the youth trained in technological advances in journalism. Survey with alumni says one year after terminating practical courses helped but after 10 years they say ‘I have to pay attention to social science, methodology, statistics because it is in the business.’ We have to do data journalism which is based on social sciences, and computational journalism, which is completely based on computer science. The industry does not have money and time for research. It is only universities that can do it.”

T.R. Gopalakrishnan, head of the Department of Journalism and Communication in Madras University, said: “The interest is in industry cooperation where journalists from Tamil Nadu can work in German media and those students can come and work here.”