New Delhi: The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Gothenburg University, Sweden. The move is a step forward in setting up an Institute of Culinary Arts. V N Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice-Chancellor, IGNOU, said that there has been a rising demand for trained hospitality professionals, including chefs within the country.
Further, Mr. Pillai told that they will jointly collaborate in the areas of preserving traditional recipes and practices of cooking envisioning international standards of certification and quality in the various programmes offered. As per sources, Professor Ulf Hanning from Gothenburg University was the Chief Guest on the occasion.
Professor Ulf Hanning said that they shall be researching on and documenting the disappearing Indian cuisines from different parts of the country. In addition, he said that they shall also focus on Gastronomy and food processing. Moreover, sources told that the planned culinary institute will offer courses like diploma, Bachelors degrees, Master degrees of MBA type. In addition, PhD degrees as well as short-term courses for persons working already in the sector are also being offered.
Furthermore, sources informed that the degree programmes will include at least one semester of restaurant training at big restaurants and hotels or alternatively training at food processing companies. Sources told that Gothenburg University will help in consultancy services and expertise cum collaboration, in recruiting guest teachers, professors and experts in the field at hand. It will also assist in quality assessment. However, IGNOU will be mainly responsible for the delivery of courses.
