Coventry University has worked closely with global technology giant Infosys during the last 3 years to design and develop a suite of bespoke postgraduate programmes; namely MBA Engineering Management, MTech Mechanical Engineering and MTech Computer Science.

On 27th March, the first cohort of Infosys employees from these courses attended a graduation ceremony held at the Infosys headquarters, Bangalore. The graduation ceremony was presided over by Binod Hampapur Ranagdore, Senior Vice President, Head of Talent Acquisition and Fulfillment Function and member of the Chairman’s Office, and Srikantan (Tan) Moorthy, Senior Vice President & Group Head, Human Resources. Dedicated staff from the Education, Training and Assessment team at Infosys were also in attendance. Representation from Coventry University included Deputy Vice Chancellor, Professor Ian Marshall, and Associate Dean for the Faculty of Engineering and Computing, Ray Farmer, both of whom flew out especially for the celebratory event.

Back in 2011, Infosys asked Coventry University to provide a suite of bespoke postgraduate programmes for its employees, helping Infosys to build a talent pool with the requisite competencies to help realise the company’s goals.

Infosys had nominated Prof K.N.S Acharya – Associate Vice President & Head of Engineering Academy who was instrumental in establishing this collaboration to lead and operationalize the programme. Mr KVRS Sarma and Mr Victor Sundararaj were nominated as programme managers and Sumana YS as the programme administrator. Ms Claire Butler and course directors provided the governance support from the University to successfully manage the collaboration.

Each of the 3 programmes developed was based on the company’s skills agenda and core business needs, with tutor-led learning supplemented by work-based activities, thus ensuring the curriculum offered had direct application in the workplace and could yield return on investment for Infosys. A new award – Master of Technology – was introduced exclusively for the programmes offered to Infosys employees, in recognition of this innovative form of applied education.

Coventry University academics flew out to teach Senior Technicians and Software Development Personnel at Infosys sites across India. Each module was delivered simultaneously at two separate company locations using of video conferencing technology and supplemented by self-study using online content and lecture recordings.

In addition, nominated Infosys staff were mentored to become approved delivery staff in accordance with QAA standards. Certificates of recognition were given to delivery and supervisory staff at a separate event, applauding their efforts in a truly collaborative degree programme.

Binod Hampapur Ranagdore, Senior Vice President, Head of Talent Acquisition and Fulfillment Function, and member of the Chairman’s Office congratulated the employees and their families on this occasion, and asked for suggestions from employees to improve the program further. He also assured the employees that opportunities will be provided to put the knowledge into use.

Tan Moorthy, Infosys Senior Vice President and Group Head, Human Resources, said: “The CU-Infosys collaboration towards offering Master’s Degree Programmes for Infosys employees has been a very unique initiative and the first of its kind. The expansion of the programme to six delivery centres is in itself a testimonial to the popularity of the model and the programme amongst our employees. Our employees undergoing this programme have been exposed to world class applied education which has provided enhanced competence to face the new business challenges. We expect these employees to use their learning in their jobs to add more value to our clients and our business.”

Ray Farmer, Associate Dean for the Faculty of Engineering and Computing at Coventry University, said: “Our continuing professional development collaboration with Infosys grows from strength to strength with the delivery of bespoke postgraduate programmes having now extended to six company sites across India. The partnership reflects the internationalisation of our curriculum and ensures that it remains pertinent to the contemporary skills agenda. I was delighted to present the first cohort of graduates from the bespoke Infosys programmes with their awards. The programmes have received an excellent level of student satisfaction and this is down to the hard work of staff and students alike. I wish them all the best of luck as they take their learning and apply it in their future careers.”

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