After I have written a post on GIS Courses India , there were many inquires about courses , colleges and private institues on GIS/RS in abroad. I am overwhelmed with such responses through blog comments and offline emails. I’m glad that many people want of information about colleges/Universities offering course in Ge0-information.
I have recieved decent number of queries on the universities in abroad (outside India) which offeres degress at master’s level. I would like to compile them and post. Though the information contained in the blog is not full fledged one. I request you to visit respective university web sites for additional information.
I’m going to list down couple of universities which I aware of
- The one and only exclusive university in the field of Geo-Informatics in ITC Netherlands. The world best university for perusing your masters in the field of GIS/RS. Morethan 50 years of in the field of GIS. Wide variety of degree/diplomo and research programmes on various levels. If you are from any background say agriculture to computer science you can persue your masters. Funding and aid is not difficult one if you are potential canditate. They have partnership with several other academic institues and industry. ITC has tie-up with IIRS India. I strongly recommend this university if you are keen in persuing your master degree in core Geospatial and earth science. Visit their official web site for further details http://www.itc.nl/default.asp . Netherland is good country to live in.
- University of Glamorgan -http://www.comp.glam.ac.uk/gis/start/welcome.htm
- University of Nottinham – Centre for Geospatial Science
- University of Redlands- http://www.institute.redlands.edu/msgis/
- Leeds University- Department of Geography -http://www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/odl/
- University of Salzburg, Germany
- University of Zurich, Switzerland-http://www.geo.uzh.ch/en/units/gis/
If you Google you can find n number of universities and colleges offering degree and diplomo in GIS. The list of universities available in this link http://spatialnews.geocomm.com/education/links/other.html.
If you are indian student aspire to persue your higher studies ( M.S/PhD) in abroad (other than India) universities, here is my few points.
Most of the foreign universities will intake student with minimum qualification of undergraduate in Science or Geospatial Engineering. If you are graduate in M.Sc or M.Tech in Earth Science or allied branches (Environmental/Civil/Agriculture/Computer Science) then you can apply for higher studies. Admission procedure for US, UK and other European countries are different and varies from university to university.
For example, if you desired to pursue your MS/PhD in US then you need to prepare one year before the academic year. Most universities in the U.S. accept applications only two times in a calendar year for the Fall [between August and September and ends in late December or early January] and the Spring [starts in January and ends in May] semesters of the academic year. Please beware, some universities only entertain applications for the Fall semester.
Mostly almost all top colleges/Universities require good GRE and TOEFL scores. You should have good academic records, suitable research work/thesis should be carried out in your curriculum, need good recommendation from professors/scientist and finally you need to show the financial background in case if you have not gained aid/scholarship. Mostly all universities will provide you scholarship and waive off tuition fees (some % or fully) to potential candidate, who is high profile having experience in research work with International Publications in Journal etc.
How to apply:
1. First list down the list of universities country wise which is offering degree in Geospatial and rank them based on their profile, reputation etc. There are several web sites to guide for current ranking.
Key : Eg. Web sites www.FindaPhd.com is site where you can find list of vacancies. While doing search always use key word as “Studentship”, this will return good results.
2. Browse the each university web site and get the list of Professors, who were working on area which interests to you. Some one might interested in Remote sensing, Photogrammetry and other choice might be application of GIS in Environmental/Agriculture etc. So narrow down the list of professors who working on your field of interest.
3. Write a succinct email to the identified professor(s) with CV attached. Note, your email should indicate your expression of interest in field of research and why you have chosen the particular university and prof along with brief description of the carrier records. Do not expect the response in a day or two, every one in the world is busy and occupied with their work. Mostly 70-80% chance of getting reply with acknowledgement. If the concerned professor shows interest in your candidature, try to get more details regarding research work which they work upon, chance of getting admission , aid and procedure to apply etc. Contacting professor will be an added advantage during selection process.
4. Prepare of qualification exams like GRE/TOFEL etc during your final year/semester of the graduation. I have many students who have good academic records and research background but their inadequate scores in these exams becomes major pain point in admission. Note: The good/high scores is MUST for getting aid/scholarship.
5. Regarding funding, I always strongly advise to NOT to accept the admission unless your scholarship is FULLY granted with waive of tuition fees. This is particular for US, it will be difficult to survive there with own cost unless you were rich enough to pay for yourself.
6. Not only good university rank or professor is factor in admission, you need to consider Climate of the country, language and other factors are VERY crucial on the deciding factor.
7. Try to learn their language in advance before you land in country other than US.
These are points which came in my mind while writing this post. I will try to update with more information. I hope this post might little help to you.
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