The Universities of Dundee and St Andrews have been leading the field in their willingness to develop collaborative degrees under the Promoting Partnership Initiative (PPI) the result of which is the PPI degree in Microelectronics and Photonics.
These new degrees hold considerable promise as they address an industrial growth area in Scotland. As awareness of the course is growing, so are student numbers, from just one student last year to eight entrant students this session.
Using major funding from Scottish Enterprise it has been possible to award bursaries of £6000 to eight of the entrants, which will be paid in annual installments.
The students recently attended the annual Bursary Awards Ceremony in Lower College Hall, St Andrews, and received their cheques from the Principal of St Andrews University.
Also in attendance were Mr Ralph Harrison from Scottish Enterprise Tayside and the Course Co-ordinators from Dundee and St Andrews, Dr Bruce Sinclair and Mr Brian Lawrenson.
In their first year the students on this joint degree course attend courses in St Andrews before transferring to Dundee to study microelectronics in their second year. This pattern is repeated with level three spent in St Andrews, and level four in Dundee. The optional fifth (MEng) year is spent with study at both sites. Although the joint-degree students study alongside single-site students, the Microelectronics and Photonics students will meet together regularly so as to emphasise the relevance of the individual modules to the degrees, and the commitment of the university partnership that has made them possible.