PIM's 'blended learning' MPA for North and East

Fourteen senior academics from Jaffna, Vavuniya and Trincomalee, converged in Colombo recently for the preliminary discussions with their counterparts at the Postgraduate Institute of Management, (PIM) on the setting up of the Group Learning Centres through which the Masters Degree in Public Administration (MPA) of the PIM will be conducted in their areas for 2012/13.

The newly styled MPA programme, based on the unique system known as 'blended learning' was first launched in 2010 and was successfully concluded this year.

The PIM, is set to embark on its second course 2012/13 conducted on this same system 'blended learning' where course lectures are delivered through a combination of distance education and 'face to face' interaction.

With the launching of this second course next year, the PIM will spread its 'blended learning' system to the North and East.

The lectures in the regions will be conducted through video conferencing from the PIM, in Colombo, to maintain uniformity of standards.

The course work and assessment systems will be designed in Colombo.

The 2012/13 course will be the first to introduce the PIM's MPA to be conducted through the North East Regional Centres.

The Group Learning Centres will mostly facilitate group and sub-group interactions among students to promote analytical thinking and communication skills prompted by academics, who will be tasked to perform the function in the respective regions as the course facilitators.

In the new batch selected by the PIM for its MPA programme 2012/13, 67 out of 111 public servants are from the Northern and Eastern Provinces.