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KOLKATA, Jan. 15

THE Union Government has decided, in principle, to set up a national maritime university.

Giving this information here on Tuesday, Mr D.T. Joseph, Director-General of Shipping, said the Government was yet to decide whether the proposed university would be residential or the affiliating type.

"Personally, I'm in favour of an affiliated varsity,'' Mr Joseph observed, while inaugurating a seminar on `Maritime Training & Education Beyond February 2002', organised by the Indian Institute of Port Management.

Citing the example of China where three maritime universities were doing excellent work, the DG Shipping said that it was high time several maritime training institutes which had mushroomed in the past few years to provide training as stipulated by STCW (Standards of Training, Certification and Watch-keeping), 1995, adopted proper maritime training and education programme.

The proper maritime training, as he felt, must not confine itself to providing such training as required for just issuing certificates of competence or CDCs.

"The training has to be broad-based so that the knowledge acquired through training could also be utilised for non-maritime purposes,'' he said.

The decision to close down three training institutes was unfortunate. "The country must be ready with trained human resources to take advantage of the spurt in the world demand for such personnel at any point of time,'' he observed.

Mr Joseph said that the present state of the examination and certification system for the seafarers left much to be desired. ``We are in the process of streamlining the system, but it will take some time,'' he said.

Since the scope and extent of maritime education and training was not uniform all over the world and with more and more vessels being manned by crew drawn from different countries, a need was felt to lay down certain basic standards of education and training to be internationally acceptable. Accordingly, the International Maritime Organisation formulated the STCW in 1978 that were revised in 1995. In terms of STCW 1995, all seafarers of a maritime nation would have to undergo certain stipulated training programme by January 31, 2002.

Along with proper training facilities, Mr Joseph also stressed the need for a change in the mindset of seafarers.

``Our seafarers are rated high by ship-owners all over the world. But the only complaint against them is that they suffer from some sort of superiority complex with the result they do not always mix freely with seafarers from other countries on board and betray an uncompromising attitude while negotiating with their employers,'' he said, emphasising that all this must change.

Even our experienced officers employed in foreign companies, when about to be promoted to high positions after putting in long years of voyages, would often suddenly give up their jobs and come to the country on flimsy pretext, he added.

A large number of experts in the field are attending the two-day conference.

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