Chennai: Higher education minister P Viswanathan on Saturday asked the BA, BSc, BCom graduates to learn foreign languages such as Japanese and German to get jobs with higher salaries.“An undergraduate with N4 or N5 certification in Japanese language will get ₹3lakh a month salary in Japan for BA, BSc, BCom graduates. The world is willing to welcome the youth of our country. So, students should learn foreign languages such as Japanese, German and English to get global opportunities,” he said while giving the Founder’s Day lecture at Ethiraj College for Women.“The higher education department will prepare a detailed plan to provide education with employment. Further, chief minister Vijay also wanted to stop drug abuse in college and school campuses,” Viswanathan said. The minister also said the state govt fixed the target of ₹3000 crore for banks to provide education loan in 2026-27.“This year, we want to increase the number of students availing education loan from 1.02 lakh students to 1.5 lakh students. As of now, students can avail education loan up to ₹4.5lakhs without collateral and with their parents’ signature they can get the loan of ₹7 lakhs. Chief minister Vijay will make an announcement to increase the ceiling for giving education loan without collateral to help them to study abroad or for courses such as MBBS,” he added.V M Muralidharan, chairperson of Ethiraj College Trust, announced an increase of salary for faculty members teaching self-supporting courses. “There is a huge gap in the salary between the govt-aided courses faculty and self-supporting faculty. To attract top-quality faculty members, we are planning to increase the salary of self-supporting courses substantially this year,” he said.S Uma Gowrie, principal of the college, R Chandrasekar, financial trustee of the college, and board members M Sekar and Geetha Lakshmipathy and others took part in the event.
