Xavier Institute of Communication Expands

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Xavier Institute of Communication (XIC) in Mumbai has increased its facilities by expanding into the former chapel at Xavier School which gives them new rooms for audio production and the library holdings of movies and video tapes. The new facility has allowed them to reconfigure space in their original buildings in the Xavier College campus. They have also widened their program by forming a relationship with an Australian university that will allow students to finish a master’s degree with only six months of study beyond their own year-long program. Deakin University is funded by the Australian government and has campuses in Melbourne, Geelong and Warmambool; it will accept students from three of XIC’s five programs for masters-level courses in Australia.

XIC is an independent institution even though it is housed on the Xavier College campus. That independence is what allows the school to be more innovative than the state schools. The competition in the future will probably come more from foreign universities that are setting up branches in Mumbai which has emerged as the center of India's booming media activity.

Currently 261 students are beginning the one-year diploma course which has been very successful in preparing students to enter the media world of Mumbai. There are over 800 production companies in the city, so XIC students find immediate employment. In the past few years Indian students have come to value formal courses and are flocking to programs in “self-financed” areas such as information technology, business management and media. Students are willing to pay for professionally-oriented programs that offer them useable skills.