14 DAY TRIAL // Linux vendor Novell and Charles Sturt University of Australia have formed a partnership to offer a two-year postgraduate Masters degree which is to include formal Linux certification.
"Students will study for their Masters degree via a mixture of distance education coupled with hands-on practical training courses with Novell's leading IT training provider Excom Education," Novell said in a statement. This will be the only postgraduate-level qualification which will include the achievement of Novell Certified Engineer (Novell CLE) status as a requirement.
CSU's Master of Networking and System Administration, of which the degree will be part of, brings Novell in line with Microsoft and Cisco, who both have a long history of such involvement in academia.
A strong demand is what Novell expected, and they got it. "In the past 12 months, we have experienced unprecedented demand for Novell's Suse Linux training courses and certifications, from both Linux and traditional Novell IT professional," said Excom's managing director Paul Kokounaras.
Clearly marking the project as a get-them-in-school marketing campaign, Novell said it would offer scholarships to help launch the new degree, starting in mid-2006.
I am not opposed to Novell, or to Linux. In fact, I'm a big admirer of Linux and the philosophy that made it work. And while I agree that IBM, Novell are in business just to make money, doesn't anybody else think it's a little bit immoral to mix product promotions with school? I blame Hamburger University.