Courses require a degree of meditation

Students considering enrolling at a new residential college run by the Maharishi Foundation, which promotes transcendental meditation, were told this week to get as much impartial information as possible about the Maharishi movement.

The college will prepare students for University of London degrees through the university's external programme.

Michelle Pauli, research officer for Inform, the Information Network Focus on Religious Movements which is based at the London School of Economics, said: "It is particularly important that prospective students are aware of the connection between the Maharishi College of Management and Technology and transcendental meditation before they part with the fees." The annual fee is Pounds 6,850.

The college's "vice chancellor" is Geoffrey Clements, leader of the Natural Law Party, established in March 1992. It is based in Buckinghamshire at Mentmore Towers, which also doubles as the party's headquarters.

Teaching begins next month for bachelor of science degrees in management, economics, and accounting and finance. Dr Clements said he would be happy with between 20 and 50 students for the first academic year and it was worth going ahead even with low numbers because of the resulting approval and recognition. Half the students are expected to be foreign and overseas recruitment drives are under way.

Students at the college will practise transcendental meditation "to bring about the systematic development of higher states of consciousness" and learn about the "Science of Creative Intelligence", created by the founder of transcendental meditation, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

"Unified Field Charts" will be used to demonstrate the inter-relationships between areas of knowledge usually considered separate and enable students to "make the connection between the universal laws of nature which underly [sic] and structure every discipline and the functioning of those same laws of nature within their inner intelligence and lives". Followers claim such meditation improves academic performance and reduces stress and "negative habits", such as drug, alcohol and tobacco use.

Start-up funding has been provided by the Maharishi Foundation. Dr Clements said the college will become self-funding, but initially academic staff are volunteering their services. Huw Dixon, professor of economics at York University, and Steven Hubball, lecturer in maths, statistics and information technology at West Cumbria College, are both mentioned in the college's press statement.

John McConnell, director of London University's external and internal student administration, said he assumed the college would teach students who agreed with its general philosophy. "Students will make up their own minds whether they think it's a worthwhile place to go to receive tuition. I doubt they'll be casting their net widely for a broad range of students," he said.

A spokesperson for the Department for Education and Employment said a private college that did not offer its own curriculum was not required to notify the DfEE.

There are Maharishi further and higher education institutes in Russia, Ukraine, Cambodia, Thailand, Sweden and Denmark.