AICTE slaps notice on Mumbai’s engineering college over ‘faculty shortfall’

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May 14, 2013

Mumbai: The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has sent a notice to Vasantdada Patil Engineering College for allegedly not meeting the basic requirement of infrastructure and faculty members.

The AICTE observed that several professors’ posts were lying vacant in all departments. It said that due to this the college could not run many of the approved courses like the management (part-time) course.

Inspectors of the statutory body noted a shortfall of 18 faculty members.

In the marine engineering, apart from a deficit of 10 faculty members, the college does not even have an approval from D G Shipping, which gives permission for the course. Also, other post-graduate courses do not have Mumbai University’s approval.

Responding to the notice, the college officials however have denied flouting any of the rules.

We must revitalise research and development in our country, says President

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May 14, 2013

The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee has attended the closing ceremony of the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of Pandu College at Guwahati.

Speaking on the occasion, the President said our higher education system rests on the pillars of accessibility, affordability and quality. There has been a phenomenal increase in our higher education institutions. We now have over 650 degree awarding institutions and over 33,000 colleges in the country. Despite this, there is a gap of quantity as well as quality.

The President also said that the National Knowledge Commission had referred to the declining standards of higher education as a ‘quiet crisis that runs deep’. We must aim at taking at least a few of our academic institutions into the global top league.

There should be greater use of technology to fulfill the unmet demands of higher education. The National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology is an important initiative. It promotes collaborative information sharing by enabling the transmission of important lectures to students studying in institutes situated far off from urban areas, said the President in his speech

The President said functioning in many of educational institutions is hampered by lack of teachers. Many faculty positions are lying vacant in our colleges and universities. While filling up vacancies should be high on priority, we must introduce innovative technological solutions like e-classrooms to tide over this crisis.

The President said we must revitalise research and development in our country. Research is unfortunately not a preferred option, accounting for less than 0.4 per cent of our higher education student population. There is a need to promote a healthy environment for research.

Kozhikode authorities to float tenders to set-up digital classrooms in 22 schools

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May 14, 2013

Kozhikode corporation authorities have rolled out a scheme to implement a project, which will ensure a digital classroom in every government school within its limits.

The civic body had earmarked a sum of Rs 22 lakh for setting up digital classrooms in the budget for the financial year 2012-13 and another Rs 22 lakh in the 2013-14 budget.

In the initial stage, the corporation will implement the project in twenty two selected schools this year. The civic body has already completed selection of 11 schools for smart classrooms. This comprises four upper primary schools, four high schools and three higher secondary schools. The selection of the remaining eleven schools will be completed before the end of May this year.

The digital classrooms in the remaining schools will be set up in a phased manner. Corporation health standing committee chairperson Ushadevi said the civic body will float tenders to set up smart classrooms in 22 schools once the selection of the remaining 11 schools is completed.

Oxford University Press organises digital learning workshop for teachers

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May 13, 2013

Oxford University Press (OUP), one of the largest university presses, has organised their first ever integrated digital learning workshop for teachers in Delhi. The event held at RD Rajpal School in Dwarka also marked the launch of Oxford Educate along with the session.
Oxford Educate is an exciting digital aid that integrates an e-book with interactive teaching tools and learning materials. Around 60 teachers from 20schools attended the session.

Speaking at the occasion, Alka Kshatriya, Principal, R D Rajpal School, said “Today education is witnessing incredible learning resource tools which aid in making complex things simpler for the students. I feel technological and pedagogical innovations enhance greater learning outcomes. Oxford Educate will indeed be a welcome change in the teaching-learning process.”

The Oxford University Press India spokesperson said“India as a market attracts huge opportunity for technology-embedded study materials. With the launch of Oxford Educate, we have set a benchmark in India’s educational scenario. It’s overwhelming to see such enormous response from the teachers. The enthusiasm amongst teachers was quite noteworthy and all took active part in the open forum post the session.”
This digital aid incorporates a variety of resources: interactive animations, videos, poem and prose animations and audios for ELT courses, instructional slide shows, lesson plans, answer keys, additional worksheets, image references and much more.

Used in conjunction with the embedded tools available in the Oxford Educate platform, the interactive resources organised around the digitized course books with page-by-page linkages, will enable teachers to enrich, supplement, and transform teaching -learning in the classroom.

Oxford Educate comes with a Test Generator, an assessment tool designed to benefit teachers by enabling them to create a variety of test papers.

As the interactivity built into the Oxford Educate platform are intrinsically connected to the course book, the teacher can engage students with intensive auditory and visual stimuli in combination with associated learning and testing activities. All in all, it fits in completely with the needs of today’s audio-visual learners and is provided free of cost to schools using the OUP course books.

US university to establish high-tech pathology lab in Hyderabad

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May 11, 2013

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) has inked an agreement to set up a top-notch clinical pathology laboratory in India’s Hyderabad city.

It is collaborating with the Citizens Hospital to establish a clinical pathology laboratory. Spread over a sprawling 10.5-acre campus, ‘AmPath’, will be able to serve more than seven million people in the metropolis.

The lab is expected to become fully operation by 2015. It will offer 650 patient rooms and a gamut of health care services.

With this, the premier American university is aiming to provide world-class facilities to raise the health care standards in the country.

The facility is also expected to become a reference lab serving patients in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

(Source: PTI)

Every university should identify one department that can be developed into a centre of excellence, says President

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May 11, 2013

The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee attended the fourth Convocation of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (BBAU) today (May 10, 2013) at Lucknow.

Speaking on the occasion, the President said that education is a crucial element for national progress, human empowerment and social change. He said that the rising incidents of crime against women and children call for effective measures to ensure their safety and security. It also calls for arresting the moral decline in our society. He said that we must find solutions for bringing such degradation of values to an immediate halt. He stated that our universities, that possess the capability to shape the minds of the youth, should set the process of redefining our moral values in motion.

The President said that there is a need to change the mechanics of rendering education and the time for it is now. He said that our universities must deliver education of international standards. Every university should identify one department that can be developed into a Centre of Excellence. He called upon the Central universities to spearhead this transformation.

The President said that increasing the access to higher education is a necessary step towards inclusion. It must be made affordable for meritorious students from economically difficult background through scholarships, student loans and other student-aid measures. He said that our efforts must be directed at bringing higher education closer to our population by resorting to innovative techniques of education delivery.

The President said that there are teachers who motivate students to think from different perspectives. These teachers can spur holistic learning and new thinking, he added. He stated that our universities should be able to identify such ‘inspired teachers’ and encourage them to mentor junior teachers and students.

The President said that there are many grassroots innovations that, due to lack of technological and commercial support, remain denied of development into marketable products. He stated that mentoring of grass root innovators by universities and industry would help in taking the benefits of technology closer to the people.

On the occasion, the President also inaugurated an Innovators’ Exhibition and BBAU Innovation Club. BBAU is the first Central University to set up these two elements related to innovation. During the Vice Chancellors’ Conference held earlier this year in Rashtrapati Bhavan, it was decided to set up an Innovation Club and exhibition of regional innovators in Central Universities. The Innovation Club will search, spread, sense and celebrate the innovation of the region in which Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University is located.

Among the dignitaries present on the occasion, were Governor of Uttar Pradesh, BL Joshi, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav and Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Jitin Prasada.

Minister of HRD to visit US for dialogue on higher education

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May 11, 2013

The Minister of Human Resource Development, Dr M M Pallam Raju has informed the media that he would be on the US visit to Washington DC, Philadelphia and Boston from 13th to 18th of May, 2013. This a continuation of India-US higher education dialogue which was initiated in 2009 after the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s visit to the US during the same year, the Minister added.

This visit is the follow up of the Obama-Singh initiative taken on higher education. The focus of the visit would be on strengthening and enhancing higher education initiatives- 8 projects have been identified under this initiative. Strategic dialogue on higher education would take place. The visit will also cover school education and skill development sector.

The Minister also discussed Connect to India programme where US students will be coming and joining higher research institutes in India. The visit will also focus on exchange of faculty and development of faculty. The Government has also initiated a scheme through University Grants Commission (UGC) to sponsor Indian researchers at the Post-Doctoral level and the first batch of 126 Indian scholars is ready to go to the US Institutions for post-doctoral research. The Minister expressed the hope that the partnership in scientific research and technology will definitely have its impact on academic world.

The Minister further added that he has been invited by the Temple University, Philadelphia to receive the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, Honaris Causa, at the 126th commencement exercises on May 16, 2013. The Commencement exercises will be held at the Liacouras Center on Temple’s Main Campus.

The Minister’s visit will also focus on development of community colleges in India. The HRD Minister stated that the US has a very healthy, vibrant and strong network of community colleges which responds to the local needs. It is an informal system of education and building up of vocational skills and caters to the local requirements,. The American Association of community colleges is very keen on visiting India and making their presence in India. As far as school education is concerned, as a part building of capacity of teachers, educators and teachers would be sent to various US universities. First batch will be leaving shortly, he said.

The Minister also answered a volley of questions on four year under graduate programme of Delhi University, normalization of JEE (mains) exam, RTE, accreditation of higher institutes of learning for quality education, etc. On the issue of four year course he said that the Ministry does not have any intent to impinge on the autonomy of Delhi University. On the question of RTE he stated that the major concern is the shortcoming in the capacity of teachers and the Government is working on it.

Knowing Gujarat SSC/HSC Board results just a SMS away

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May 11, 2013

Gandhinagar: Telecommunications giant Vodafone India will provide its customers the Gujarat Board’s SSC and HSC results on their mobile phones this year.

Vodafone is offering the service is at a nominal price of one rupee per SMS.

The Vodafone post-paid and pre-paid customers can SMS “HSC (seat number)” or “SSC (seat number) to 50111.

The customers can also avail a pre-registration facility with the service provider to receive the results as soon as they are announced.

The results are expected to be announced between May end and first week of June. Over 15 lakh students of SSC and HSC appeared for the Gujarat board’s examinations this year.

The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Board of Education was founded in 1972 under the Gujarat Government Act of 1972.

International studies centre to up come at Aligarh Muslim University

Higher Education

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May 10, 2013

Aligarh: The Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has announced setting up of a new International Studies Centre.

The centre, Faculty of International Studies, will offer various courses related to international relations, geo-strategy and key foreign languages.

The University is expected to collaborate with other reputed national and international institutions for providing quality academic content in the field of international studies.

The Centre would have separate departments for foreign languages, regional studies as well as for strategic and security studies.

In the era of globalisation, the Centre aims to play a pivotal role in understanding and promoting issues of national interests in context of international relations.

Aligarh Muslim University was established in 1920, and evolved out of the Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College (MAO College) which was set up in 1877 by the great visionary and social reformer, Sir Syed Ahmad khan.

Govt to set up National Skill Development Agency (NSDA)

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May 10, 2013

The Union Cabinet has approved to constitute an autonomous body called the National Skill Development Agency (NSDA) by subsuming the Prime Minister’s National Council on Skill Development (PMNCSD), the National Skill Development Coordination Board (NSDCB) and the Office of the Adviser to the PM on Skill Development. The NSDA will be located in the Ministry of Finance.

The NSDA will coordinate and harmonise the skill development efforts of the Government and the private sector to achieve the skilling targets of the 12th Plan and beyond; anchor and operationalise the National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) and be the nodal agency for Sector Skills Councils and endeavour to bridge the social, regional, gender and economic divides in skilling. It will also be empowered to raise extra budgetary resources. The Central Ministries and NSDC will continue to implement schemes in their remit.

The NSDA is expected to provide the much needed single point focus to ensure that skilling quality and standards meet sector specific requirements benchmarked to international standards. Such an initiative will boost employability of youth in India.

The proposal to set up the National Skill Development Agency (NSDA) was first considered by the Cabinet in its meeting held on 31st January 2013 and it was referred to a Group of Ministers (GoM) to review all aspects.

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