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Gujarat proposes to add 500 seats in medical colleges

Gujarat Government asked for opening up three new medical colleges in the state but the proposal never got passed. Today Gujarat is now asking to add another 500 seats in medical education next year to the Medical Council of India, MCI.

It recently received approval for around 500 medical seats from the MCI. What's more, Gujarat is also planning to set up its own medical research council in lines with MCI. MCI has approved 150 seats each at medical colleges in Sola and Bhuj as well as at the Gujarat Cancer Research Society run medical college in Ahmadabad. In addition, 50 seats have been increased at the Bhavnagar Medical College. The state is expecting approval for the new medical college at Gotri in Vadodara and at Valsad etc. The government is working on creating a state-level body on the lines of the MCI that will be empowered to approve post graduate medical courses.

MeritTrac digitizes class XII answer sheets

Government now takes a next step and plans to digitize answer papers of class XII board examination from this school year. This could benefit students and teachers and will reduce evaluation errors and enable easier re-evaluation, it will also ease the task of teachers by allowing them to access the answer papers from anywhere in the country. These answer sheets will be stored and connected to a central server and can be accessed instantly through a password. The Union government-controlled Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has completed a pilot on this during the last class XII board exams and is enthused with the results. This will further reduce logistical hassles involved in the paper evaluation process. In areas where there is a shortage of teachers, the evaluation process gets delayed, and due to overloading, teachers tend to do the scrutiny in a hurry. The technology acceptance can help improve situation and that once implemented across the country, this process will help declaring the results early.

The company named as Merit Trac has conducted the pilot process of digitizing papers for CBSE showing positive results and revolutionizing the exam process. MeritTrac was one of the companies instrumental in making Common Admission Test 2010 a success for the Indian Institutes of Management.

Authorities say that tens of thousands of students every year apply for re-evaluation and rechecking of answer papers after the results are out. This becomes a tedious process for the board to accomplish. Once the papers are digitized, students can easily access them in case of doubt. The CBSE chairman said sometimes there are genuine complaints as some teachers may have done injustice in marking or due to human error. We always give evaluators answers for all questions, and through digitization, overseeing their work can be done as well.

IGNOU launches five new courses on gender and development

The Indira Gandhi National Open University's (IGNOU's) School of Gender and Development Studies (SOGDS) has launched two new full-time, on-campus programmes and four distance mode programmes for July 2011 session.

Admissions are open for MA in Gender and Development Studies (also available in distance mode) and MA in Women's and Gender Studies for face-to-face mode and PG Diploma in Gender and Development Studies, PG Certificate in Gender and Development Studies, Diploma in Women's Empowerment and Development for distance mode.

“The master's programmes will equip students with the ability to deconstruct the complex power hierarchies and relationships operating in society, from the perspective of women and gender. The focal areas for the programme include Concepts and Theories in Women's & Gender Studies; Queer studies; Gender and Power; Gender through Film and Visual Arts; History of Women's Movements; Gendered Bodies, Research Methods, Gender and Science, Women and Social Sectors; Gender and Literature, and others,” said Prof. Savita Singh, Director, SOGDS, IGNOU.

The Postgraduate Certificate in Gender and Development Studies, launched from July 2011, is likely to be of interest to academics and researchers, trainers, facilitators, supervisors, staff of organizations working in the area of gender and development, government personnel,personnel working in banks/ financial institutions.

“The programmes seek to enable learners to analyze extent of gender-sensitivity of development interventions, conduct gender analysis, critically analyze gender differentials in selected development sectors, identify research designs and methodologies, discuss positive affirmative action in development planning and practice to promote gender equity and equalityand describe experiences during internship or conduct a field-based research project,” adds Singh.

Learners enrolled for the Open Distance Learning (ODL) mode are required to complete an internship / field-based research project worth 4 credits(one credit equals 30 student study hours) in both year one and two. Learners enrolled for the On-campus mode would have to complete a non-credit internship/field-based research project in the second year. Though this component does not carry credit weightage, completion is compulsory to earn the MA degree.

The student handbook/ prospectus can be obtained on payment of Rs.100 in cash at the sale counter of Student Registration Division (SRD) in Block-3 at IGNOU's headquarters at Maidan Garhi or at any of the IGNOU's regional centers.

Corel launches certification program for design professionals

India to provide a platform to design students and professionals to validate their product skills and knowledge in CorelDRAW software.Corel will be introducing Certification Program through their 21 Corel Authorised Training Centres across India. The company is rolling out the program along with its exclusive national distributor, Aditya Infotech Ltd.

In the last few years, India has become the hub for design outsourcing for MNCs and foreign corporates who are seeking the support of Indian design companies or professional designers for the excellent quality and desirable output. “We had received encouraging response from Corel Training Partners (CTP) Program which was launched last year. In India, opportunities for skilled designers are growing rapidly as industry requirements continue to expand. The new Corel Training and Certification Program demonstrates our commitment to the career development and success of designers in India, and proving employers with a trusted reference when making staffing choices”, said Gavin Watson, Director of Sales for Corel.

The company has introduced two levels of certifications

PTU decides to accelerate its education and infrastructure

Punjab Technical University (PTU) has decided to accelerate the development of the standards of its education and infrastructure. To better the standards of the Varsity, various central universities from across the country will align with PTU.

PTU Dean NP Singh said that the distance education students will also be treated as the regular students from this session, which will provide better opportunities and facilities for the distance education students. They will also be able to participate in the various sports and cultural events organised by the varsity. Singh further said that job placement will also be facilitated for the distance course education students. Singh highlighted that around 255 learning centres have been closed in recent past after discrepancies in the audits surfaced. He further said more than 200 centres are under the scanner for running multi-university institutes in Haryana.

The varsity administration has decided to form special teams at zonal levels to prevent cheating in exams. He further said the university also plans to introduce new syllabus. The new syllabus will emphasise more on practical than theoretical. PTU administration has also made agreements with Punjab National Bank and HDFC Bank for educational loans.

Queen’s University Belfast and LPU explores collaboration

One of the top 20 Universities of UK, Queen's University Belfast (QUB) and Lovely Professional University (LPU) explored the opportunity of working together. In this regard, the International Officer from QUB, Ms. Isabelle Husillos, visited Lovely Professional University. She had interaction with the Chancellor, Ashok Mittal and also met Senior Deans, Deans of different faculty of the University. They jointly explored on the possibilities for academic collaboration to facilitate Students / Faculty Exchange, Joint Research, Degree Programmes, split-sites studentships and cultural links. She also interacted with many engineering students undergoing PEP training at the university and shared her thoughts with them. It is worth illustration that Ms Isabelle carried along with her the great message of the Chancellor of Queen's University, his Excellency Kamlesh Sharma, Secretary General to the Commonwealth: “India is important for Queen's University and we want to create strong, long lasting partnerships.”

On this occasion, welcoming Ms. Isabelle Husillos, the Chancellor Mr Mittal informed: “She has special responsibility for India, and under her propagations collaborative processes are flourishing regularly. Her visit to the University will really be mutually beneficial to both the Universities in terms of understanding for students and faculty exchange programmes.” He added: “The sharing of knowledge and skills across international borders is vital in today's world. In this regard, we are soon going to clinch MOU with QUB, to share the resources on the international level.”

Visiting the Faculty of Engineering, Applied Medical Sciences, Management, Education, Computer Applications, she felt happy to see the facilities and programmes of International Standard being provided at the University. On this occasion, she said “We have started to work with LPU in the areas of Engineering and Business to start with but would also like to expand it with other Disciplines of the university soon.” She further added: “Though Queen's University and LPU have been knowing each other for the last three-four years, we are soon going to work together under collaboration.”

It is also to be noted that one of the QUB's guiding principles is the recognition that knowledge knows no boundaries. It also holds that the forging of international partnerships is central to the realization of its vision for the Future. Here, Indian staff and research scholars have contributed significantly to research collaborations, and have highlighted the key achievements. A number of Indian delegations are hosted each year and its academic staff has also visited India many times. It is a top ranking university in Northern Ireland having membership for European University Association, Association of Commonwealth Universities, Universities Ireland and Universities UK.

Shri Ram Group enters into school education

Shriram New Horizons Ltd (SRNH), a joint venture between Shri Ram group of India and US-based New Horizons Worldwide, has announced its foray into schools under the 'Shri Ram' brand, in association with Shri Ram Education Trust.

The company will open a chain of play schools as well as K-12 schools under 'Shri Ram Global Schools' across India in partnership with Shri Ram Education Trust.

Ajay Sharma, Managing Director, SRNH Ltd, “This foray into school education is a move for the company to be a part of the entire career cycle of an individual starting from a play school till the time it eventually retires.”

In the coming two years, the firm plans to open more play schools as well as K12 schools in Delhi NCR, initially and eventually moving on to other parts of the country, he added.Sharma, however, did not disclose the planned investment on the new foray.

SNHL had started operations in 2002 and offers services in education, training and placements verticals. It opened its first play school last week in Gurgaon.

Poor engineering students to study for free

The government has taken an initiative, which assures to pay fees for poor engineering undergraduates who are among the first generation in their families to pursue a degree course.

The decision was taken up by the higher education minister P Palaniappan who mentioned that scholarship for the first generation graduate students will continue and will be given to the new comers as well as the second year students who got scholarship last year after verifying the documents. The DMK regime introduced a special scheme which takes around 78,000 engineering students had their fees paid by the state. The students, now in the second year, and the new applicants to engineering graduate courses were tense as there was no formal official announcement on the issue of who will pay their fees. The DMK government spent more than Rs 250 crores on the scheme and over 25,000 girl students benefited in the first graduate scheme last year.

Engineering colleges left with vacant seats

India has seen less growth rate of engineering colleges in over the years as the huge number of seat were found vacant. It was also seen that around one hundred new tech institutes recently received approval from technical education regulator AICTE. By the end of this month, another 200 are expected to be cleared to offer courses from the 2011-12 academic sessions. The All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) had received applications for 1,062 proposed institutions that sought to start courses in engineering, management, pharmacy and architecture from this year. The council approved 175 institutions, including 100 engineering colleges, and asked the rest to correct their shortcomings. The proposed institutions were denied approval at the June 10 meeting as they were found to be deficient in aspects such as area, infrastructure, faculty, books and laboratory facilities. However, about 300 of them, including 200 proposed engineering colleges, had minor shortcomings relating to equipment and books that could easily be corrected. The number of engineering colleges has risen four-fold in the country in the past six years

New ideas for Arizona education success

For the past five months, The Arizona Republic has reported on Arizona's funding of K-12 education and how your tax dollars are spent. The series, “K-12: Your Money's Worth,” has revealed: (a) the state spends relatively little on school-administration costs despite claims that administrative waste is a problem. A large share of state funding is directed toward counseling and other services for students, and maintenance of facilities. (b) Arizona is one of the lowest states for per-student spending on K-12 education, no matter how you measure it. (c)The gap between “have” and “have not” school districts is growing in terms of building and maintaining facilities. Now, with a still struggling economy and state-budget cutbacks, most schools are looking for whatever cuts and efficiencies they can find, including closing schools. The budget pain along with the drive to improve learning is giving rise to a host of new ideas. The Legislature is adopting some innovative approaches from other states, such as Florida. Other ideas have been around for years but are gaining popularity with school officials. In the coming months, The Republic's series will shift focus to take a close look at these “new ideas.” The concepts range from assigning schools letter grades, A through F, to cutting back school weeks to four days. Not to mention moving toward more online classes.

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