Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, this year, is to welcome its first batch of 22 students in the diploma programme in Metro rail transport technology and management, sponsored by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. In another development, IIT-D has started a remote classroom to deliver postgraduate level instructions to students in Ethiopia. The instruction will be given in four engineering disciplines to students of Adis Ababa University. The four programmes, construction technology and management, chemical engineering, electronics and computer engineering and manufacturing engineering, were started in the last academic year. There are about 50 students in each programme, which is taught using two-way video/audio link. Said director IIT Surendra Prasad, 'A dedicated line has been set up for this purpose. Two delivery rooms have been equipped with video-conferencing facilities and recording of lectures.' The new school of biological sciences has also started functioning. It was told by Prasad, that there has been a 23% increase in the number of PhD. Degrees that will be given out this year.
Research tie up between universities of Orissa and US
Berhampur University, Orissa, has partnered with Riverside University of California for collaboration in research and faculty development. Berhampur University's Vice-Chancellor B. K. Sahu said the agreement will allow students and faculty members from both institutions to go to the other for study and research. He added that initially it will be the MBA department that will avail the benefits. Initially both the universities will hold joint academic events such as seminars.
But later it will be expanded to collaborative academic research and exchange of scientific information. The agreement has been signed for five years initially, and can be extended later. Riverside University Vice-Chancellor (VC) Raj Singh called the agreement a 'win-win' situation for both universities. He further told that it would be beneficial for the USA students as more job avenues are opening up in India. Initially they are to start with an exchange programme which is expected to expand later. Additionally, he told that the university was also looking for tie-ups with other Indian universities like Allahabad Agricultural University.
Nov 28-Dec 7 to see online CAT 2009
An announcement was made by The Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) regarding the dates for online Common Admission Test (CAT) 2009. The first computer-based CAT exam will be held between November 28 and December 7, 2009. The test will be held twice
New Institutes to enhance Australia-India ties
More than AUS$8 million fund will be provided by Australia to fund a new Australia India Institute at the University of Melbourne that will work to strengthen bilateral ties between the two countries, announced Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard. The Institute is a joint project of the University of Melbourne, La Trobe University and the University of New South Wales and they will invest around AUS$2 million bringing the total investment in the project to more than AUS$10 million over three years. 'As the world's largest democracy and a key emerging economy, India is redefining its role in international affairs. Its influence in our region and globally is growing. India is currently a top ten trading partner for Australia and the economic relationship between the two countries has grown strongly in recent years,' said Gillard. 'The Institute will work to increase Australians' understanding of India, its culture, its history and its place in the world by producing and promoting specialized knowledge about India.' Gillard's announcement came during Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna's Australia visit.
Biocon partners with ISB to launch Biocon Cell
The Indian School of Business (ISB) in association with the Biocon Limited, India's pioneering biotechnology company, has launched the Biocon Cell for Innovation Management (BCIM) to promote innovation in business. The Cell will be established under the aegis of the Centre for Leadership, Innovation, and Change (CLIC) at the ISB. BCIM at the ISB will help organizations find answers to questions such as the gaps in a company's ability to innovate, assessing the required understanding to manage and mitigate risks associated with innovation and how to produce high value, high quality, strategic innovation at low cost. Biocon is contributing an initial investment of INR1 crore to setup BCIM.
The partnership between Biocon and ISB further strengthens the trend started by ISB when its founding fathers attracted the support of industry to establish an international quality business school in India. The primary objective of the BCIM is to foster innovation and link it to operational excellence. A representative of Biocon, the Executive Director of CLIC, other prominent industry leaders and academics in the area of innovation and strategy will comprise the Board of BCIM. The board will play an advisory and enabling role by providing research ideas that will assist the activities of BCIM to create maximum impact. Biocon will provide funding over a minimum 10 year period as and when required.
UK school gets top mark for ICT quality
Oakfield Primary in St Mellons, Cardiff, is one of the first schools in the UK to receive a new Government quality mark for using information and communications technology to enhance learning.
The ICT Mark is awarded by Government agency Becta and recognises the success in developing a whole-school approach to ICT. According to Headteacher Dave Pedwell, they have been developing IT skills at the school for many years. Pupils are now very competent at using computers in all aspects of their school work.
ZAIN awards 4 UDS students
ZAIN, a communications network operating in Ghana has presented awards to four students of the University for Development Studies (UDS) who competed in its Zain African Scholars Champions Competition. The beneficiary students are Mohammed Sulemana, Mark Agambile, Issah Mohammed and Robert Amanda. They each took away a desk and laptop computers and wed camps and an amount of five thousand dollars.Maame Dufie Cudjoe, Corporate Social Responsibility and Events Executive of ZAIN, who presented the awards to the beneficiaries, urged students to develop interest in the programme and participate in it.
She said the programme would help students to build their networks and expand their horizons since they would be competing with some of the most brilliant students in other universities on the African continent.Professor Kwaku Sagary Nokoe, Acting Vice-Chancellor of the UDS commended ZAIN for introducing the competition to the university and promised that the students would be up to the task and prove worthy competitors in the competition. He stressed the importance the university attached to ICT training and for that matter the sciences but regretted that the number of science students been admitted in the universities catchments area was not the best.
Lack of school access for 5 million Afghan children
Recently, the Afghan President Hamid Karzai mentioned that the lack of educational facilities and attacks by Taliban have kept five million school going children out of schools. Additionally, Presidengt pleaded with insurgents to stop such attacks. Some of the factors that were restricting children to go to school were economic hardships and lack of facilities in their areas, fear of parents for the attacks from the Taliban or fear of schools being burnt down by the militants, he added.
The attacks on schools reached their highest level in 2009, with more than 600 incidents recorded, according to a recent United Nations report. Today there are nearly eight million children, including 40 percent girls, attending in around 13,500 schools, Afghan Education Minister Mohammad Farooq Wardak said in the same gathering. That number is up from around one million students – only boys – that attended in more than 3,000schools in early 2002.
Children’s education at at state-run shelters
Children from 9 shelters run in Delhi will earn certificate from National Institute of Open School (NIOS), making them eligible to seek admission in regular schools once they come out of it. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) has set target of 100pc literacy but children lodged in government homes, especially those which are in variance with the law have not benefited from SSA. Many children are either impoverished or are runaways but there are also some children that are in variance with the law. There are even few shelters were all the categories stay together. After a recent decision taken by the Delhi government, children living in these shelters will be grouped together and will work towards getting class III, V and VIII certificates. This will help the kids in getting admission in regular schools.
Not merely children but even women in government shelters will gain from such educational programmes. Every shelter will have three designated teachers and two vocational courses of one month will also be offered. Till date, merely young children from Lajpat Nagar shelter have been attending school. But there are other children in Bal Sadan, Timarpur, who have not been provided with the education due to the stigma attached to their parents for being leprosy patients.
The road map of UCAS is worth emulating
With so much happening in IT, one would look for a system that is completely online, super-efficient, available 24×7 all the 52 weeks, inexpensive and user-friendly. The Universities and College Admission Service (UCAS) in the UK has used e-Governance to its advantage in college admission. This is a system worth emulating for all. < ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
UCAS, registered as a charity, is a central link to students and colleges and automates all the processes to bring the key stakeholders of the admissions ecosystem together. UCAS keeps costs low though the service is of a very high quality. In 2005, more than 325 institutions of higher learning participated and admissions to 4,05,369 college seats based on 22,85,506 applicants who applied online were carried out by UCAS
