Government jobs attract college students

Higher Education

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April 28, 2009

Unlike the when fat pay packets and fast growth options were the priorities of the students; job security takes the center stage now. This has been revealed by a survey recently conducted at several colleges situated in Gujarat. The recommendations of sixth commission have brought this change among students. Around 60 pc students preferred government's job to private jobs. Of the remaining 40 %, 20 % expressed their interest to pursue higher education while the rest said they would either join their family business or start an enterprise. This year 41 students from the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) have opted for public sector job.

Moreover, after Sixth Pay Commission, government salaries have shot up. Benefits like life-long pension, holidays and fixed working hours are adding to the allure of government jobs. 'The survey includes final year students in graduate and post-graduate programs. It was conducted in February-March when the retrenchment on the rise. Insecurity in the private sector have changed the mindset of youth,' says SR Apte, Director of BM Institute of Mental Health who conducted the survey. 'When I started my graduation, I wanted to study MBA and join a multinational. Now, I have decided to do MSc and take up a job as lecturer in a government college,' says Maitreya Acharya, final year BSc student.

IIMC launches programmes for working professional

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April 24, 2009

The Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIMC) has introduced two new courses including 'Executive Programme in Business Analytics' and 'Executive Programme in International Business' for the working professionals. IIMC has been giving importance to the education of executives from the last several years and has been widely appreciated for the various innovative and customized programs that has been introduced over the years based on its front line teaching, research and consulting. Business Analytics is about sophisticated, quantitative & statistical analysis and predictive modeling used towards building competitive strategies around data-driven insights that in turn generate impressive business results.

Executive Program has been specially designed to help students acquire knowledge and skill to help work in International companies and environment. The program covers aspects related to International Business Environment, Challenges in International Marketing & Sales, International Operations, International Logistics and Supply Chain etc.

India’s First Government arm converts into FOSS

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April 24, 2009

With the Curriculum Committee giving nod for adopting free software in Higher Secondary level too, the General Education Department has become the first Government arm in the country to convert completely into FOSS (Free and Open Source Software). IT education in Higher Secondary level and e-governance programme in the Department will now be changed into free software with the assistance of IT@School project. The Curriculum Committee that met here on November 12 had taken a decision in this regard. Till date, proprietary softwares were used for teaching computer science and computer applications in Higher Secondary level. With the new decision of the Curriculum Committee, the IT@School will now have to develop special tools in open source for carrying out teaching and teachers' training process.

It was in 2007 that the Government Order came out insisting the use of free software for ICT education in schools. In 2008, around 15 lakh high school students in the State had been given their final examinations in open source, which was hailed as the first mega event in the world where free software was put to wider use. The hardware deployment that IT@School did in schools by spending INR 30 crore had helped the Government save INR 11 crore, the statement said. The transfer and appointment of teachers, the total physical fitness programme, pre-metric scholarship, mid-day meal scheme and many other projects were computerised by IT@School using free software. The Schoolwiki project launched on November 1 is another classic example of the use of free software in collaborative learning. Earlier, the software used to compile details of students sitting for SSLC examination and participating in the school youth festival was done in proprietary software. Even this has been switched to free software now for the first time. The new online application for school festival was tested in Perambra last week and had been found successful.

Admissions open for Manipal University

Higher Education

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digitalLEARNING Network

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April 24, 2009

Admissions to India's first and only MBA in Media & Entertainment (ME) and MBA in Advertising & Marketing Communications (AMC) are now open for the January 2010 batch. Manipal University, the pioneering force in higher education in India, offers MBA (ME) in association with Whistling Woods International. The programmes are offered from the Manipal University Bangalore Campus. This first year of the MBA (ME) would be conducted at MU Bangalore Campus covering all General Management Subjects and Media Case Studies. The second year of the Program will consists of one (1) year of internship/industrial training at WWIL premises located at Film City. This will include actual production and post production techniques, the process of film making, understanding TV, Radio and other sectors of the entertainment industry, hands-on exposure at the WWIL and Film City campus in Mumbai. WWIL, on behalf of MU shall also provide to the Students with industry interface and internship with Media companies.

MBA (AMC) programme is offered from the Manipal University Bangalore Campus and it covers Integrated Marketing Communication, Strategic Media Planning, and Advertising Strategy with General Management subjects. These courses are new, exciting and truly industry focused, combining managerial tools and frameworks with an in-depth understanding of the media, entertainment, advertising and marketing communications industries. These programmes prepare students to be well-rounded professionals and opens up avenues for exciting and successful careers in the fastest growing. Admissions to the two year MBA programmes January 2010 in (ME and AMC) at Manipal University are currently open. The last date for submitting applications is 30th November 2009. The programmes are open to those who have completed any undergraduate degree, with a combination of creativity & business rigour and aspire to be media and marketing professionals.

My Tuition Learning Centre to enhance Educational Delivery System

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April 24, 2009

Hope has been expressed by Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin that the My Tuition Learning Centre, an idea mooted by the Tan Sri Muhyiddin Charity Golf, can be expanded to help enhance the country's education delivery system. Opened on Monday, the centre at Taman Bukit Angkasa, Kerinchi, aims at providing free learning services to students in Lembah Pantai, especially those in Form Three and Form Five. Muhyiddin, the Education Minister, told that the centre was capable of motivating students to study by utilising advancements in information communication technologies.

Implementation of a pilot project is now being witnessed at the centre, at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Sri Pantai, Kampung Kerinchi, providing the school with an ICT room with 50 multimedia computers as well as an air-conditioned resource centre. It was told by Muhyiddin that the centre was in line with the government's wishes to narrow the education gap irrespective of the students' socio-economic status. With the My Tuition Learning Centre, he added, students would have access to the facilities in a more conducive environment and this would help them enhance their respective academic performances.

Oxford on top for 8th Year in a row

Higher Education

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digitalLEARNING Network

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April 24, 2009

With better faculty and student facilities, Oxford has retained its top position among Britain's leading universities for the eighth successive time this year, leaving behind Cambridge. According to the latest Times Good University Guide, better staffing levels and degree classifications as well as higher spending on student facilities helped Oxford to stretch its lead over Cambridge, which had better record on research. Cambridge also ranked first in 35 subjects, while Oxford achieved first place in nine. The Times Good University Guide 2010, ranks 114 universities according to eight criteria, including student satisfaction and research quality.

Only a dozen universities outside Oxbridge lead any of the 62 tables and most are for subjects that are not offered by the two institutions. Of the remaining universities, Loughborough holds the highest number of top places, in four subjects. Outside Oxbridge, Sheffield makes the top ten for the largest number of subjects, with 27. St Andrews remains the top university in Scotland, while Cardiff leads in Wales.

Prometric with IIMs to expand Indian Infrastructure

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April 24, 2009

Prometric, the world's leading provider of technology-enabled testing and assessment services, announced that it has been awarded an exclusive, US$40 million dollar contract by the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) to computerize the prestigious Common Admissions Test (CAT). To efficiently deliver the first ever computerized version of the exam to over 250,000 Indian students this fall, Prometric will accelerate plans to further build out its people, services and technology infrastructure in India. In assuming responsibility for all aspects of the CAT program, including item authoring, test development, test administration and scoring and reporting services, Prometric will add resources, including dedicated test development and support staff, in India. Complementing the 185 employees, test center network and other assets Prometric already operates in India, these additional new resources will provide a more powerful and rigorous means for the CAT, and any other test publishers looking at expansion in India, to leverage for growth.

The CAT is the premiere admissions test used in the selection process for admission to the Indian Institutes of Management, a network of India's most prestigious business schools based in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Indore, Kozhikode, Lucknow and Shillong. Of the 250,000 students that take the exam each year, ultimately just over 1,500 are admitted to one of the IIMs. It is therefore one of the most competitive and high profile admission exam administrations in the world, requiring tight execution and secure exam delivery. For the first time in history, instead of testing only one day a year, candidates will be able to test during a 10-day testing window across 23 Indian cities where secure computer-based testing centers specially prepared for the CAT exam are strategically positioned throughout the country. The longer window and wider availability will provide candidates greater flexibility when choosing a testing date, time or location as well as near-ubiquitous access to testing locations. In addition, computerization of the CAT will result in faster score processing, enabling the IIMs and more than a hundred other Indian business schools that rely on the results to more quickly make their admissions decisions.

OLPC ordered from India and Sierra Leone

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April 23, 2009

In India, two government organizations and one private-sector entity placed the laptop orders, Satish Jha, president and CEO of OLPC India, said Friday. These are the first orders in India for the OLPC XO laptop, with distribution set to begin in June to about 1,500 schools. Giving a computer to every single child under the OLPC program was reportedly described as 'pedagogically suspect' in 2006 by the country's education secretary in a letter to the country's Planning Commission. But the government as a whole did not have an issue with OLPC, and leading government education agencies support OLPC, Jha said. Most of the 250,000 laptops will go to children in suburban and rural areas, Jha said. In areas where Internet connectivity is not available or is too expensive, the laptops will be connected through mesh networks to a server from where information can be downloaded, Jha said. He added that OLPC has a target to deploy 3 million laptops in India this year.

In Sierra Leone, the plan is to distribute 5,000 XO laptops by 2011, according to Mohammed Kaindaneh, secretary general of the Human Rights Respect Awareness Raising Campaigners (HURRARC). Fundraising to pay for the project, which will cost about US $1 million, will take place over the next two years. A pilot project involving 50 primary schools and 500 students will receive 100 OLPC computers, Kaindaneh said. The laptops for the three-month pilot are not included in the larger order for 5,000 OLPC laptops. Ethiopia, Rwanda, Nigeria and Ghana also have received OLPC laptops. News of the laptop project in Sierra Leone comes as research teams in Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe release findings that the Asus Eee PC netbook is a better choice for African nations than the XO laptop. Asus is better suited to individual owners and users in rural Africa who need low-power PCs, researchers found. They ranked the Asus Eee first for the needs of Africa, followed by Intel's Classmate, OLPC's XO, the Inveno Computing Station and Ncomputing's X300.

145 educational institutes to be trained in ICT

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April 23, 2009

Teachers in 145 business, technical and vocational institutions are to be trained in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs).

The training was launched by the education minister, Namirembe Bitamazire, at the Nakawa Vocational Training Institute in Kampala on Tuesday. An agreement was signed between the Government and the UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation in January to implement the 16-month project. Dr. Jane Egau Okou, a member of the project steering committee, said the project would also create a master pool of trainers in ICT.

Cambridge centre in London named after Cipla Chairman

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April 23, 2009

A centre has been opened in Christ's College, University of Cambridge after the name of Dr. Yusuf Hamied, Chairman of Indian pharmaceutical company Cipla. Hamied has been a generous donor resulting in the new theatre with its associated public rooms incorporating bar, music practice room and gym. He was recently elected as an Honorary Fellow of the College in gratitude of his contribution to the pharmaceutical industry and his provision of affordable drugs to developing nations. 'We owe a lot to Yusuf Hamied for his contribution to the College's life in several ways. He is also a wonderful friend to all those who know him personally,' said Professor Frank of the Master of Christ's.

The presence of his friends along with his students, staff and fellows of Christ's, accumulated to pay tribute to a warm, kind-spirited man, who works hard for the greater good. Born in Lithuania, Hamied was brought up in Mumbai. He studied for six years at Christ's and matriculated from there in 1954 to read Natural Sciences. 'There is a great bond between me and Christ's. Two Christ's men – Dr. Lucan Pratt and Lord Alexander Todd – above all others, are singularly responsible for directing and shaping my life,' speaking at the launch event, said Hamied. Hamied is a member of the Cambridge India Partnership Advisory Board and of the Mumbai Cambridge Society.

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