The Indian Institutes of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay) tops the first Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Ranking of Indian institutes. In the ranking IISc Bangalore and IIT Madras grabbed second and third position respectively. and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru have emerged as top three in the first standalone QS ranking of India’s higher education institutes.
Interestingly, while IISc was India’s best institution in the QS World University Rankingsreleased earlier this year, the domestic league has pegged IIT-Bombay at number one. Explaining about the variance in performance of Indian institutions in the domestic and international tables, Simona Bizzozero, Communications Director at QS, said that the ranking criteria for both was different.
“Performance criteria used for the Indian University Rankings is the same as we use for the QS BRICS Ranking. In the global tables, academic reputation carries 40 per cent weightage, in the Indian edition it carries 30 per cent. The World University Rankings focus on research impact (citations per faculty) and the domestic league looks at research productivity (number of papers per faculty),” she said.
This is the second country specific ranking by QS. The first one was released for institutions in China on October 10.
IIT-Delhi, IIT-Kharagpur, IIT-Kanpur, Hyderabad Central University, Delhi University, IIT-Roorkee and IIT-Guwahati figure in the top 10 institutions.
Indian QS ranking is based on various parameters with varied weightage: Academic reputation – 30 percent, employer reputation – 20 percent, faculty-student ratio – 20 percent, proportion of staff with PhD – 10 percent, papers per faculty from Scopus database – 10 percent, citations per paper from Scopus database – 5 percent, proportion of international students – 2.5 percent and proportion of international faculty – 2.5 percent.
Common Admission Test(CAT) 2018 Admit Cards are scheduled to be available for aspirants from next week while the CAT 2018 is going to be held on November 25.
CAT is a pre-requisite for admission to management programmes offered by IIM Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bangalore, Bodh Gaya, Calcutta, Indore, Jammu, Kashipur, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Nagpur, Raipur, Ranchi, Rohtak, Sambalpur, Shillong, Sirmaur, Tiruchirappalli, Udaipur and Visakhapatnam.
In 2018, the exam will be held at 147 cities. CAT 2018 admit cards will be available from October 24 on official website: iimcat.ac.in. It will have all the important details related to entrance test like exam shift, centres and instructions.
On October 24, CAT admit card will be hosted on the official website at one pm. CAT 2018 scores will be valid till December 31, 2019.
CAT 2018will be of 180 minutes (three hours) duration and will comprise of three sections: Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning and Quantitative Ability. Candidates will be allotted exactly 60 minutes for answering questions in each section and they will not be allowed to switch from one section to another while answering questions in a section.
To understand the CAT 2018 exam pattern, tutorial will be released on the official website on October 17. Candidates are advised to work on the tutorials available on the CAT website well in advance.
In a significant development that is sure to bring cheers to Delhi Govt’s education policymakers, India’s neighbouring country – Afghanistan, which, following a long period of civil war, is now working to reform its education system, is all set to adopt the Happiness Curriculum engineered by the Delhi government with an special emphasis on nurturing holistic education — to bring peace to the mind of children.
“I am very attracted with the idea of the Happiness Curriculum. We are living in the same region and so the tension children (suffer), I think, is the same. But I will say the tension in Afghanistan is more than India because of the conflict situation that we have,” Afghanistan’s Acting Education Minister Mohammad Mirwais Balkhi said.
“Sometimes a young child (in Afghanistan) has a tension level of an aged person because of the war. So, the approach can bring peace to the mind of our children so that they can learn in a peaceful environment,” said Balkhi, on the sidelines of the Asian Summit on Education and Skills organised by the Delhi government.
“We have to see how we can adopt and implement that in Afghanistan and localise the text and guide books. Sisodia[ Delhi Education Minister] promised to help us in this regard and also to see how teachers can be trained. Trainers from our country can come to Delhi and can learn from the experience,” Balkhi added.
Hailed across the globe as a unique initiative, the Happiness Curriculum – introduced in July for government school students between nursery and class VIII — was formulated with an aim to improve their physical and mental health and to solve problems caused due to negative emotions such as anger, hatred and jealousy.
As part of the initiative that has been designed and prepared by a team of 40 Delhi government teachers, educators and volunteers over a period of six months, during the 45-minute “Happiness Class“, the students immerse themselves in meditation, value education and mental exercises.
A number of initiatives aimed at not only promoting an environment of innovations, employability and entrepreneurship but also for employing ICT for accelerating Skill-based endeavours are being implemented across the State of Rajasthan, says Ashutosh A T Pednekar, Secretary, Higher Education & Commissioner, College Education, Government of Rajasthan, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).
Please share with us your vision for enhancing the higher education space of Rajasthan.
Ashutosh A T Pednekar, Secretary, Higher Education & Commissioner, College Education, Government of Rajasthan
During the last five years, a number of initiatives for bolstering the higher education space of Rajasthan have been undertaken by the Department of College Education. This year itself, more than 17,000 students have been enrolled in various institutions of higher learning in Rajasthan. Further, to create synergy among students, corporate, government researchers and various other educational stakeholders, a number of initiatives are being implemented. Various best practices, at par with global standards, are also being followed upon at institutions across the length and breadth of the State. These new measures would certainly help students on the path of excellence.
At present, the Rajasthan Government’s educational mobile Dishari App that contains a rich collection of educational videos, ranks and leader board, online live tests news and updates is being downloaded by more than 1,000 people on a daily basis.
This is a testimony of our efforts in this direction. Further, bottlenecks concerning faculty, infrastructure and human resources are also now being proactively taken care of.
Please tell us a bit about Bhamashah Sahyog Yojna envisaged by the Department of Higher Education.
Rajasthan has a glorious tradition of philanthropic assistance in the field of education leading to the growth and development of the State. To harness this generosity and benevolence for development of State’s higher education space, Bhamashah Sahyog Yojna has now been launched with a view to curb deficiencies in infrastructure and other facilities in government colleges, thereby overcoming the pitfalls in the field of higher education.
This scheme is a platform to meet educational, vocational, social, infrastructure and welfare needs of government colleges of the State. The scheme envisages soliciting philanthropic assistance of Bhamashah (Donors), support of corporate houses, industries under CSR, Individual contributors, NGO, NRIs, alumni of the institutions and anyone who is willing to contribute to remove the shortcomings of the infrastructure facilities in government colleges and to fulfill other requirements for imparting quality higher education leading to increase in Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER).
As part of the initiative, institutions will register and upload their requirement of essential needs along with the tentative cost. On the other hand, the donors, interested to extend financial support, will get themselves registered on the portal, from any part of the globe, duly mentioning quantum of support, geographical area of their preference and type of support they wish to extend. This provision will provide a common platform creating a link between philanthropists and institutions, thus helping to develop essential facilities required without any additional burden on the state exchequer. Further, no cash support will be taken. However, donors will help by providing the required facilities to the institutions of their choice.
What is the vision in terms of formulating new-age ICT interventions and approaches?
A number of ICT-led initiatives and measures are currently being introduced for the benefit of student fraternity in the State. Some of the major initiatives that I wish to share, include:
Higher and Technical Education Portal: Through the web portal i.e. www.hte.rajasthan. gov.in, in addition to useful information for the student fraternity, currently, the hassle-free, userfriendly online procedure for admission process has successfully been implemented in all Government Colleges for UG and PG classes. This is aimed at creating a single database of students. Automation of academic processes for college and university is being made in it along with integration of NOC application of Private colleges with affiliation management process of Universities.
Smart Class/E-Class Programme: Under this initiative, we have so far established classrooms in 35 Government Colleges in the first phase. Going forward, plans are to establish 41 Government Colleges in the second phase. Online ELectures on Higher Education Portal for e-learning repository will now be made available under this ambitious project.
Smart Science Labs at Seven Division Headquarters Colleges: In seven selected Government Colleges at Divisional HQ, smart science lab will soon be established, which shall serve as centres of educational excellence that will showcase the Virtual reality, Augmented Reality experiments to help students visualise the scientific content.
Crowdsourced Social Platform for Education: To expand the horizon of sharing knowledge with students and teachers on the same online education platform, use of Artificial Intelligence for the resource of knowledge sharing as a virtual repository is also being enhanced. This will also serve as Quick Response System (QRS) for students.
Bolstering the Idea of WI-FI Campuses: To increase the access of digital content among students of all government colleges, free Wi-fi facility is being provided to students. This will not only enhance the e-learning habits in the students but will also give a boost to Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) to be given to students.
BSNL Internet Lease Line Facility to Colleges: To provide high-speed Internet facility in Government colleges, four Mbps dedicated lease-line is being provided by BSNL in about 115 government colleges.
Library Automation: In selected 40 Govt colleges, initially, the library is being computerised using web-based library computerisation software and through it, integration of all the libraries will be carried out in a phased manner.
Aadhar-enabled Biometric Attendance System: The attendance of all teaching and non-teaching employees of the Government Colleges is now being made on Aadhar-Enabled Biometric Attendance System which is integrated with “Raj Upasthiti” online module. This will bring in increased transparency in the overall attendance system.
Digital Classroom by CISCO under CSR: A number of Digital Classrooms are being established in all 44 Govt Girls colleges by CISCO under CSR to share online lectures among each other.
Spoken Tutorials for Free or Open Source Software (FOSS) Courses: An initiative (available at http://spoken-tutorial.org), powered by MHRD Part of NMEICT through Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay as a partner to about 104 Government colleges was identified to encourage students to use free of cost audio-video e-learning resource to learn FOSS software – useful for UG/PG classes.
The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) through its higher education regulator University Grants Commission (UGC) is going to tighten the norms for higher education institutes for ensuring quality education is imparted to students.
MHRD has initiated a massive exercise to scrutinise hundreds of legislations so that the mushrooming of private universities across the country does not lead to a decline in the standard of education, according to a senior official familiar with the developments.
The exercise is expected to begin mid-November and being led by the UGC, which has already collected at least 300 state acts. A team of legal consultants working with Niti Aayog will study these acts to give a holistic picture, the official added.
UGC is already working on revising parameters for the setting up of universities. “There have been concerns about the standard of education in the hundreds of private universities spread across the country, and also about to maintaining quality. There have been reports of varsities with insufficient infrastructure, including some functioning from just a few rooms,” said the ministry official on condition of anonymity.
The hundreds of acts under which private universities are set up in different states will be examined in light of the latest parameters that the regulator will soon come up with, said the official. “The idea is to identify any lacunae or gaps that lead to a laxity in the maintenance of educational standards, and ways to address them.”
“The government is in favour of granting more funds and more autonomy to institutions that provide quality education, but ensuring that standards are not diluted is a key premise. Therefore, it is believed this exercise would go a long way in addressing quality concerns,” the official said.
NITI Aayog and Microsoft India have partnered to deploy Artificial Intelligence (AI) based solutions across various sectors such as agriculture and healthcare.
According to the partnership, Microsoft India will support Niti Aayog by combining the cloud, AI, research and its expertise for various initiatives and solutions across core areas including agriculture, healthcare and the environment. Microsoft will also accelerate the use of AI for the development and adoption of local language computing, in addition to building capacity for AI among the workforce through education.
NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said, “For our country, the power of Artificial Intelligence needs to be brought to bear in sectors like healthcare, education, environment and agriculture, which are important for the inclusive development of India.”
“Simultaneously, we should utilize the power of AI to build understanding of the different regional languages prevalent in India.” The partnership will help Niti Aayog move beyond pilots and understand how to scale AI implementation in sector characterized by a preponderance of public goods,” he added.
Anant Maheshwari, President – Microsoft Indiasaid, “AI holds the power to reinvent how we solve societal challenges for socio-economic advancement and support the country’s growth. Microsoft is constantly pushing the boundaries of what technology can do for people and for the world. This collaboration reiterates our efforts to empower every person and organization to do more through technology.”
The Narendra Modi Government has sanctioned Rs 3,074 crore for setting up permanent campuses of two new Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) in Tirupati and Berhampur cities in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha respectively.
A decision was taken in this regard during a cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said it on Tuesday following the Cabinet meet.
Stating that the Tirupati centre was part of Andhra Pradesh package while Berhampur centre was a budget announcement, Prasad said: “A total of 1,855 students will study in both the institutions that will be operational from December 21. Both the states have given land for the construction of these campuses and the total cost is Rs 3,070.12 crore.”
A unique workshop on Cosmetology & Aesthetic Medicine was recently held in Chandigarh, also described as the City Beautiful. It was organised by the Institute of Laser and Aesthetic Medicine (ILAMED) one of the few professional educational institutions providing training and hands-on courses in Cosmetology & Aesthetic Medicine.
The development of cosmetology represents an important breakthrough in health and beauty sciences. Great technological developments have already taken place in this field and many are yet to occur, said Dr Ajay Rana, Founder and Director of ILAMED.
“In parallel, there is a growing interest from the clients, who are looking for personalised cosmetic solutions. Simultaneously, Aesthetic Medicine is meeting an unprecedented boom in India, with an increasingly growing number of people in demand of aesthetic care.”
“There is a constant need for trained practitioners and ILAMED is providing the required knowledge & practical training in this area through these workshops all across the country,” he added.
Speaking about the workshop, one of the participants Dr Surinder Singh Surya from Himachal Pradesh, Practitioner and Sonologist and also the President of Sonologist Association of Himachal Pradesh, said:
“Before opting for this course we were unaware. But then I came to know about the techniques used around the world. The content of the course is so wonderful and the way Dr Ajay taught us is really marvelous.”
Students will now be able to get admission in higher institutions without submitting original academic and personal certificate at the time of submission of admission forms. A notification is being issued by UGC in this regard, Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Wednesday.
“From the next academic session, it will become mandatory for students to submit self-attested academic credentials along with admission form,” Javadekar said while briefing media about the new notification to be applicable to undergraduate, postgraduate and research programmes run by universities and deemed universities.
The Minister said the students would also be able to have their fees refunded if they opted out of the programme.
The college, at the time of admission, will verify the original marksheet but will return the original document to the student. As per the new notification, 100 percent fees would be returned in case a student decides to withdraw within 15 days of the notified last date of admission.
“Not more than 5 per cent of the fees paid by the student, subject to a maximum of Rs 5,000 would be deducted as processing fee,” Javadekarsaid.
Within 15 days before the last date, the refund would be 90 percent, within 15 days after the last date of admission it would be 80 percent and between 16 and 30 days after the due date, the refund would be 50 percent.
The minister added that no fees would be returned if a student withdraws after 30 days of the notified last date of admission. The refund has to be made within 15 days of receipt of written application from the student.
“I am very attracted with the idea of the Happiness Curriculum. We are living in the same region and so the tension children (suffer), I think, is the same. But I will say the tension in Afghanistan is more than India because of the conflict situation that we have,” Afghanistan’s Acting Education Minister Mohammad Mirwais Balkhi said.
“From the next academic session, it will become mandatory for students to submit self-attested academic credentials along with admission form,” Javadekar said while briefing media about the new notification to be applicable to undergraduate, postgraduate and research programmes run by universities and deemed universities.
