Govt trying to make education affordable

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August 3, 2017

Minister of State for Human Resource Development Dr Mahendra Nath Pandey on Monday said the Government is working on several regulatory measures to keep the cost of higher education affordable.

According to the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), a survey conducted in the 2011-12 financial year on the Household Consumer Expenditure, the percentage of monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE) on education to the household MPCE is 3.5 % and 6.9% for rural and urban India respectively.

In a written reply to a Lok Sabha question, the minister stated: “The fee structure within the government universities and colleges is minimal. With a perspective to monitor the fees structure in professional/ technical institutions, The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has introduced Justice Srikishna Committee to supervise the fees structure within the institutions.”

He said this information has been shared with the State Governments. State governments have also set up their board to regulate fees structure in professional and technical institutions.

The considered list of universities must publish the details of their fees structure within their prospectus, according to the University Grants Commission UGC (Institutions Deemed to be Universities) Regulations 2016. Also, capitation fee is not allowed in these institutions.

It was stated that the Central Government has no formal regulatory mechanism for schools. Private schools affiliated with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) are regulated under CBSE guidelines.

The minister also said that in some States, at the school level, this mechanism exists through administrative guidelines and/or legislations.

Government schemes providing funds for poor students

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August 2, 2017

The Government has said it is sensitive towards the students’ needs who belong to the economically weaker sections of the society and it is committed to ensure equity in access to higher education.

In a written reply to the Minister of State for Human Resource Development Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey on Monday in a written reply to a Lok Sabha question said: “Under the Central Sector Scheme of Scholarship scheme for College and University Students, financial assistance is provided to meritorious students having family income of less than Rs. 6 lakh per annum to meet a part of their day-to-day expenses while pursuing higher studies”.

Students who are above 80th percentile of successful candidates in the relevant streams from a particular Board of Examination in class XII of 10+2 pattern or equivalent and pursuing regular course and not availing of any other scholarship are eligible for consideration under this scheme.

It was informed that further, under the Central Sector Scheme of Interest Subsidy on Education Loan interest subsidy is provided to all students belonging to Economically Weaker Section (EWS), with an annual parental income up to Rs.4.5 lakhs.

The Scheme provides for full interest subsidy during the period of moratorium (i.e. duration of recognised professional course plus 1 year) on educational loans availed of by all students belonging to EWS from Scheduled Banks, including Co-operative & Regional Rural banks, as per the Model Educational Loan Scheme of Indian Banks’ Association.

The minister also informed that the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been launched with the objective of making best use of ICT with the purpose of identification and nurturing of talent and life-long learning as well as extending the education facility to a larger section of people.

IITs seek more funds for project Vishwajeet

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August 2, 2017

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are seeking more government funds to make headway with Project Vishwajeet, which aims to help the country’s best engineering institutions to climb to the top league of global academic rankings.

Some established IITs have asked for upwards of Rs 1,500 crore over a five-year period for the project, announced a year ago but is yet to be formally launched.

Of the total of 23 IITs, only the seven old IITs are part of the Vishwajeet project.

The plan allocation — funds earmarked in the Union budget —to IITs, especially the old ones, had fallen over the past few years.

The government has raised the total allocation to IITs by Rs 2,468 crore to Rs 7,856 crore for fiscal 2017-18, said an official from the ministry of human resources development (MHRD).

IIT officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they were aware of the small hike in government allocation, but were still waiting for an official confirmation. They want separate funds for Project Vishwajeet.

At IIT Bombay, the plan allocation for fiscal 2014-15 was Rs 200 crore, which dropped to Rs 157.5 crore last year. IIT Roorkee witnessed a 33% drop in funds over the past three years.

“Plan funds we received from MHRD have been decreasing significantly year on year for the past couple of years, almost by about Rs 20 crore per year,” an IIT Bombay official told Economic time in response to an email.

“There are some indications that apart from our regular budget, we will receive some funds under Project Vishwajeet initiative this year, but have not yet received a sanction letter,” the official added.

Other IITs are too not happy with the marginal rise in funds.

IIT Delhi received Rs 500 crore each in last two years from the government. It had asked for Rs 2,000 crore for the project

According to a senior official at IIT Delhi, though there is no official communication from the government, but
it seems there will be a 20% rise in funds this year”.

Project Vishwajeet seeks to improve the position of Indian educational institutions in global rankings such as QS and Times.

Jamia, Iranian University collaborate for innovations and research

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August 2, 2017

Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) and Iran’s AI-Mustafa International University have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a long-term academic collaboration in the field of research, education and innovation.

With this strategic initiative, JMI aims to explore newer academic areas and various other aspects of education and usher in a new era in building a relationship across different educational institutions.

The MoU will enable the two institutions to collaborate in the field of research, restructuring of courses, development of newer teaching and learning modules and undertaking interdisciplinary studies and promotion of international understanding, said a statement from the New Delhi based Indian Central University.

Moreover, this collaboration will foster faculty and student exchange, research collaborations in various new subjects like humanities, culture, Persian language and literature, management, mass communication and other courses.

To facilitate students with newer avenues of education, the institutions will be conducting conferences, seminars, workshops, sharing of academic data, and publications.

Speaking on the occasion, Vice Chancellor JMI, Prof. Talat Ahmad stated: “Common academic areas should be explored and identified for research and exchange of faculty and students. He added that the rich cultures of Iran and India should be studied to develop better understanding between the two countries.”

Jamia Millia Islamia signed agreements with three other reputed universities of Iran, namely, Payame Noor University, National Institute of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology and Allameh Tabataba’I University, Iran.

BSF, NSDC sign MoU for skill training

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August 1, 2017

In a bid to provide skill–training to retired BSF personnel and those about to retire soon, and to the population residing in the border areas, the BSF has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).

“In the continuous journey of strengthening human resources within and in vicinity on 31st July, 2017, BSF signed MoU with NSDC (National Skill Development Corporation) to provide “Skill –training to retired BSF personnel and those who are on the verge of retirement, as well as to the population residing in the border areas,” an official communique stated on Monday.

The agreement is aimed to contribute to the Skill Development Agenda of the country by ensuring the successful roll out of NSQF (National Skill Qualification Framework) based skill training to the retiring or retired BSF personnel and local population at the area of deployment through NSQF compliant training programmes at multi-skill development centres run by the BSF.

It is hoped to help in meeting the aspirations of the stakeholders for training and employment.

This collaboration aims to train and provide gainful employment to retired BSF personnel and their families, school students, youth, differently-abled for five years starting from April 2017 to April 2022.

The project will be of a limited time period (5 years) and in mission mode. As such, the curriculum development and capacity building should be encouraged to enable the model to be self-sustaining over time.

“The programme will be appropriately named keeping the objectives in view and will have BSF co-branding with Skill India and NSDC,” an official communique said.

During the MoU signing ceremony Rajiv Pratap Rudy, the Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, KirenRijiju, the MoS (Home), Ministry of Home Affairs, K K Sharma, Director General, BSF, Rajesh Agrawal, Jt. Secretary, to Ministry of Skill Development And Entrepreneurship (MSDE) and CEO from National Skill Development Fund (NSDF), Manish Kumar, Chief Executive Officer from NSDC and senior officers of BSF were also present.

Various digital initiatives launched under National Mission on Education via ICT: Govt

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August 1, 2017

Under the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology, various digital initiatives have been launched by the government, the Parliament has been informed.

HRD Minister of State Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey on Monday in a written reply to a question raised in the Lok Sabha said: “The Ministry of Human Resource Development recently organised a National Convention on Digital Initiatives for Higher Education, from 8th to 10th July, 2017 at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi, where all Vice-chancellors of Central Universities, Deemed-to- be Universities, Private Universities, State Universities, State Private Universities, Directors of Central Institutes such as IITs, IIMs, IISERs, IISc, IIITs, NITs and other central institutes also participated.”

The minister stated that “various digital initiatives under the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology,” were formally launched by President Pranab Mukherjee, namely:

(i) SWAYAM, an indigenous MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) Platform for providing best quality education to anyone, anytime and anywhere using the IT System;

(ii) SWAYAM Prabha, the 32 Direct-to- Home Channels for transmitting high quality educational content on 24X7 basis direct to every home, without any charge; and

(iii) The National Academic Depository (NAD), a digital depository which authenticates all the certificates issued by Institutions as per the need of the users.

From August 1, Govt. degree colleges to begin at 9 am:Karnataka

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July 29, 2017

The Department of Collegiate Education (DCE), Government of Karnataka, has revised the timings and announced that classes in government degree colleges across the State will commence from 9 am with effect from August 1. Last academic year, a majority of the colleges had classes from 10 am.

Recently, the state Department of Collegiate Education had issued an order mandating the government degree colleges to start their classes from 8 am.

From this academic year, classes in these colleges commenced at 8 am, but it was changed to 10 am recently following pressure from students and faculty members. A lecturers’ association approached Karnataka Higher Education Minister Basavaraj Rayaraddi and told him that students and faculty members were finding it difficult to reach colleges at 8 am.

The revised order does mention about the inconvenience caused to the students in reaching the college early for 8am classes owing to lack of transport, especially in the coastal and rural areas.

An order by MN Ajay Nagabhushan, Commissioner, DCE states that the colleges that were running in two shifts will, however, have to commence classes at 8 am Laboratory classes will also begin at 8 am. There are 411 government first grade degree colleges in the State.”

However, the circular has also directed the colleges not to cut down or shorten the extra-curricular activities due to the change in the timings

COMEDK to conduct counselling to fill engineering seats

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July 29, 2017

The Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMEDK) has decided to conduct an extended round of counselling by the end of July to fill vacant seats in private unaided engineering colleges based on merit.

The Admission Overseeing Committee (AOC) on Thursday moved the Court seeking a direction to the Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering Colleges’ Association (KUPECA) and the COMEDK to conduct an extended round of counselling to fill a large number of seats based on merit before transferring these seats to the management quota.

Karnataka Professional Colleges Foundation, in their endeavor to offer an effective, fair and objective testing procedure to determine merit of students seeking admission to the member institutions, have formed “Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka” (COMEDK).

COMEDK has been assigned the task of organising a common entrance test for the current academic year.

Fujitsu offers Management Scholarships

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July 28, 2017

Fujitsu India has launched the management scholarships-a three-and-a-half-month certificate management programme- providing an opportunity for business professionals to continue education.

Titled ‘Global Leaders for Innovation and Knowledge’, the scholarship will provide opportunities to innovative leaders through exposure to a gamut of knowledge including management theory, liberal arts and, methodology.

Fujitsu Scholarship: http://www.fujitsu.com/scholarship

Offered by Fujitsu-JAIMS Foundation, the scholarship will promote a robust business growth in the Asia-Pacific regions by providing future global leaders with an opportunity to enrich their education.

Global Leaders for Innovation and Knowledge: http://www.jaims.jp/en/program/index.html

Based on the vision of Dr. Ikujiro Nonaka, Professor Emeritus of Hitotsubashi University and, the global authority in knowledge creation theory, the scholarship is available to the citizens of Australia, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Taiwan.

To apply for the scholarship the applicants must have a bachelor’s degree or a degree equivalent to a four-year standard baccalaureate degree in any discipline from a regionally or nationally accredited Institution, a minimum TOEFL score of 577/233/90 (paper/computer/Internet), TOEIC score of 750, or IELTS(Academic) overall band test result of 6.5 or higher from a test taken within the last five years at the time of application, a minimum of three years of relevant full-time work experience (five years preferred) at the time of application.

How to Apply: http://www.fujitsu.com/global/about/csr/activities/community/scholarship/process/

Fujitsu established this scholarship programme in 1985 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the company’s founding. The scholarship is aimed to provide the opportunity for people from the Asia-Pacific region and Hawaii, to contribute to their home countries by studying management. The scholarship has since been offered to 521 professionals.

Two IISER to be established in Tirupati and Berhampur

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July 28, 2017

Two new Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) will be set up in Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh) and Berhampur (Odisha).The National Institutes of Technology, Science Education and Research (NITSER) Amendment Bill, has been passed in the Rajya Sabha on 26th July 2017 which proposes to introduce these two new institutions. Previously, the Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha on 28th March, 2017.

HRD State Minister Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey informing the Rajya Sabha said: “The Bill proposes to introduce two new Institutions namely Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Tirupati and IISER Berhampur in the Second Schedule of the NITSER Act, 2007.”

In a bid to promote quality education and research in the sciences, five IISERs at Kolkata (2006), Pune (2006), Mohali (2007), Bhopal (2008) and Thiruvananthapuram (2008) are already operational.

The presence of IISERs in various States/ geographical locations will cater to the need for quality education in science and research segment.

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