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| AICTE
approval for Carpet and Textile
Technology Course in UP |
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The All-India Council for Technical
Education (AICTE) and the Uttar Pradesh
Technical University has given approval
for starting a B.Tech. Course in carpet
and textile technology at the Indian
Institute of Carpet Technology, Bhadohi.
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| List
of 1,000 National Talent Scheme
awardees declared |
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A thousand students
have been declared successful in the
National Talent Search Examination organised
by the National Council of Educational
Research and Training (NCERT) this year.
Of these, 150 students belong to the
scheduled castes and 75 to the scheduled
tribes category. The results are available
on: www.ncert.nic.in
The national talent scheme (NTS) identifies
talent at the Class X level and provides
for monthly scholarships and annual
book grants. The NTS awardees continue
to receive the scholarships up to Ph.D.
level for pursuing their education in
basic sciences and social sciences. |
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| India's
7th IIT - Regional Engineering
College, Roorkee |
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Established in 1847
as the Roorkee College, this institution
was made the country's first technical
University in 1949. It has 320-strong
faculty, running 19 academic departments
and 26 other units. It offers 54 programmes
in engineering, architecture and science.
It has had eminent personalities as
Vice Chancellors like Dr. A. N. Khosla,
Dr. M.R. Chopra, Dr. Jagdish Narayan
and Prof. H.C. Visveswarayya.
Commenting on the IIT's new status,
senior faculty members like Dr. Madhurjee
and Dr. S.S. Jain felt that this will
help them tide off the financial crisis,
and restore the placement and higher
education prospects of the students.
While this will lead to Rorkee now sporting
a premium cachet, and its grad getting
better placements, the tens of thousands
of engineering aspirants might rightly
feel that this is a bit of a sleight
of hand. For it is not as if REC. Roorkee's
elevation means addition to the number
of good quality engineering seats in
the country. |
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| China
Plays English catch-up |
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Record numbers of children
from mainland China are enrolling in
British public schools as the communist
power's nouveau riche seeks the cachet
of a traditional English education.
More than 500 Chinese pupils joined
elite boarding schools such as Roedean,
Charterhouse, Malvern and Harrow last
year, with at least as many again expected
to follow suit this academic term.
The Independent Schools Information
Service (Isis) estimates that there
are now almost 1,300 pupils from mainland
China attending public schools in Britain,
with the 525 new arrivals last year
outstripping those from more wealthy
countries such as Japan (403), and West
Asian nations (185). |
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| Delhi
High Court Steps in to ensure
there are plenty of teachers in
schools |
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| The Delhi High Court
has directed the government to plan
its recruitment process of teachers
in such a way that there is zero vacancy
when the schools start a new session. |
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| Universities
can launch technical courses without
AICTE approval: Supreme Court's
Landmark judgement |
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The
Supreme Court has ruled that it is
not obligatory for a university, created
under an Act of a competent legislature,
to seek and secure prior approval
of the All India Council for Technical
Education (AICTE) to start a department
for imparting a course or programme
in technical education or a technical
institution as an adjunct to the university
itself to conduct technical courses
of its choice and selection.
Delivering the judgment Mr. Justic
S. Rajendra Babu, upheld plea of the
Bharathidasan University to commence
courses in technology such as information
technology & management, bio-engineering
& technology, petrochemical engineering
& technology, pharmaceutical engineering
and technology, etc. without securing
the prior approval of the AICTE.
The bench which included Mr. Justice
Doraiswamy Raju set aside the verdict
of the Madras High Court (HC) - which
had held that it was obligatory on
the part of the appellant-university
to secure prior approval of the AICTE
to commence the specified technical
courses.
Allowing an appeal from the appellant-university
against the judgment of the HC, the
Bench dismissed a writ petition from
AICTE which contended that the appellant-university
did not secure its (AICTE's) prior
approval for commencing the said technical
courses, as obligated under statutory
regulations made under the AICTE Act,
1987.
(The HC's impugned verdict was given
on a writ petition from AICTE against
the university in this regard.)
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| Rs.
5 lakh fee hike for aspiring helicopter
pilots |
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The decision of Hindustan
Aeronautics Ltd's (HAL) Rotary Wing
Academy to increase the flying time
of trainee helicopter pilots from 100
to 150 hours, midway through the course,
has thrown parents into a tailspin.
Parents of the 10 cadets who had already
forked out almost Rs 10 lakh for the
100-hour training will now have to shell
out an additional Rs 5 lakh to complete
the training. |
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| US
Remains clear favourite among
Indian students |
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Why does the United
States remain the most popular study
destination for Indians? Be it business
management, engineering, information
technology or medicine, a number of
students are heading towards the USA,
even through it means digging into one's
pocket.
Besides the quality of education, one
of the reasons, experts said, could
be the sheer difficulty of getting through
a good institute or college in India
because of the cutthroat competition.
Universities abroad, however, do not
shut their doors on the basis on percentage
acquired in Class XII examinations.
"Percentages obtained in Class
XII are not the criterion for getting
admission to US universities",
Vijaya Khandavilli, educational advisor
with the United States Educational Foundation
in India, had earlier told The Times
of India. A student is assessed on the
basis of overall performance, including
achievements in Classes IX to XI and
extracurricular activities, she added.
And she may have a point here. According
to the 1999 Indian student locator report
of the IIE-Opendoors, 42,337 students
were studying in the US then. Of these
9,554 were undergraduates. The numbers
are greater in the US than in the United
Kingdom and Australia where the numbers
have started burgeoning only recently. |
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| Shortage
of officers in Armed Forces |
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The armed forces are
facing a shortage of officers; the Army
a shortage of 12099, and the Air Force
and Navy together, a shortage of 13000
officers.
With personnel below the officer rank
(PBOR), the Air Force needs 5000 PBORs
and the Navy 6500 PBORs while the Army
has no shortage.
-Tribune
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| IITs
face shortage of quality teachers |
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IIT Delhi and IIT Kanpur
are both facing difficulty in recruiting
teachers. Those who meet their exacting
standards get better offers from corporates.
With a starting salary that is higher
than what a professor gets after 15-20
years of work, few of the younger generation
are willing to invest time and money
in getting higher qualifications, research
and teaching. A fresh graduate gets
Rs 4-10 lakhs per annum whereas a professor
gets Rs 3.6 lakhs per annum even after
15-20 years. Teaching is therefore virtually
the last option.
-TOI Apr 4
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| IIFM
makes a grade |
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The Indian Institute
of Forest Management has improved dramatically
and is now recognised as an institute
of excellence. For the second consecutive
year, all the Post-Graduate Diploma-holders
in Forest Management were picked up
by reputed companies from India and
abroad. The average pay packet was Rs
3.03 lakh p.a. with the highest offer
being Rs 9 lakh p.a. from Olam Internationals,
Singapore.
Only 25 out of 35 organisations were
invited to the "placement week"
at the campus in January, after considering
the job profiles and packages offered.
-Tribune Feb 28
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| Separate
entrance test for management quota
seats |
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The All-India Medical
& Engineering Colleges Association
(AIMECA) has appealed to the Supreme
Court to implement a separate All-India
Common Entrance Test for management
quota seats in medical and engineering
colleges throughout the country as per
its Islamic Academy Judgment.
The AIMECA, (with 1560 institutions
under its control) claims that 3 lakh
seats remained unfilled last year while
thousands of students were deprived
of admission because of the absence
of this test.
-Mar 4
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| Biotechnology
- New Govt Policy |
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Hoping to tap 10-12%
of this sunrise sector, the Govt. has
drafted a new policy which proposes
exemptions from compulsory licensing,
100% FDI and setting up of new centres
of excellence to create specialists
in biotechnology.
It has called for a National Biotechnology
Regulatory Authority which will safeguard
and maintain ethical standards in research
and application in biotechnology. Stem
cell research will be supported in accordance
with national guidelines.
The policy promises to implement recommendations
of the Swaminathan Committee on agri-biotech
and Mashelkar committee on bio-pharma
while attempting to reverse the brain
drain, and formulate model PG and UG
curricula in life sciences and biotechnology.
the number of scholarships in biotechnology
would be increased from 50 to 200 and
post-doctoral fellowships from 25 to
200. Enhanced hands-on training for
MSc biotech students through association
with industry, CSIR labs and other appropriate
institutes is also envisaged.
-TOI Apr 4
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| IQ
of 200, not good enough for a
job |
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According to Ananova,
Daniela Simidchieva, a Bulgarian with
the same IQ as chemist Marie Curie (200),
has been jobless for 2 years. Despite
having studied sociology, economics,
and education from Bulgaria and Britain,
with five Masters degrees to boot and
being a professionally qualified industrial
engineer, electrical engineer, and English
teacher, she feels employers don't want
clever employees.
-Nov 8, 2004
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| DU
affiliation to cost Rs. 5 crore |
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At last month's academic
council (AC) meeting of Delhi University
recommendations for updating affiliation
norms were mooted. Instead of the Rs.3
lakh endowment fund (ordinance XVIII,
1-A), it proposes to ask for Rs 5 crore
from institutes seeking affiliation
besides the Rs 1 lakh charged as processing
fee.
The one-time recognition fee for postgraduate
and professional courses will be Rs
10 lakh while for undergraduate courses
it will be Rs 5 lakh. Students registered
in affiliated institutes will have to
pay registration fees of Rs 2000 and
Rs1000 per annum for PG and UG programs
respectively.
Tthe left-wing Democratic Teachers Front
feels that private players are obviously
being encouraged to apply.
-TOI
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| Fake
US varsity operating in India |
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The state of Hawaii's
Consumer Protection Department of Commerce
and Consumer Affairs has alerted the
UGC about a "American University
of Hawaii" (AUH) offering unaccredited
degrees in India, Lebanon, Republic
of Georgia and other countries (18 in
countries in all). The UGC says it received
a letter from the United States Educational
Foundation in India informing them of
the status of AUH.
Incorporated in Hawaii, it has a small
office in Maui but is run by a British
citizen of Iranian descent out of California
and has almost no US students. The Office
of Consumer Protection of the State
of Hawaii has obtained an injunction
barring the university from doing business.
However UGC has not issued a warning
to students yet and is still to ascertain
the possible number of students enrolled
and the whereabouts of the university.
-Tribune March 31
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| Protesting
Rai University students arrested |
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Some students, protesting
at ITO to bring the issue of their university's
affiliation to Pandit Ravi Shanker Shukla
University to the Govt's notice, were
arrested. However, Vinay Rai, founder
chairperson of the university, has said
that the application to affiliate with
it is under process and he expects things
to be through by April 22.
-TOI
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