News and views about the Education in India

Weekly news updates on trends and happenings in the Indian Education scene

- Chillibreeze Business Research Team

Court asks UGC to include Amity name in website

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed the University Grants Commission (UGC) to include the name of Amity University in its website in the non-statutory category.

The UGC website has names of some institutions which are not recognised universities but as registered institutional bodies. Justice B.D. Ahmed said: "UGC is a public body and performs public functions, although it has discretion in maintaining or not maintaining a list of universities. Once the discretion is exercised, it must be reasonable and not arbitrary."

Amity University, earlier recognised as a university registered at Chhattisgarh, was de-recognised by an order of the Supreme Court. In December last year it had sought directions to the UGC to incorporate its name in the list of universities.

The petition filed by Raj Singh, pro-vice chancellor of the university, maintained that the university was granted the status of a university by the governor of Uttar Pradesh on March 24, 2005.

But despite repeated reminders, Amity was yet to receive any favourable response, said the petition.

July 04, 2007 
Source: IANS via indiaedunews.net

Indian exchange students excel in US schools

Indian exchange students have excelled in American schools with a student from Gujarat becoming the new teenage speech champion in Georgia, a southern US state.

Arundhati Sridhar, who came to Georgia to experience American life and teach Americans about her country, not only outdid secondary school competitors in the state, but also went on to South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas, New Mexico and Kansas to take part in the "nationals" competition of the National Forensic League.

Sridhar was one of 32 students from India who came to attend US secondary schools during the 2006-2007 academic year through the Youth Exchange and Study Programme, a competitive scholarship funded by the US state department.

This was the second year students from India participated in the programme, which brings teens from countries with significant Muslim populations to the United States to promote mutual understanding and develop leadership skills, according to USINFO, a state department website.

The Indian students, while taking rigorous courses in the United States, including advanced placement literature, environmental science and trigonometry - also seized the opportunity to expand their personal interests.

Taking advantage of the diverse curricula of American schools, they chose from alternatives like drama, photography classes, speech and video production.

USINFO said the Indian students gushed about extracurricular activities they enjoyed - snowboarding, whale watching, visiting the Martin Luther King centre, dissecting a whale with a marine biologist and volunteering at a nature centre to study invasive plants.

July 03, 2007 
Source: IANS via indiaedunews.net

Off the field

It's a field with a USP that's hard to beat — if you love sports that is. Sports management offers the heat, dust, glamour and passion of being a sportsman to the professionals who work behind the scenes promoting sports and guiding the brands that emerge off the field. And now, for perhaps the first time in India, sports management is emerging as a viable career option for those with the right mix of attitude and aptitude.

Over the past few years, a slew of private companies that work in either one or a number of sports disciplines, that are helping to promote and market the sport and its players to the public and corporate India, have prospered in the country. As the sports industry continues to grow, so does the need for management specialists who have the relevant business skills and are sensitive to the unique features of the sports enterprise.

Sports management involves planning, supervising and organising various sporting activities such as international and domestic tournaments for games such as cricket, football, hockey, and golf, amongst others.

Although anybody with a basic educational background can enter the sports industry, a degree in sports management or a related field is certainly preferred. Students should also note that a Bachelor's in Physical Education or any other sport would prove to be an added advantage. One could also pursue a postgraduate programme in sports management in India.

July 2, 2007
Source: The Economic Times

IAS still the preferred option - ASSOCHAM survey

Brushing aside the complaints of falling standards and lower salary packages, the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) remains to be the preferred option for students owing to its perks, social status and job security.

These were the results drawn out of the survey, 'Have Civil Services lost their charm with advancement in Liberalization', conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

About 300 executives from the corporate sector were interviewed on the topic and 80 percent of them said that the cream of country was being drawn by the IAS, IFS and IPS. They asserted that every candidate does not have the capability to withstand the rigidity of the layers of civil services examinations.

Furthermore, about 65 percent of the executives felt that even though careers in information technology, communication etc has opened up due to liberalization, IAS continued to attract the first grade talent of the country.

Even though the private sector offers the youth handsome salary packages as compared to the public sector, certainty of job is still missing.

July 02, 2007 
Source: indiaedunews.net

Cartoons to dispel science phobia for students

The dry text of science books often despised by school-children will now get animated with the addition of cartoon characters. In its recently published science textbook for Class 7 students, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has introduced two cartoon characters, 'Boojho' and 'Paheli', who ask a lot of questions and are also on the lookout for answers.

"Our aim is to dispel the fear of science from the mind of students. Through the cartoons we have tried to make the book interactive and student-friendly," said Hukum Singh, head of the department of science and mathematics at NCERT.

"They discuss questions with each other, sometimes with participation of students in the class, teachers and even their parents. At times they emulate real-life situations to make the subject more understandable," Singh said.

"The best way to make a thing simple is through photographs and examples and both the cartoons are in the same role. Attempts have been made to recall children's own experience and build concepts around them," Singh added.

He said that since the textbook is for millions of school students across the country, many activities have been suggested to clarify concepts. Through these cartoons, the book has shown the students how to carry out many science experiments and activities.

July 01, 2007 
Source: IANS via indiaedunews.net

Creating digital concepts

Design education and applied research is the in-thing now and capitalising on it, the National Institute of Design (NID), located off Tumkur Road in Bangalore, has launched a postgraduate programme in Design for Digital Experience.

Darlie D. Koshy, director of the institution, says that though India has a rich culture and history, it can hardly boast of 3,000 designers whereas the demand is for more than 30,000 designers. Creative and innovative brains are in huge demand and NID aims to bridge the gap between supply and demand.

The PG programme focuses on human experience in the context of designing products (information kiosks, handheld communication and navigation devices and other e-products) and services (e-health, e-banking software applications, digital libraries) in the digital/electronic domain.

The duration of the programme is two years, which is divided into four semesters. During the initial semesters, the focus will be on promoting development of skills.

July 3, 2007
Source: Hindu

Tech students are market savvy

Industry-academia partnership is a fashionable phrase both in academic and industry circles. B-schools often proclaim their relevance by citing MoUs signed with private firms. Corporates go to town every time their corporate social responsibility rubs academia the right way. Yet, the two fields mostly work in isolation. That is just one pointer of a recent survey, which went beyond such partnerships to pan such sensitive issues as compensation and student perception.

First, the big findings of the “Compensation Survey and Student Perception Study” unveiled recently by Campus Connec, a division of the HR consultancy firm CareerNet Consulting: Only 2.5 per cent of the engineering graduates get upwards of Rs. 7 lakh while 63 per cent get hired between Rs. 2 lakh and Rs. 4 lakh per annum. Forty-five per cent students prefer IT product companies, followed by the financial services companies and Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) firms. Surprisingly, IT services are placed at the bottom.

The survey was conducted across 110 technology schools/engineering colleges all over India, and involved more than 1,300 students besides compensation data shared by 30 IT companies.

CareerNet Consulting co-founder Rishi Das explains the rationale behind the survey: “Some corporate houses have already started recruiting from colleges outside India, with a few covering the entire APAC region. A comprehensive ‘Perception Survey’ was the need of the hour in order to find out the gaps between academia, industry and the student expectations.”

The survey revealed that at the campus level, 45 per cent of the students prefer IT product companies followed by semi-conductor, High End Computing and VLSI segments. This is followed by the financial services companies and KPOs. The IT services companies are the least preferred, the sector being the choice of only 7.7 per cent male candidates and 19 per cent female.

Explains Mr. Das, “Smaller companies involved with product design or semi- conductors currently reach just 80 to 100 colleges, thereby having access to a maximum of 10,000 students. However, given the nature of their requirements and numbers, they need to put added efforts in campus branding, incubation programmes and joint collaborations in research and development.”

But the bigger brand names which are largely into services today virtually cover more than 300 engineering colleges, and by implication over 400,000 engineering students. Students from Grade A colleges are able to obtain offers of their choice in the ratio 2:1, while the ratio is 3:1 in Grade B colleges and 5:1 in Grade C colleges. This only means that engineers passing out of premier institutes such as the IITs, NITs or BIT are better tuned into market requirements than the other institutes.

For students and the academia, the survey had some revealing facts about where they stood in terms of compensation packages. Despite the boom in the IT industry and talks about million dollar paycheques, only 2.5 per cent of the over 400,000 engineering graduates produced by the country drew upwards of Rs 700,000 per annum.

The survey also found that 63 per cent of the students were hired for salaries between Rs. 2 lakh and Rs. 4 lakh. Companies in the IT products sector were paid in the range of Rs. 5 lakh-Rs. 9 lakh while those in the IT services sector had annual salaries of about Rs. 3.5 lakh. The semi-conductor companies, which have started looking at campus recruitments in a big way, paid around Rs. 4.5 lakh.

The flavour during campus recruitments, the survey found, were the KPO/finance companies which are picking up huge numbers with the most handsome salaries.

On attrition, the survey found that within six months, most freshers would find themselves unhappy with the assignments at the work place. Forty per cent students leave before the end of the first year while another 20 per cent leave in the second year —“a result of wrong choice made during the placement season.” “The need of the hour is to match the student expectations with the market realities,” suggests Mr. Das.

July 3, 2007
Source: Hindu

Now, for some LPO action

The argument that off-shoring, as a practice, can create tremendous employment opportunities is now largely uncontested. It has been validated time and time again, and India is a shining example, arguably the best example.

The Indian BPO industry, which currently employs 6.5 million people, has become the stuff of stories and legends. The benefits of off-shoring have been felt in numerous industry verticals, including health care, research, media and, more recently, the legal industry.

For the legal industry this is a period of tremendous learning and development, and the shape that Legal Process Outsourcing has taken raises incredible possibilities for legal professionals and industry alike.

The Indian higher education machine, and it’s a big one, turns out close to 80,000 law graduates every year.

Of this lot, only a handful, mostly from the top 12-15 law schools (a number not exceeding five per cent of the total graduates), join the law firms and legal departments, or apprentice under good counsel (senior lawyers) at the various courts and tribunals.

A sizeable percentage of the rest pursue other options including the civil services while the remaining majority struggle to succeed in the courts.

LPO opportunities can transform that five per cent to something closer to 40 per cent, by drawing law graduates into work that’s not just large in volume but tremendously diverse. Rising legal costs in the U.S., and more recently in the EU, are amongst a variety of other factors that are driving a diverse portfolio of legal work to India. There is now offshoring work at almost every level of expertise and this is what makes the curry very spicy and appealing to a wide range of legal professionals. For a young legal professional, a career with an LPO is attractive for several reasons: it is a sunrise industry which should see a boom in the next 3-5 years; there is a tremendous variety of work at all levels of expertise; high-end opportunities for graduates of top law schools; attractive remuneration and future management prospects; an opportunity to work in a corporate structure that straddles borders; a learning opportunity for those considering legal and paralegal careers in the U.K. or the U.S.

Forrester Research estimates that there could be a demand for as many as 79,000 LPO professionals in the next 7-8 years.

Only a tiny percentage of graduating lawyers are equipped with all the skills needed for the LPO industry. Capacity building and re-orientation to U.S. legal systems and methodologies will be the key in ensuring success.

Interestingly there is a healthy chunk of work that can be done, or in some cases required to be done, by non-lawyers. For instance, there is a tremendous demand for engineers in the intellectual property work space. The work involves analysing scientific and technological inventions for the purposes of crafting legal protection for the same. This work needs to be done by those with technological skills and hence the opportunities.

One message that’s writ large – professionals who enter the industry now, at this strategic phase, will be best positioned to benefit when it booms in the months to come.

July 3, 2007
Source: Hindu