Monday, 26 March 2018
Internshala to launch Online Summer Internship Fair 2018
Internshala to launch Online Summer Internship Fair 2018
Mumbai: India’s leading internship and training platform, Internshala has announced the launch of Online Summer Internship Fair (OSIF) 2018. With an aim to help students find their dream summer internship, the online event will see 21 leading organisations hire interns through Internshala from 24th-31st March 2018.
In its 3rd edition, the Online Summer Internship Fair 2018 puts emphasis on practical learning through internships. Few of the organisations which are hiring interns as a part of OSIF are Zomato, OYO Rooms, General Motors, Burger King, Reliance Entertainment, Max Healthcare, Mahindra Agri, UrbanClap, WWF, and Chumbak. These leading brands are offering internships for students across India in diverse roles like Engineering, Product Management, Design, Sales and Marketing, Research, Content Writing, Human Resources, Operations, and Finance. Youth Ki Awaaz, the popular media platform, is the Youth Outreach Partner for the online event and will create awareness on the importance of practical learning.
Traditionally, internships are a concept of the west but with growing emphasis to develop practical skills and improve employability, it has gained relevance in India in the past 5 years. A popular myth that resides among students is that finding a summer internship is tough and to land one with a leading brand is even tougher. Internshala came up with the concept of OSIF in 2016 to bust this myth and help students launch their career. Through an internship, college students will get a chance to work on real-world problems, apply theories into practice, learn industry-specific skills, and build a network.
The Government of India, along with educational bodies, is working towards improving the employability of the students, and internships are one of the most powerful tools for it. In 2017, AICTE mandated 3 internships for students in colleges enrolled under its purview and signed an MoU with Internshala to facilitate internships.
On the launch of the Online Summer Internship Fair 2018, Sarvesh Agrawal, the founder and CEO of Internshala, said, “At Internshala, our vision is to create a world full of opportunities for every student by equipping them with relevant skills and practical exposure through internships and trainings. Online Summer Internship Fair will create an awareness among the students about internships, help them understand the importance of practical knowledge, and give them an opportunity to work with India’s best minds. The experience which will come by interning with a leading organisation will not only help their resume stand out but would help them gain immense practical experience.”
Deregulating varsities: Quality is the real issue
Deregulating varsities: Quality is the real issue
Reccently the human resources development ministry, which oversees all higher education in the country, granted autonomy to India’s 52 universities and eight colleges that “maintained high standards” (3.26 or above in NAAC’s assessment). With the implementation of this decision, these universities — five Central, 21 state, 24 deemed and two private — can now set incentive-based salaries to faculty, start new courses and academic programmes, including those online, off-campus centres, skill development courses and research parks. They will also have the freedom to hire foreign faculty, enrol foreign students, enter into academic collaborations and run open distance learning programmes. This kind of autonomy should normally be welcomed if it yields the intended results. But does it?
News reports claim this selective deregulation was a “historic decision”. It’s indeed an important decision — for the 60 institutes concerned. Autonomy is poised to provide a boost to competitiveness and differentiation. By giving freedom to select universities, the HRD ministry has co-opted them into a close perimeter. Inter-university cooperation, lacking in India, may improve among the selected universities. With the availability of potentially unique curricula, universities can finally differentiate their services and delivery, and their products, the graduates. A comparative, experiential observation of independent and UGC systems will reveal independent institutes that have adequate leeway to construct curricula and obtain UGC approval later. This should mean universities already have the opportunity to differentiate themselves qualitatively.
Therefore, in the current deregulatory move, the better performers win. This would be like a corporate model. Primarily, universities that have built themselves up to popular levels enjoy the luxury of admitting students with proven high performance at school grades, standardised tests and other admission criteria. But in our vastly heterogeneous nation, there are also other factors: the social environment, economic status and availability of career counselling. The worry that remains is that universities that are unable to attract such “good performers” will also be unable to meet other standards and resources. Most administrators will admit the real challenge with the UGC is the politics attached to it, along with bureaucratic hurdles that often compel universities to resign themselves to merely complying with the basics.
Private participation is higher education’s big thing, so competitiveness makes sense. The number of universities has grown exponentially in India in this decade, from 367 in 2009 to 833 in 2017, and the share of private (state-legislated) universities has grown the most dramatically in that period, from a mere three per cent to 34 per cent of the mix. Several new private universities have invested in high-quality intellectual capital coupled with the right vision. These universities have invested in differentiating themselves on outcomes and processes. Should outcomes be industry-driven or society-driven? Either way, tangible outcomes are factors of processes such as accountability and training that are within the regulatory guidelines, but are not well-implemented. Professionally and socially meaningful outcomes need better measurement tools. While a February 2018 AICTE report with CII and private research agencies claims that employability has gone up year-on-year over the past four years, an independent industry report in the same month by Nasscom suggests that issues in employability and competency have actually exacerbated.
Currently, most of our universities suffer from uniformity, which does not offer the competitive edge. Individual universities should focus on envisioned outcomes that are specific. Together with internally achievable imperatives like faculty training and curricular reform, universities can create qualitative differentiators. It’s thus possible for universities to be competitive within the existing framework. Universities that wish to adopt a more professional approach to higher education may do so within the UGC norms, as the 60 institutes have shown. Rather than continuing to blame our schooling systems and political governance, universities have the power to enhance their delivery systems even within the ambit of the UGC and improve on the parameters that will produce qualitatively superior graduates.
This may require universities to go beyond the basic mandates of the UGC in terms of curricula and delivery systems. For example, these newly-freed universities should play a new role in fostering cooperation by facilitating credit transfers. Meanwhile, the UGC should take on the task of facilitating inter-university collaborations, beginning with credit transfers and research across universities. In 2014, the UGC introduced the credit transfer system to all Central universities under the Choice-Based Transfer System. This system can apply to be implemented among these 52 universities and eight colleges, to begin with.
Coming as it does a year before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, questions are already being raised of course about the selective deregulation. It’s ironic that among these universities are the ones that have been at the cynosure of controversy — including Jawaharlal Nehru University and Aligarh Muslim University, often the whipping boys of the BJP, as well as Banaras Hindu University, which witnessed a revolt of sorts last year against its vice-chancellor, an RSS man. Notwithstanding the deregulation, let us also acknowledge that where applicable, state governments’ fee regulations and the AICTE’s monitoring should be assumed to be very much in play.
The selective deregulation has the potential to serve as a disincentive to the universities that did not make the list, because the chosen universities can now aggressively expand their footprint, further cementing their leadership positions. This will only help widen the gap between the autonomy-haves and have-nots. If the government is serious about higher education in general, student-driven assessment metrics must be designed. What did a university or college do to transform a student into a better performer, socially and professionally?
On the other hand, the current form of incentivising also means that the universities and colleges that operated — even suffered — under the same UGC system as did all other universities and colleges scored over them. At best, autonomy seems to be a reward for qualitative superiority. Yet the universities that achieved the NAAC grading also somewhat paradoxically evidence the reality that serious-minded educators can indeed succeed within a given framework.
COLLEGE TOLD TO REFUND FEE FOR CANCELLED ADMISSION
COLLEGE TOLD TO REFUND FEE FOR CANCELLED ADMISSION
NMIMS failed to prove seat remained vacant after student pulled out of college, said state consumer disputes redressal commission
The onus of proving financial loss after a student cancels his admission lies on the educational institution and not on the student, the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (SCDRC) has observed, while upholding an order asking an engineering college to refund tuition fee along with interest.
A panel of judicial member Usha Thakare and member SS Kakade of the SCDRC made this observation in an appeal filed by SVKM’s Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) against an order asking them to refund Rs 1,75,000 of an Andheri resident’s admission fee along with interest. NMIMS had contended that they should not be made liable to return the money collected from the student, identified as Andheri resident Vidyut Rajkotia, as he had cancelled his admission a month into the course due to which the seat remained vacant.
The onus of proving financial loss after a student cancels his admission lies on the educational institution and not on the student, the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (SCDRC) has observed, while upholding an order asking an engineering college to refund tuition fee along with interest.
A panel of judicial member Usha Thakare and member SS Kakade of the SCDRC made this observation in an appeal filed by SVKM’s Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) against an order asking them to refund Rs 1,75,000 of an Andheri resident’s admission fee along with interest. NMIMS had contended that they should not be made liable to return the money collected from the student, identified as Andheri resident Vidyut Rajkotia, as he had cancelled his admission a month into the course due to which the seat remained vacant.
While AICTE rules allow institutes to keep the money if the seat remained vacant, the court observed that the institute failed to produce documentary evidence supporting the same. “ the district forum rightly observed that burden of proof lies on the opponent/appellant institute (NMIMS) to prove financial loss. It was for the appellant to substantiate what was the capacity of the class, how many admissions were done and how many seats remained vacant,” the panel observed.
In his original complaint to the Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Rajkotia had said that he had taken admission in Mukesh Patel School of Technology Management and Engineering (a constituent school of NMIMS) without appearing for their entrance test on July 20 2010. He paid Rs 2,05,000 as tuition fee for the computer science course.
Source: https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/civic/college-told-to-refund-fee-for-cancelled-admission/articleshow/63457034.cms
In his original complaint to the Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Rajkotia had said that he had taken admission in Mukesh Patel School of Technology Management and Engineering (a constituent school of NMIMS) without appearing for their entrance test on July 20 2010. He paid Rs 2,05,000 as tuition fee for the computer science course.
Source: https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/civic/college-told-to-refund-fee-for-cancelled-admission/articleshow/63457034.cms
Friday, 23 March 2018
Jurisdiction of state fee regulator over autonomous colleges upheld in SC
Jurisdiction of state fee regulator over autonomous colleges upheld in SC
Jurisdiction of state fee regulator over autonomous colleges upheld in SC
MUMBAI: In a setback for private professionalautonomous colleges, the Supreme Court upheld the jurisdiction of the state Fee Regulating Authority (FRA) over them.
The Supreme Court recently dismissed the special leave petition filed by K J Somaiya College of Engineering that challenged a Bombay high court order bringing autonomous colleges under the purview of FRA.
A division bench of Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Uday Lalit dismissed the petition stating that they “found no reason to entertain the petition”. Somaiya College was one of the first to challenge the FRA jurisdiction in the high court last year. LN Welingkar Institute of Management and Sardar Patel Institute of Technology (SPIT) followed suit.
On January 25, the high court rejected their contention and ruled that the fees proposed by autonomous colleges for every academic year would be subject to FRA regulation under the Maharashtra Private Unaided Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Fees) Act, of 2015.
The colleges had contended that if the law is applied to them, it would snatch their financial autonomy and affect academic excellence.
The fee regulator, established under the 2015 act, is a quasi-judicial body that regulates fees of private and unaided professional institutions. It is currently headed by Justice M N Gilani, a retired Bombay high court judge. An FRA official said that it would regulate the fee structure of not only the upcoming academic session but also of 2017-18 retrospectively if it was not done last year.
After the high court order, Welingkar and SPIT submitted their fee proposals to the FRA, but Somaiya College refused to do so as it had challenged the court order.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/jurisdiction-of-state-fee-regulator-over-autonomous-colleges-upheld-in-sc/articleshow/63421475.cms
Students learn Shivaji’s engineering acumen at Rajmudra Festival
Students learn Shivaji’s engineering acumen at Rajmudra Festival
NAGPUR: While the greatness of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj is often celebrated through processions, Ramdeobaba College of Engineering and Management organized Rajmudra Festival for the third year in a row to discuss his intelligence, skills and innovation to give budding engineers some lessons to learn. The event was held at the college campus on Wednesday and was attended by enthusiastic youngsters, hoping to become better versions of themselves.
Motivational speaker Sumant Tekade conducted a seminar on ‘Modern engineering aspects and administrative management — In Shivajian way’ and unveiled different shades of the brave king’s personality which should be adapted to walk on the path of progress. Atul Guru, an expert on Shivaji’s forts and a member of Durga Pratishthan, was present.
“Shivaji was a go-getter and firmly believed in high result-oriented thinking. He knew how to get the job done in the best manner with limited available resources and give maximum outcome. He was never reluctant to experiment and tried new techniques till he achieved excellence,” said Tekade.
According to him, if young engineers infuse this quality then they can work wonders for the society by using their knowledge to uproot and resolve various issues.
“Considered to be the father of Indian Navy, Shivaji demonstrated great skills in creating his military organization. He realized the importance of having a secure coastline and built a strong naval presence across the coast of Konkan and Goa to protect sea trade,” said Tekade.
The speaker revealed how Shivaji hired a Portuguese naval officer to train the Marathas to get an insight into their technologies in ship building. But when they refused to offer help, he did not fall back and polished the art on his own to such an extent that even the Britishers said that they need to learn from Shivaji’s methods.
With engaging tactics and amusing ways, Tekade grabbed attention of students as they seemed inspired to sharpen their professional expertise.
Shivaji pledged to eradicate all foreign rules and establish Hind Swaraj when he was merely 14 years old. Keeping in mind his long-term goal, he worked for it with a strong and persistent desire. Tekade said, “Each one of you must have your ultimate destination in your head and passionately strive hard to achieve it.”
Smart India Hackathon 2018 from March 30: Javadekar
Smart India Hackathon 2018 from March 30: Javadekar
NEW DELHI: The finale of the Smart India Hackathon 2018 (Software Edition) will be held on March 30 and 31 at 28 nodal centres across the country, announced HRD minister Prakash Javadekar on Thursday.
Smart India Hackathon is the World’s largest Nation-Building Digital Initiative of the HRD ministry and was conceptualized to harness the creativity and energy of bright young students for the development of our nation, the minister said.
Javadekar was hopeful that the solutions given by the students will be helpful in overcoming the challenges faced by various ministries and departments. This year’s initiative has software as well as hardware edition.
The minister said that SIH 2018 had received participation from 27 central ministries/ departments and 17 state governments who have sent more than 900 problem statements. After scrutinizing these problem statements, 408 problems (340 for software and 68 for hardware) were finally selected for the Hackathon and have been put out on MyGov platform.
Smart India Hackathon is the World’s largest Nation-Building Digital Initiative of the HRD ministry and was conceptualized to harness the creativity and energy of bright young students for the development of our nation, the minister said.
Javadekar was hopeful that the solutions given by the students will be helpful in overcoming the challenges faced by various ministries and departments. This year’s initiative has software as well as hardware edition.
The minister said that SIH 2018 had received participation from 27 central ministries/ departments and 17 state governments who have sent more than 900 problem statements. After scrutinizing these problem statements, 408 problems (340 for software and 68 for hardware) were finally selected for the Hackathon and have been put out on MyGov platform.
Javadekar added that SIH - 2018 has received over 17400 teams with participation of around one lakh students of Engineering, Management and MCA. These entries were scrutinized and 1296 entries have been selected for the finals.
In the finals, around 8000 students will attempt to give solutions for the listed 340 software problems. There are prizes to be won for different categories at each centre similar to last year.
Moreover, HRD ministry is also engaging with DST to ensure that selected teams from SIH 2018 could be supported by Technology Business Incubators (TBIs) as startups and DST has responded positively towards these efforts.
Some of the interesting projects of SIH developed by the students include a special pendrive to prevent data theft (for ISRO), Airport crowd management system (for Air India), a platform for North-East artefacts, a gaming solution for health benefits (for Ministry of AYUSH) among others. At least 27 projects will get implemented and adopted by different departments by the end of April or mid May 2018.
In the finals, around 8000 students will attempt to give solutions for the listed 340 software problems. There are prizes to be won for different categories at each centre similar to last year.
Moreover, HRD ministry is also engaging with DST to ensure that selected teams from SIH 2018 could be supported by Technology Business Incubators (TBIs) as startups and DST has responded positively towards these efforts.
Some of the interesting projects of SIH developed by the students include a special pendrive to prevent data theft (for ISRO), Airport crowd management system (for Air India), a platform for North-East artefacts, a gaming solution for health benefits (for Ministry of AYUSH) among others. At least 27 projects will get implemented and adopted by different departments by the end of April or mid May 2018.
Cognizant, General Assembly announce digital engineering education programme
Cognizant, General Assembly announce digital engineering education programme
CHENNAI, MARCH 22
US-based technology company Cognizant Technology Solutions, and General Assembly, a digital training and talent acquisition company, have announced a digital engineering education programme to address growing digital skills gap and projected global shortage of qualified technology workers.
Cognizant employs around 2.60 lakh employees globally, of which over 80 per cent work in India.
Last year, Cognizant hired over 6,000 employees in the US. It plans to add at least 25,000 more across the country over the next five years. It recently announced a contribution of $100 million to a new non-profit foundation focussed on US STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education.
The web and software education programme, open for anyone to apply and provided at no cost to participants, launched this month at multiple General Assembly campuses in the US.
The programme will use General Assembly’s ‘Talent Pipeline as a Service’, which sources, trains, and delivers skilled workers to enterprises, enabling employers to close large and often persistent gaps for qualified talent. The service is part of General Assembly’s broader efforts to position both workers and employers for success in today’s digital-first economy, connecting businesses directly to a diverse pool of skilled candidates already enrolled with General Assembly, said a press release.
Why STEM education is necessary in the Indian education sector
Why STEM education is necessary in the Indian education sector
STEM education is the need of the hour to help students make the leap from users of technology to innovators
‘STEM Education’, known for its focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths, is relatively a new term in the Indian education sector.
A robust STEM education creates critical thinkers, problem-solvers, and next generation innovators. Taking into consideration that India is one of the countries that produces the highest number of scientists and engineers, the growth of STEM has picked up significantly over the last few years.
Increasing demand
We are now at a stage where the number of STEM jobs are growing at a fast pace and currently outstripping the number of STEM graduates. According to the National Science Foundation, it is predicted that 80% of the jobs created in the next decade will require some form of math and science skills. Despite having the top quality talent, the exam-focused education model of the past has limited these students when it comes to innovation, problem-solving and creativity. This is where the STEM players come in to fill this gap.
Research shows that children develop interest in STEM fields at an average age of eight. This is due to the fact that technology, gadgets and gizmos fascinate them. But, the leap from being a user of technology to an innovator rarely happens and, if at all, it is a very slow transition. The link between engineering-technology-entrepreneurship is evidently missing in India.
Communication technology giant, Verizon, recently announced the winners of their annual Innovative Learning App Challenge, in which middle and high school students across the U.S. were challenged to develop mobile app concepts that solve a problem in their local communities. Promoting teamwork, critical thinking, problem-solving, STEM skills and coding, the app challenge attracted over 1,800 submissions, with awards available at state, regional and national levels. It is essential that schools are provided with the tools and funding to build STEM into their curriculum and bring it to life in the classroom, inspiring the next generation of coders. Since the last few years, STEM developers have been incorporating innovative techniques to ensure that children are more inclined as well as interested in the ‘do it yourself’ method.
In India, though nascent, there is a lot of innovation which is taking place with regard to STEM:
The education sector is looking beyond smart classrooms towards hands-on learning and STEM enhancement on their current information and communications technology and smart class platforms.
Many STEM companies are working with schools to help them set up STEM centres, tinkering labs with upcoming technologies like Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality.
The government is looking to help educational institutions to upgrade their library infrastructures with more engaging learning assets and management tools, and implementing Learning Management Systems, assessment systems, language labs, library management system, gamification, etc.
New ‘entry level’ coding devices are coming to market that provide schools with the ability to teach simple coding and bring STEM to life in the classroom.
Challenges
One of the biggest challenges involved in the implementation of STEM education is to design infrastructure, curriculum and to equip children with the best guidance and support. Another challenge could be funding. Schools require money for construction of Maker spaces, DIY (Do it Yourself Tools), and best computers, which are some of the basic aspects of the STEM education.
Investing in educating the ecosystem about the need for such programmes is one of the ways of overcoming these limitations. Many of the educators still think that by introducing STEM, students will get diverted from their studies and they would not be able to complete their defined curriculum in that stipulated amount of time. The only way to address this is by making them aware and changing their beliefs by showing them the positive results of introducing their kids to STEM learning methodology.
Countries around the world are adopting this methodology by introducing national curricula that set frameworks and projects which apply the STEM methodology. In the U.K., BBC developed the micro:bit, a small inexpensive codeable device linked to a rich environment that allows teachers to link STEM to real life problems. The U.K. rolled out the micro:bit project to one million children in 2016 and several other countries have followed including Singapore and Iceland.
Several countries, upon realising the potential of a STEM-incorporated programme, have risen to the occasion and persuaded their respective governments, districts and schools to make the transition. Japan, for example, has already taken the first steps towards this methodology by introducing national STEM frameworks for 2020 and others are quickly joining as well.
Being the second most populated country with unmatched talent and culture, India needs a combined support from government and other education societies to avail the opportunity and benefits of STEM education. Now, with the Government of India also focussing on campaigns such as ‘Make in India’ Innovation Mission, there is focus on developing innovation and manufacturing right from schools. This will be the right time for India to rise to the challenge and develop a culture of application-based learning and innovation among the schools, students, colleges, and teachers.
Thursday, 22 March 2018
College, varsities must get freedom to use the autonomy: Academicians
CoEP, Fergusson College fail to make the autonomy cut
CoEP, Fergusson College fail to make the autonomy cut
Pune: So near, yet so far.
That’s the story of institutes such as the College of Engineering, Pune (CoEP) and Fergusson College as they failed to make it into the list of institutes that received the autonomy status from the Union ministry of human resource and development on Tuesday.
Despite being among the top-25 engineering colleges across the country in the 2017 National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), what kept CoEP away from the list was its non-participation in the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) ratings.
“We had opted for participation in the National Board of Accreditation ratings. It’s a more stringent system than NAAC. However, the graded autonomy to the institutions was awarded on the basis of NAAC ratings. We will, however, not start the NAAC process,” CoEP director B B Ahuja said.
Gergusson College principal Ravindrasinh G Pardeshi said, “We were expecting to be in the autonomous list. We have been getting good NAAC scores consistently.”
Another contender was Maharashtra Institute of Technology, which is now MIT World Peace University. Mangesh Karad, executive president of MIT Arts, Design and Technology University, said MIT wasn’t eligible to apply as it was made a university a year ago. He said, “It will take NAAC ratings to become autonomous. NAAC grading is done after two batches pass out of a university.”
Army Institute of Technology principal BP Patil said, “The colleges that got autonomythem have a NAAC score of 3.25 and above. Our score was 3.06 and we missed the status by a small margin.”
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