Education

IM Pandey, director, PSB, said: "Currently, PSB functions as a full-fledged campus at Gurgaon and we intend to create a capacity of 500 students at the new campus. This will start functioning in 2-3 years. The proposed investment for the campus spread over 5 acres is Rs 50 crore."

The institute's current campus has a built up area of 48,000 square ft. The institute launched a Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA), the first-ever doctoral-level programme in business administration, earlier this year, in association with the Asian Institute of Technology's (AIT's) School of Management.

"The programme is a higher degree in business administration, equivalent to a PhD. The programme has been designed keeping in mind the senior executives. With the research competencies, one can turn the experience into useful knowledge of business and management that has direct relevance to business challenges in the emerging economies," Pandey added.

The teaching will be done online, through a dedicated pan-India server connecting all higher education institutions under a new central programme cleared by the cabinet today.

Under the scheme, an engineering student from any college can, for instance, ask an Indian Institute of Technology professor questions through a formal mechanism. The professor is expected to reply on a blog created automatically for correspondence once the student asks a question.

Subsequently, all other questions posed by any student to this professor are directed to this blog, which can be publicly accessed. Students can also pose questions to a general database instead of a specific teacher.

The National Mission on Education through ICT (information and communication technology) is estimated to cost Rs 4,612 crore over the 11th five-year plan. The mission was suggested by the National Knowledge Commission and the Oversight Committee that prepared a framework for OBC reservations in higher education.

The programme will make quality education accessible to a greater number of students. The teachers, by becoming popular mentors to students across the country, will add to their "brand value".

All officials have been directed by Chief Minister Mayawati, to start the process of recruiting nearly 56,000 primary teachers and make fresh appointments against 10,000 teachers who retire every year.

"The fresh appointments will begin from January 2009. The retired teachers will be re-employed on a contractual basis", a Government spokesperson informed.

Satish Chandra Mishra, Chairman of the State Advisory Counci has been asked to review the quality of primary and secondary education in the state.

The progress of various schemes had been reviewed in a meeting of the council held on Sunday and the same was intimated to the Chief Minister.

In the meeting, it was pointed out that 1.56 lakh posts of teachers are lying vacant, against which the exercise to fill at least 88,000 teaching posts was under progress.

The Chief Minister has directed that recruitment of teachers should be a continuous process to ensure that 10,000 teachers, who retire every year, could be replaced immediately.

Mayawati has also said that teachers be given computer-generated salary slips to weed out possibility of any discrepancy in their salaries.

Introducing the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill, 2008, in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, minister of state for human resource development D. Purandeswari said, "Over the years there has been a spatial and numerical expansion of elementary schools in the country, but the goal of universal elementary education continues to elude us."

The number of dropouts, particularly those from underprivileged groups, remains very high. Moreover, the quality of learning was also less than satisfactory, added the minister.

The main objective of the bill is to ensure that every child in the age group of 6 to 14 receives elementary education irrespective of his or her ability to pay the fees. It also states that the provision of free and compulsory education of satisfactory quality to children from disadvantaged and weaker sections was not merely the responsibility of schools run or supported by the government but also of schools, which were not dependent on government funds.

Taking cue from the fee hike implemented by the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) in April this year, three more private business schools have followed suit.

Delhi-based International Management Institute (IMI), Management Development Institute (MDI) in Gurgaon and Amity Business School in Noida have hiked the fees for their post-graduate programmes in management.

The move comes in the aftermath of vociferous protests from teachers and employees against a move to implement PPP in technical education.

There are about 106 polytechnics and 156 ITIs located in prime locations all over UP. They have a total staff strength of around 20,000, including teachers and employees.

The government had even short-listed five companies for filing the Request for Proposal (RFP). However, the process was put on hold following the protests, and is likely to be resumed after the committee submits the report.

JAC convener Ashok Kushwaha maintains that the state government wanted to sell the valuable properties worth several hundred crores of rupees owned by UP polytechnics and ITIs under the garb of PPP, besides transferring the government teachers and employees to the private partner.

He suggested that the government should establish new institutes using the PPP route rather than focusing on the existing units, which were imparting training to poor students for low fees.

Beating the blues, the premier B-school not only hosted a total of 114 companies for its summer placements on the campus this year, which is an increase of 15% over that of last year, but also threw up an exciting trend of strategy and consulting-based roles taking the cake among the students.

Top consulting firms like McKinsey & Co, The Boston Consulting Group, PriceWaterhouse Coopers as well as conglomerates like the Tata Group, Aditya Birla Group and RPG lapped up the students.

While substantial representation was witnessed in verticals and sectors like supply chain management and operations, IT & systems, human resources, the bulk of the offers as well as a majority of the student preferences was in the four sectors of strategy and consulting, finance, marketing and entrepreneurial ventures.

In a break-up of sector-wise placements, while Strategy & Consulting ruled at 34%, the finance sector was a close second with 32% of the batch preferring to intern in finance roles within investment banks, PE firms and other banking and financial services institutions.

The one week seminar focused on Indian business practices, features of the industrial structure, economic policies being implemented at the national level, understanding of cultural issues and the nuances of doing business in India. It included a series of interactive sessions with leaders from business and industry and visits to selected organisations to facilitate participants in gaining a practical understanding and appreciation of Indian business practices, CSR initiatives and sensitivity to cultural issues in the changing global context.  

The participants attending the seminar were executive management students with wide ranging work experience in diverse fields. The group size was 17, representing different nationalities and cultures. Prof. Ajay Singh, Chairman, MDP said, "The executive MBA students form MIP are from diversified fields and nationalities and the heterogeneous mix of the programme in India has been well received by them. We were happy to see their inclination to the culture and business in India."  

The seminar included a session on Socio- Cultural Environment in India, Macroeconomic Environment and Economic Trends in Contemporary India, Telecom Sector: India's Growth Story & Future Challenges and Development of Financial Markets in India. There was a panel discussion on The Indian Markets and HRM Trends in India- Focus on IT Sector.  

Sarita Bisht, parent of a 3-yearold, was bitterly disappointed after her son was rejected by five schools in Indirapuram.

"I applied to DPS, Amity International, Indirapuram Public School, St Thomas and St Francis. But my son did not get through anywhere," said Bisht. "None of the schools are willing to tell us on what grounds they rejected our application," she said.

Bisht complained that St Thomas, Indirapuram had given out forms for a single day. "They gave out a limited number of forms. Only after we insisted did they give us an application form," said Bisht.

Manju Bhargav, a parent from Vaishali, applied to two neighbourhood schools and has not got through either.

"Schools are very vague about their criteria and the principals refuse to meet parents," said Bhargav. "Now I will have to look at other schools although they are all far away from my home," he said.

Prabha Singh, vice principal of St Thomas School, Indirapuram claimed that the selection process had been fair.

"We have 160 seats. So we had decided to give out only 300 forms. But parents created a ruckus and forced us to sell 600 forms," said Singh. "We have taken 60 boys and 60 girls." She added that 50 per cent seats were for the general category. "We took care of minority groups and sibling cases in the rest 50 per cent," said Singh.

For software professional Gopal Jaiswal, it is a long commute from Gurgaon to Indirapuram. "I have decide to shift to Indirapuram next year," he said.

A positive outcome of the decision could be that thousands of students of the management seats, who stand debarred from the examination, might be allowed to take the examination now, whenever it happens. Whereas, it is a set back for students who campaigned for months to have the examination conducted at an early date.

Meanwhile, the apex court has agreed to hear the case in which the management quota students have been debarred from taking the examination. The case will be heard by a bench presided over by Justice B.N. Agrarwal. On Monday, a bench presided by the Chief Justice had refused to hear the case.

Arguing from the university side, advocates Nagender Rai and S. Mishra had pleaded in the court of Justice B.N. Agarwal and Justice G.S. Singhori that private institutions had admitted management quota students without conducting an entrance test and thus this admission was illegal.

They argued that till the matter was pending in the apex court, these students should not be allowed to sit in the examination.

Two students had filed a plea in the Supreme Court against university's refusal to accept their forms.

The apex court had ordered the university to allow these students to take the examination, which the university failed to comply with, thus earning the contempt of the apex court.

The issue was taken up by the state information commission with the education department after it received a number of complaints that private schools were refusing to provide information and that even the education department was not entertaining applications on the plea that they were not under its control.

State information commissioner S.S. Parmar rejected the contention that the education department could not seek information from the private institutions as they were not under the government control and maintained that enforcing the state private educational institutions (Regulation) act,1997, was its responsibility. All the private institutions located within the state were covered under it and there were enough regulatory provisions which made it mandatory for them to furnish all information pertaining to infrastructure, accounts, and appointment of staff, enrolment and other aspects.

The joint director, higher education, who is also the Public Information Officer(PIO) has as a follow-up measure sent copies of the act to all the deputy directors who were the PIOs for districts with directions for its implementation in letter and spirit. He had made it clear to the field officers that private educational institutions were bound to provide information to the PIO and that refusal to do so could attract action under the act.

Further, whenever any application under the right to information act was received by the department it would be the responsibility of the PIO concerned to access the required information from the private educational institution so that it could be supplied to the applicant within the stipulated timeframe.

It is worth mentioning that private educational institutions have been all these years mostly refusing to furnish information as a result of which the department had not been able to compile authentic and complete data regarding enrolment, drop-outs, gender-wise performance of students, infrastructure, fee-structure and student-teacher ratio on the basis of which various education-related indicators are worked out for the state. However, the government made no effort to enforce the act until the matter reached the state information commission.

In written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Human Resource Development, D. Purandeswari, informed the House that as on 30th September, 2008, there were 4,961 private colleges and 2,038 Government-owned colleges recognized by the University Grants Commission (UGC).

The highest number, 980 to be precise, of such recognized colleges is in Uttar Pradesh, followed by 917 in Maharashtra, 591 in Karnataka, 450 in Andhra Pradesh and 445 in Madhya Pradesh.

Purandeswari also informed that private colleges which are permanently affiliated to State universities and which get maintenance grants (under Salary head) from the concerned state government are eligible for grants from the UGC also.

As on 30th September this year, 3904 private colleges were eligible to receive grants from the UGC.

Eligible colleges are provided development grants and also grants for improvement of quality of education under the UGC's scheme of 'Colleges with Potential for Excellence'.

The first four programmes conducted by IIML were huge successes with the 49 officers of the first programme, 60 of the second and 59 of the third getting good job offers. The fourth General management Programme is running at IIM Lucknow's Noida Campus with 59 Defence Officers out of which 7 candidates are Lady Officers.

In the 5th programme, after applying the selection criteria, 65 officers (44 Army, 11 Air-force and 10 Navy) including 21 lady officers have been selected for the programme.

"We at IIML will provide our participants with the latest management skills and techniques, which are the primary requirement of the corporate sector. The idea is to familiarize the officers with the requisite analytical tools and techniques; and develop a holistic perspective and global mindset to understand issues of an enterprise and provide the defence officers with a second career choice after retirement" says Prof Prakash Singh and Prof Arunabha Mukhopadhyay, Programme Coordinators.

UPTIF (a federation of self-financed technical institutions in UP) general secretary Atul K.

Jain told Hindustan Times on Saturday: "UPTIF members at a meeting held in Noida on Wednesday has suggested conducting the entrance examination directly by the body at the national level as these colleges were not able to get enough candidates through the UP Technical University entrance examination." "Thus, several seats are lying vacant in various courses, causing losses to the institutes," he added.

Association of Greater Noida Industries president DED.K.

Garg, however, said: "The proposal is not feasible. Seats are vacant due to poor commitment and dedication towards excellence in education by the promoters of these colleges. Their main target is multiplying their investment and treating the students as customers, not as their own children." UP Technical University vicechancellor Prem Vrat, when contacted, said: "We have not received any proposal from the UPTIF yet. On receipt of any proposal we will consider as per University rules and guidelines.

A list of rankings issued by UPTU includes all colleges in Ghaziabad, Noida and Greater Noida, offering courses in Engineering and MBA.

Two engineering colleges from Ghaziabad and one from Noida have been ranked among the top ten institutes. Two more colleges from Ghaziabad and one from Greater Noida offering courses in MBA have also been listed in the top ten.

The colleges have been ranked on the basis of the result of examinations held between 2004 and 2008. The MBA institutes have been listed on the basis of the examination results of 2007-08.

Prem Vrat, Vice-Chancellor of the varsity said, "The colleges have to improve at any cost. If they fail to show improvement, the university will write to the AICTE to reduce the number of seats allotted to them. Affiliation could also be cancelled in extreme cases".

A satisfactory grade has been given to the 10 engineering colleges which have not secured a place in the list. There are many colleges in Noida and Greater Noida which charge a huge sum as course fees but fail to provide quality education.

"The list would put pressure on the colleges to improve and students and guardians will give priority to colleges ranked well during admissions", added Vrat.

Through this initiation, UPTU aims to bring experts from various fields across the globe to deliver lectures and interact with the students. It will create a model, under which a single teacher can connect through video conferencing to all students in various engineering colleges across UP.

The move is expected to help reach more students with fewer teachers. Given the disparity of faculty crunch, virtual classrooms will facilitate UPTU improve its faculty-student ratio.

"Quality education is the aim towards which we are working and to achieve this we want at utilise various information and communication technology (ICT) tools," said Prof Prem Vrat, vice-chancellor, UPTU. He was speaking at a meeting organised by the Computer Society of India (CSI).

UPTU Vice Chancellor Prem Vrat said, "To improve quality, students would be screened further Applicants qualifying the entrance examination would be called for group discussions.

Candidates clearing the group discussion round would be called for persona1 interview," said Vrat.

"Admissions for MBA courses will start from December instead of March, so that the university has enough time for group discussions and personal interview rounds," said Vrat.

At Noida UPTU office, a placement cell too has been planned. "It will monitor the placements of colleges.

Moreover, under new pattern of MBA admissions only serious and deserying students would be inducted which will hike the placement percentage too. We expect 100 per cent placement of such students," he said.

"College performance would be monitored and an academic excellence award would be given to best college. Student satisfaction too has been included for judging college ratings. Other parameters that would be considered include impact on society, results, placements, faculty, etc. Besides these, teaching effectiveness, learning environment, quality policy and strategy, faculty response development management, and management's commitment to quality and academic leadership," said Vrat.

Yamaha Motors HR Head EE Sharma said, "It would increase the credibility of UPTU MBA courses and the corporate sector would show interest in hiring their students. Presently, companies prefer PGDBM from private reputed management institutes over UPTU MBA courses." Students had mixed reactions.

"Special short-duration courses will be designed for the unskilled school dropouts. They will undergo training in 258 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) across the state," R. Dev, additional technical education director, told sources.

"The move intends to create better job avenues for school dropouts and uneducated youths," he added.

Small-term courses varying from 60 hours, 120 hours and 720 hours on dress making, footwear manufacturing, leather goods manufacturing, automobile repair and others would be offered. The training programmes are expected to start within the next two months.

At present, 50,000 students are enrolled in various ITIs across the state

"For conducting online interactive classrooms, we are setting up a virtual classroom hub at our Noida campus," UPTU Vice Chancellor Prem Vrat told IANS.

According to officials, the upcoming hub will beam teaching programmes to nearly 12 institutes that would have direct access.

The institutes will then extend the online facility to at least 25 colleges located in their vicinity.

The project has been funded by the union ministry of information technology, which has sanctioned Rs.30 million for the purpose, officials added.

The online classes will take about nine months to start in a full-fledged manner, they added.

UPTU is taking assistance of experts from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) for the project.

UPTU governs nearly 280 engineering and other technical institutes across the state.

At present, there are 12,000 faculty members associated with different colleges affiliated to the university.

Nearly 150,000 students are pursuing various technical courses at the UPTU.

These nodal centres will then offer the facility of virtual classrooms to nearly 25 colleges located in their vicinity.

The twelve nodal centres will be set up at Harcourt Butler Technological Institute (HBTI), Kanpur; Institute of Engineering and Technology, Lucknow among a host of others (see box).

The students at the nodal centres, sitting in their virtual classrooms equipped with plasma screens and computers, will also be able to interact with the teachers using video conferencing.