Modification in the minutes of the UGC (University Grants Commission) meeting could result in qualitative change in collaboration between Indian and foreign educational institutions, whereby even B grade domestic institutions could have foreign partners.
On March 11, 2013, UGC in its 492nd full commission meeting while considering the UGC (Promotion and Maintenance of Standards of Academic Collaboration between Indian and Foreign Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2012, resolved that foreign educational institutions with highest grade in their homeland would be allowed to collaborate with Indian institutions which are also accredited with the highest grade by national accreditation agencies. In India, accreditation is done by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).
However, the minutes were qualitatively changed in the UGC's 493rd full commission meeting on May 10, despite protest by a member. Now, the modified minute says that foreign institutions with highest grade should be allowed to collaborate with Indian institutions not less than B grade in respect of institutional, threshold and programme accreditation. Many departments of Indian institutions enter into programme-based collaboration with foreign institutions. The UGC member who protested that modification of minutes would lead to dilution of quality was asked to submit a note of dissent even as the Commission approved the modification of minutes.
Sources in the Commission said, "There is a general view that since top-rung foreign universities are not interested in collaboration with Indian educational institutions the ambit should be widened. Foreign collaboration with B grade Indian institutions would only enhance the quality and credibility of domestic institutions." UGC sources said there has been a flurry of requests from both A and B grade Indian educational institutions with collaboration proposals.
While UGC chairperson Ved Prakash is indisposed, Commission secretary Akhilesh Gupta refused to comment citing that he isn't authorized to speak to media.
Source: The Times of India, May 18, 2013
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Apex court allows private colleges to offer MBA, MCA sans AICTE nod
In a major decision, the Supreme Court has ruled that private colleges need not seek approval from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to conduct courses in computer application and management at the postgraduate level. However, AICTE Chairman S.S. Mantha said the Council would file a review petition against this order early next week.
“Our Act (AICTE Act) says which disciplines are covered. Suddenly, one can’t say that it isn’t correct,” Mantha said. The matter came up before the apex court in 2004 after the Madras High Court had ruled in favour of AICTE.
The Association of Management of Private Colleges and a few other private colleges in Tamil Nadu had filed the case on the grounds that MBA is not a technical course and should not be governed by the AICTE. They further argued that both MBA and MCA were brought under the purview of the AICTE after some amendments in 2000 without being placed before the Parliament as is the normal process.
Unregulated System
Mantha said the changes may not have gone through Parliament but were done in “good faith.”
“One should see the larger problem. Unregulated systems and unfair trade practices will start proliferating if this happens (if these courses do not require AICTE’s approval),” Mantha said, adding that thousands of students are likely to suffer the consequences.
Mantha said there are about 4,000 management institutions and 1,600 institutions running MCA programmes in the country. However, some private colleges running MBA courses feel that an independent body, on the lines of the Medical Council of India (MCI), should control management education in the country, instead of being governed by a body, which they say, is essentially meant for technical education.
The head of a leading private management institution, who requested anonymity, said that the AICTE had earlier impinged on the autonomy of private management colleges and that it was difficult for them to function efficiently under its stringent rules.
The Supreme Court has ruled that the AICTE can play an advisory role and prescribe standards of education by sending notes to the University Grants Commission for colleges affiliated to Universities. But colleges will not need AICTE approval to run these courses.
Source: The Hindu Business Line, April 28, 2013
“Our Act (AICTE Act) says which disciplines are covered. Suddenly, one can’t say that it isn’t correct,” Mantha said. The matter came up before the apex court in 2004 after the Madras High Court had ruled in favour of AICTE.
The Association of Management of Private Colleges and a few other private colleges in Tamil Nadu had filed the case on the grounds that MBA is not a technical course and should not be governed by the AICTE. They further argued that both MBA and MCA were brought under the purview of the AICTE after some amendments in 2000 without being placed before the Parliament as is the normal process.
Unregulated System
Mantha said the changes may not have gone through Parliament but were done in “good faith.”
“One should see the larger problem. Unregulated systems and unfair trade practices will start proliferating if this happens (if these courses do not require AICTE’s approval),” Mantha said, adding that thousands of students are likely to suffer the consequences.
Mantha said there are about 4,000 management institutions and 1,600 institutions running MCA programmes in the country. However, some private colleges running MBA courses feel that an independent body, on the lines of the Medical Council of India (MCI), should control management education in the country, instead of being governed by a body, which they say, is essentially meant for technical education.
The head of a leading private management institution, who requested anonymity, said that the AICTE had earlier impinged on the autonomy of private management colleges and that it was difficult for them to function efficiently under its stringent rules.
The Supreme Court has ruled that the AICTE can play an advisory role and prescribe standards of education by sending notes to the University Grants Commission for colleges affiliated to Universities. But colleges will not need AICTE approval to run these courses.
Source: The Hindu Business Line, April 28, 2013
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Australia re-emerges as preferred country for Indian students
The poll, conducted by the Lowy Institute and Australia India Institute here, found that 75 per cent respondents who participated believed Australia was a good place to be educated, ranking second only to the United States.
"It reveals that ordinary Indians quite like Australia despite all the trouble that's happened," said the study's co-author and Director of the Lowy Institute, Prof. Rory Medcalf. "All the trouble" refers to series of much-publicised attacks on Indian students, studying in Australia, in 2009 and 2010. And these events have still left their mark on Indians' opinions of Australia.
The poll found 62 per cent of Indians still considered Australia a dangerous place for students, and 61 per cent also felt the attacks were racially motivated. A further 60 per cent of the 1233 adult respondents said they would like India's government and society to be more like Australia's.
Overall, Indians ranked Australia among the top four countries they felt closest to, with the United States, Japan and Singapore taking out the top three. Education, democracy and cricket are important foundations for Indian-Australian relations, the poll showed.
"There's still some fragility in the relationship and if there was another crisis it wouldn't take much to raise these ghosts about racism and danger," Medcalf said adding the main difference between Australia-India relations now, compared to five years ago, is that "champions of the relationship" have emerged.
The poll also found Indians wouldn't be nearly as interested in Australia if it weren't for the countries' mutual love of cricket. "It shows the Australian cricket team is still good for one thing, and that is projecting a positive image of Australia in India," he said.
The report found Australia was well-liked in India with Indians holding relatively warm feelings towards Australia (56 degrees on a scale of 0 to 100), which ranks fourth after the US (62), Singapore (58) and Japan (57) out of 22 countries in the survey.
Welcoming the findings, AII Director Amitabh Mattoo said, "The Australia-India relationship is an idea whose time has come. This poll confirms that Indian perceptions of Australia are improving, but more work is needed to build and secure this vital relationship."
Source: The Economic Times (Online Edition), April 17, 2013
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Indian students opt for overseas education as admissions in local universities get tough
Jain says: "Competition is tough in India. You don't know whether you will get in at an institute of your choice." However, for Jain and other science students in his batch, there is even more uncertainty about the future due to the new avatar of engineering entrance exams. Jain is writing the computer-based IIT Mains, but says "you can never be sure of making it through."
Radhika Agarwal, Jain's batchmate at DPS R K Puram and a student of humanities stream, has already made it to UC Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon. For Agarwal too, the first choices were top colleges at the University of Delhi. But with the university deciding to increase the number of years for the undergraduate programme to four years from this batch, Agarwal decided to give the US her best shot. "I'm exercising the US option because of the uncertainty. No one knows anything about the new four-year undergraduate system at the University of Delhi. Plus, there are very few seats in the general category and very high cut-offs to deal with."
For Reuben Datta, a student of Delhi's Modern School, Barakhamba Road, Indian colleges were not an option when he started his research in class XI. "DU has changed the system and the first year of a new system is the year of chaos. Even if I get 97% in the boards, I won't get through to an SRCC. I want to do economics with a minor in music. Do I have that option in India?" Datta asks. He has made it to four colleges in the US.
Here's the dichotomy. The bright, young future talent like Jain, Agarwal and Datta is taking flight from India though they do not want to. The growing category of students can afford to go abroad for an undergraduate degree, but would be the happiest studying at the creme de la creme institutes here. This year, amidst uncertainty around admissions to the University of Delhi and engineering colleges, more students seem to be heading abroad.
Of every 10 students who come to Mrinalini Batra, Founder & CEO, International Educational Exchange, a Delhi-based firm that counsels students on going abroad, eight are undergrads and only two are graduates. Batra has been sending students abroad for the last 18 years and has seen the trend change 180 degrees. She says: "I see a lot of parents apply to the US as a back-up to top notch institutes in India. They are looking for better quality, better experience." SAT, the key examinations for admission to undergraduate courses in the US, has seen the number of test-takers reach highest-ever levels.
While The College Board that conducts SAT does not have a break-up of data from different parts of the world, it confirms: "More Indian students than ever are taking the SAT." The SAT is administered at nearly 7,000 test centres in more than 180 countries. Worldwide, nearly 3 million students take the SAT during an academic year. In India, the SAT is administered six times a year. There are 35 SAT test centres throughout India.
"Relative to the 2010-2011 school year, this has grown 25%," says Leslie Sepuka, Director, Regional Communications, The College Board. Though she adds that test centre growth and test taker growth are not necessarily proportionate because the number of seats across test centres varies. Some like Urvashi Malik, Director and Senior Career Counsellor, CollegeCore Education, a firm that helps send students abroad, say that the increase in applications from India this year has been upwards of 30% for a university like Yale.
"This has been the upward trend and has gained momentum." While the uncertainty around DU admissions and engineering exams may have contributed to the numbers, the trend is not limited to just Delhi or Mumbai. Malik has just helped send a girl from Dehradun to the University of Chicago on full scholarship. Batra gets applicants from Agra, Indore, Jaipur and Bhopal and these students are equally well-informed about their choices, she says.
Top universities corroborate the increase in the numbers of applications from undergrads from India in the recent years. At Yale, the number of undergrads from India is increasing faster than the number of graduate students. "We have seen an increase in the number of undergraduates from India. Our enrollment of undergraduate students from India has more than doubled from a decade ago. Our enrollment of all students from India has grown nearly 50% from a decade ago," says Shana N Schneider, Director of Communications, Yale Office of International Affairs.
According to Yale University, the numbers of undergrads from India for the last three years are: 40 in 2012; 39 in 2011 and 37 in 2010. "We can not, however, disclose application numbers. We can confirm that the number of applications to Yale has gone up each of the last three years," Schneider adds.
At Princeton University, for instance, the number of undergraduate students has more than doubled in the last five years. This is even when the numbers of graduate students decreased from 84 in 2008-09 to 71 in 2012-13. A total of 59 undergrad students enrolled at the university in 2012-13 academic year as against 50 the previous year and 25 in 2008-09. Its spokesperson Martin Mbugua attributes this to the no-loan financial aid programme, which is available to international and domestic students.
Princeton became the first University in the US to remove loans from financial aid packages and instead replace them with need-based grants that do not have to be repaid. All of Princeton scholarships are need-based (Princeton does not award merit-based scholarships to any students).
"This system makes it possible for our undergraduates to graduate without debt. The University's admission process is need-blind for both domestic and international students, which means that students are not at any disadvantage if they need financial aid," says Mbugua. That makes it easier for parents like Sahima Datta, an alumna of University of Delhi and mother of Reuben, to back her son's decision to go abroad. "US offers a much larger canvas and with scholarships, it's better to opt to go out," she says.
Source: The Economic Times, April 16, 2013
Oxford University woos Indian students, opens doors for more undergraduates
Oxford University is now open to many more Indian students than ever before. After recently opening its undergraduate class to Indian students, Oxford University's Exeter College is on an India tour, visiting some of the high schools and colleges in Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore, to lure Indian students. Dr Chris Ballinger, academic dean at the college, which is the fourth oldest college of the university, is holding talks here aimed at school and junior college (high school) students and their parents about how to apply to be an undergraduate student at Oxford University. Dr Ballinger is also meeting principals of some of the top schools in Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore to attract more Indian students, who want to be undergraduates at Oxford University, and who are studying for Class XII qualification, with either the CBSE or ICSE.
"I aim to increase understanding among Indian schoolchildren, and their teachers and advisers and parents, of the benefits of studying at Oxford as an undergraduate, our criteria for admission to undergraduate degree courses, and the process by which students can apply to be undergraduates at Oxford University," he said.
Oxford altered its undergraduate admissions criteria in the 2012-13 application cycle to accept undergraduate school leavers from India who have obtained the Class XII qualification, with either the CBSE or ICSE boards. "We did this because we want to ensure that we can accept applications from the widest possible range of well-qualified applicants," said Dr Ballinger.
In a bid to woo Indian students to study in the UK, the UK Prime Minister David Cameron during his recent visit to Mumbai announced that there would be no cap on the number of Indian students to the UK or the duration of their residence there. At Oxford, there are currently 39 undergraduate students who are domiciled in India (66 of whom are Indian nationals). There are 12,310 undergraduate students at Oxford as a whole, including visiting undergraduate students.
Source: The Economic Times, April 16, 2013
Monday, April 15, 2013
Pakistan beats India in research, not in innovation
A recent United Nations study finds that Pakistan has more researchers for a million people than India. Pakistan has 162 researchers for a million people as compared to 135 in India. But, when it comes to taking research to a logical and innovative end through patent registration, Pakistan is not even close to the south-Asian economic power.
India has five patents for a million people, five times more than the Pakistanis. The reason, as indicated by the data in the UN report, could be Pakistan’s poor technological infrastructure as compared to India despite youth there showing more interest than Indians in science and technology.
That is the only saving grace for Indians in the world of science and technology. Otherwise, the so-called emerging economic power is not even close to several nations with slower economic growth rate.
Sri Lanka registers three times more patents for a people as compared to its northern neighbour India. Even Thailand has more patents and researchers per million people than India.
Comparison of India with China or the United States would be shameful. China registers over a 100 patents for a million people as compared to five for India.
The United States with 707 patents for a million people in among top scientific countries in the world after two Asian research giants Japan and South Korea with over 1,000 patents for a million people.
A senior government official was hopeful of dramatic change in India’s dismal record saying recent efforts to incentivise research would show results in the coming few years.
Source: Hindustan Times, April 15, 2013
India lags behind China in research publications
A recently released ranking index on scientific progress among 16 countries in the AsiaPacific region places India much below China in terms of papers published and research output.
Sandwiched between Taiwan and New Zealand, India comes in at number seven, much below China at second rank in terms of number of research articles according to the Nature Asia Pacific publishing index 2012.
The NPI ranks institutions and countries according to the number of research articles they publish in the Nature family of journals in a one-year period.
While China has published 303 articles just below top ranking Japan’s 398, India could publish just 25 articles in Nature journals during this period. The number of publications for India has gone down from 30 in 2011.
“The country’s science effort has blown hot and cold over the past five years, in some way reflecting the relationship at home between its ambitious scientific plans and its struggle with poverty,” says the report.
The index presents the number of published articles with author affiliations to a given country or institution, and a corrected count that is adjusted according to the contribution of each author to each article based on the percentage of authors from that institution or country in the paper’s affiliations.
Source: Hindustan Times, April 15, 2013
Sandwiched between Taiwan and New Zealand, India comes in at number seven, much below China at second rank in terms of number of research articles according to the Nature Asia Pacific publishing index 2012.
The NPI ranks institutions and countries according to the number of research articles they publish in the Nature family of journals in a one-year period.
While China has published 303 articles just below top ranking Japan’s 398, India could publish just 25 articles in Nature journals during this period. The number of publications for India has gone down from 30 in 2011.
“The country’s science effort has blown hot and cold over the past five years, in some way reflecting the relationship at home between its ambitious scientific plans and its struggle with poverty,” says the report.
The index presents the number of published articles with author affiliations to a given country or institution, and a corrected count that is adjusted according to the contribution of each author to each article based on the percentage of authors from that institution or country in the paper’s affiliations.
Source: Hindustan Times, April 15, 2013
Friday, April 12, 2013
Bigger Business Via Better Coaching
With over two lakh aspirants appearing for the Common Admissions Test (CAT) last year, it is obvious that most Indian students view a management degree as a gateway to untold riches. It is this mindset that VistaMind Education, a Bangalore-based coaching institute, aims to build on. “Where we really try to differentiate ourselves from the rest, is not just through the use of technology but through the old-fashioned methods of giving personal attention to our students and providing quality work materials,” said ARKS Srinivas who co-founded VistaMind a year ago.
Over the last decade-and-a-half, coaching establishments have become an extremely lucrative business proposition as they attempt to cash in on a 600 million-strong population aged under 35, looking to empower itself through the avenue of higher education. The market estimated at about $10 billion is however extremely fragmented.
“It’s all about reputation, word-of-mouth and results. If you can’t coach students to be amongst the top-ranked, they won’t sign up with you,” said Amitabh Jhingan, national sector leader for education at Ernst & Young.
“The problem with coaching establishments in India is that they offer general solutions to specific problems. The concept of personal mentoring just isn’t there,” Srinivas pointed out.
According to him, VistaMind offers a student-teacher ratio of 1:50, one of the lowest in the industry. Srinivas, 39, along with four other co-founders of VistaMind are graduates of the IIMs and XLRI. They were all previously a part of T.I.M.E, a leading coaching institute in the country, before deciding to set up their own shop. “There were differences in opinion with them (T.I.M.E), and we realised that our vision and growth plans were very different,” the IIM Calcutta graduate said. And it’s a move that seems to have paid off. VistaMind, which currently operates six fully-owned centres spread across Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Lucknow, Kanpur and Mysore, plans to establish its presence in Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad by the end of the current fiscal. It also has a franchisee-owned centre in Nagpur.
“We hope to be in at least 15 centres by the end of the year, with a focus on the smaller cities, including Jammu and Patna, either through franchisee model, company-owned centres or through a partnership model,” Srinivas said. Earlier in the year, it also visited IIM-Kozhikode to participate in the premier MBA institute’s placement programme. The opportunities are manifold.
While official data on the size of the entrance examination coaching market is scarce, the CAT training sector by itself is estimated at about Rs. 1,000 crore (Rs. 10 billion) according to industry estimates. “The market is highly fragmented, with the organised players commanding a very small portion of it. For example, the IIT-Joint Entrance Examination market is between Rs. 3,000 (Rs. 3 billion) to 4,000 crore (Rs. 4 billion),” Srinivas said.
Given the state of the fractured market, VistaMind has not stopped at just offering coaching for MBA entrance exams. It also offers a programme called Campus Alliance, through which it offers training for recruitment examinations that job seekers have to undergo in order to get placed with a number of India’s largest information technology companies, including, Infosys, Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services. Through its Campus Alliance programme, VistaMind has trained about 15,000 job-seekers. It also offers coaching for pre-university exams, the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) and the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) for those looking beyond the shores of India.
The company posted revenue of about Rs. 10 crore (Rs. 100 million) for the year ended March 2013, and expects to double that by the end of fiscal 2014. It expects to be profitable in financial year 2014-15. “We are expecting profits to be at about 30% of EBITDA by that time,” Srinivas said. VistaMind has raised Rs. 25 crore (Rs. 250 million) of angel funding, but an infusion of institutional capital will largely depend on the company’s turnover next financial year. “We don’t require that much money right now, since we are not a capital intensive business. If we meet our revenue target next year, we will consider it very strongly,” Srinivas said.
Source: The Economic Times, April 12, 2013
Over the last decade-and-a-half, coaching establishments have become an extremely lucrative business proposition as they attempt to cash in on a 600 million-strong population aged under 35, looking to empower itself through the avenue of higher education. The market estimated at about $10 billion is however extremely fragmented.
“It’s all about reputation, word-of-mouth and results. If you can’t coach students to be amongst the top-ranked, they won’t sign up with you,” said Amitabh Jhingan, national sector leader for education at Ernst & Young.
“The problem with coaching establishments in India is that they offer general solutions to specific problems. The concept of personal mentoring just isn’t there,” Srinivas pointed out.
According to him, VistaMind offers a student-teacher ratio of 1:50, one of the lowest in the industry. Srinivas, 39, along with four other co-founders of VistaMind are graduates of the IIMs and XLRI. They were all previously a part of T.I.M.E, a leading coaching institute in the country, before deciding to set up their own shop. “There were differences in opinion with them (T.I.M.E), and we realised that our vision and growth plans were very different,” the IIM Calcutta graduate said. And it’s a move that seems to have paid off. VistaMind, which currently operates six fully-owned centres spread across Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Lucknow, Kanpur and Mysore, plans to establish its presence in Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad by the end of the current fiscal. It also has a franchisee-owned centre in Nagpur.
“We hope to be in at least 15 centres by the end of the year, with a focus on the smaller cities, including Jammu and Patna, either through franchisee model, company-owned centres or through a partnership model,” Srinivas said. Earlier in the year, it also visited IIM-Kozhikode to participate in the premier MBA institute’s placement programme. The opportunities are manifold.
While official data on the size of the entrance examination coaching market is scarce, the CAT training sector by itself is estimated at about Rs. 1,000 crore (Rs. 10 billion) according to industry estimates. “The market is highly fragmented, with the organised players commanding a very small portion of it. For example, the IIT-Joint Entrance Examination market is between Rs. 3,000 (Rs. 3 billion) to 4,000 crore (Rs. 4 billion),” Srinivas said.
Given the state of the fractured market, VistaMind has not stopped at just offering coaching for MBA entrance exams. It also offers a programme called Campus Alliance, through which it offers training for recruitment examinations that job seekers have to undergo in order to get placed with a number of India’s largest information technology companies, including, Infosys, Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services. Through its Campus Alliance programme, VistaMind has trained about 15,000 job-seekers. It also offers coaching for pre-university exams, the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) and the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) for those looking beyond the shores of India.
The company posted revenue of about Rs. 10 crore (Rs. 100 million) for the year ended March 2013, and expects to double that by the end of fiscal 2014. It expects to be profitable in financial year 2014-15. “We are expecting profits to be at about 30% of EBITDA by that time,” Srinivas said. VistaMind has raised Rs. 25 crore (Rs. 250 million) of angel funding, but an infusion of institutional capital will largely depend on the company’s turnover next financial year. “We don’t require that much money right now, since we are not a capital intensive business. If we meet our revenue target next year, we will consider it very strongly,” Srinivas said.
Source: The Economic Times, April 12, 2013
Italian B-School Caps Intake of Indians at 12%
SDA Bocconi School of Management at Milan, Italy – among the top global MBA programmes under the FT ranking – has for the first time this year put a 12% cap on the intake of Indian students in its one-year international MBA programme. The institute says the move is aimed at maintaining parity in the MBA batch. Indian students form the single largest majority after Italians at the institute. The MBA Class of 2013 at SDA Bocconi School of Management has 12% Indians, compared with 27% Italians. The rest of Asia, including Japan, China and Pakistan, represents 7%.
“There are too many Indian students in the MBA class, prompting us to limit intake. The number of Indian applications has been increasing over time. But the percentage of Indian applicants admitted has been capped to the level of the last intake at 12%,” said Alessandro Giuliani, Managing Director of MISB Bocconi. The Mumbai-based MISB Bocconi, is the Indian initiative of SDA Bocconi School of Management. This year, the institute saw the largest increase in applications from Indian candidates – another reason for the cap on intake of Indians. The basic selection criterion for admission into the MBA course at SDA Bocconi is GMAT.
“Managing cultural differences during the MBA experience is part of their (SBA Bocconi) pedagogy and hence they are emphasising on mixing students from different geographies and cultures in small groups in order to stimulate cross-cultural diversity,” said Giuliani. The Financial Times Global MBA Ranking 2013 placed SDA Bocconi School of Management at 39th place. Two management institutes from India featured in the top 50 list, including IIM- Ahmedabad at 26 and Indian School of Business at 34. The list was topped by Harvard Business School.
SBA Bocconi’s international MBA class, which has a total strength of 90, has students from 32 countries, including India, China, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, UK, and US, among others. “Our admission policy aims at obtaining a wide geographical inclass representation to safeguard the internationalisation level of a programme ranked in the FT ranking,” added Paolo Morosetti, SDA Professor of Strategic and Entrepreneurial Management Department and Director of the Executive MBA Programme at SDA Bocconi.
The Indians and Chinese form the largest chunk of the student community in most global B-schools, after local students. And though top schools like the Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, or The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania try to maintain cultural and ethnic diversity in their class, there is no formal cap on intake.
According to an IIM-Bangalore study by Professor Rupa Chanda and Shahana Mukherjee (May 2012), UK, Germany and France receive the most number of Indian students for higher education. However, Indian students are exploring other countries in the EU such as Sweden, Italy, Ireland and Denmark, where “education is considerably cheaper and part-time jobs are easier to secure”.
Source: The Economic Times, April 12, 2013
“There are too many Indian students in the MBA class, prompting us to limit intake. The number of Indian applications has been increasing over time. But the percentage of Indian applicants admitted has been capped to the level of the last intake at 12%,” said Alessandro Giuliani, Managing Director of MISB Bocconi. The Mumbai-based MISB Bocconi, is the Indian initiative of SDA Bocconi School of Management. This year, the institute saw the largest increase in applications from Indian candidates – another reason for the cap on intake of Indians. The basic selection criterion for admission into the MBA course at SDA Bocconi is GMAT.
“Managing cultural differences during the MBA experience is part of their (SBA Bocconi) pedagogy and hence they are emphasising on mixing students from different geographies and cultures in small groups in order to stimulate cross-cultural diversity,” said Giuliani. The Financial Times Global MBA Ranking 2013 placed SDA Bocconi School of Management at 39th place. Two management institutes from India featured in the top 50 list, including IIM- Ahmedabad at 26 and Indian School of Business at 34. The list was topped by Harvard Business School.
SBA Bocconi’s international MBA class, which has a total strength of 90, has students from 32 countries, including India, China, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, UK, and US, among others. “Our admission policy aims at obtaining a wide geographical inclass representation to safeguard the internationalisation level of a programme ranked in the FT ranking,” added Paolo Morosetti, SDA Professor of Strategic and Entrepreneurial Management Department and Director of the Executive MBA Programme at SDA Bocconi.
The Indians and Chinese form the largest chunk of the student community in most global B-schools, after local students. And though top schools like the Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, or The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania try to maintain cultural and ethnic diversity in their class, there is no formal cap on intake.
According to an IIM-Bangalore study by Professor Rupa Chanda and Shahana Mukherjee (May 2012), UK, Germany and France receive the most number of Indian students for higher education. However, Indian students are exploring other countries in the EU such as Sweden, Italy, Ireland and Denmark, where “education is considerably cheaper and part-time jobs are easier to secure”.
Source: The Economic Times, April 12, 2013
Only 3 IITs among top 100 universities in Asia
Only three institutes in the country, all of them Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), feature among the top 100 universities in Asia, according to the first Asia University Rankings released by "Times Higher Education" magazine.
While IIT-Kharagpur is ranked 30th, IIT-Bombay is 33rd and IIT-Roorkee 56th, the University of Tokyo secured the pole position with an overall score of 78.3, followed by the National University of Singapore with 77.5, University of Hong Kong (75.6) and Peking University (70.7). The universities are ranked based on 13 performance indicators in teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.
"We are very happy with the results, because we have been striving very hard to compete with global universities," said IIT-Kharagpur officiating Director S K Som. "IIT-Kharagpur is a founder IIT, and we have started programmes other IITs haven't." IIT-Kharagpur had earlier launched Vision 2020 with the aim of joining the list of the world's top 20 universities in science and technology. "We are focusing on research excellence, faculty excellence and industry linkages," Som said.
Individually, the three IITs have done relatively well on industry income or innovation, and have secured moderate scores in the teaching and research parameters. All three have secured low scores in terms of international outlook, with none securing more than 20 points.
A comparison between the Asia and the world rankings shows that the IITs are a far cry from many of those above them on the list. Many of the top 20 institutions also feature in the top 100 list, whereas IIT-Kharagpur, the highest-ranked Indian university, is placed between 226 and 250 on the world ranking list. No Indian institution has figured among the top 200 universities in the world in recent surveys. IIT-Bombay is placed between 251 and 275 positions, while IIT-Roorkee falls between 351 and 400 ranks on the world universities list.
In sheer numbers, too, Japan, with 22 universities in the top 100 Asian institutions, Taiwan with 17, China with 15 and Korea with 14 have done much better.
Sudhir Chella Rajan, head, department of humanities and social sciences, IIT-Madras, said the rankings had to be taken with a pinch of salt as much of the review was based on perception, not actual output. "It is said that those with publicity departments do better," he said.
Analysing the performance of India's higher education sector for the London-based "Times Higher Education", Pawan Agarwal, adviser for higher education to the Planning Commission, said "rapid growth in the face of staff shortages and declining per-student spending has affected standards, which is eroding public confidence in the value of Indian higher education". He said to build a world-class academy, India must develop a group of multi-disciplinary research universities capable of world-class research in a wide range of disciplinary and inter-disciplinary areas.
To see the full list of top 100 Asian universities, please click http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2012-13/regional-ranking/region/asia?gclid=COT8-v6xxLYCFYx66wodlxAAuw.
Source: The Times of India, April 12, 2013
While IIT-Kharagpur is ranked 30th, IIT-Bombay is 33rd and IIT-Roorkee 56th, the University of Tokyo secured the pole position with an overall score of 78.3, followed by the National University of Singapore with 77.5, University of Hong Kong (75.6) and Peking University (70.7). The universities are ranked based on 13 performance indicators in teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.
"We are very happy with the results, because we have been striving very hard to compete with global universities," said IIT-Kharagpur officiating Director S K Som. "IIT-Kharagpur is a founder IIT, and we have started programmes other IITs haven't." IIT-Kharagpur had earlier launched Vision 2020 with the aim of joining the list of the world's top 20 universities in science and technology. "We are focusing on research excellence, faculty excellence and industry linkages," Som said.
Individually, the three IITs have done relatively well on industry income or innovation, and have secured moderate scores in the teaching and research parameters. All three have secured low scores in terms of international outlook, with none securing more than 20 points.
A comparison between the Asia and the world rankings shows that the IITs are a far cry from many of those above them on the list. Many of the top 20 institutions also feature in the top 100 list, whereas IIT-Kharagpur, the highest-ranked Indian university, is placed between 226 and 250 on the world ranking list. No Indian institution has figured among the top 200 universities in the world in recent surveys. IIT-Bombay is placed between 251 and 275 positions, while IIT-Roorkee falls between 351 and 400 ranks on the world universities list.
In sheer numbers, too, Japan, with 22 universities in the top 100 Asian institutions, Taiwan with 17, China with 15 and Korea with 14 have done much better.
Sudhir Chella Rajan, head, department of humanities and social sciences, IIT-Madras, said the rankings had to be taken with a pinch of salt as much of the review was based on perception, not actual output. "It is said that those with publicity departments do better," he said.
Analysing the performance of India's higher education sector for the London-based "Times Higher Education", Pawan Agarwal, adviser for higher education to the Planning Commission, said "rapid growth in the face of staff shortages and declining per-student spending has affected standards, which is eroding public confidence in the value of Indian higher education". He said to build a world-class academy, India must develop a group of multi-disciplinary research universities capable of world-class research in a wide range of disciplinary and inter-disciplinary areas.
To see the full list of top 100 Asian universities, please click http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2012-13/regional-ranking/region/asia?gclid=COT8-v6xxLYCFYx66wodlxAAuw.
Source: The Times of India, April 12, 2013
Thursday, April 11, 2013
IIMs seek liberty to elect directors
The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have a wish: The freedom to select directors on their own, and at an accelerated pace. The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD)'s intervention in its matters, including selection of directors, is taking a toll on the schools' reputation, they claim. "We are losing our charm internationally," laments an IIM director. "We need basic freedom to at least appoint our own directors, sans anyone's permission. We do not see international professors interested in heading IIMs."
Consider this: Samir Barua, Director at IIM-Ahmedabad, was to remit office in November 2012 but was given an extension of a few months. Ditto with Shekhar Chaudhuri, Director, IIM-Calcutta, and Pankaj Chandra, Director, IIM-Bangalore, who is still on extension. In contrast, look at similar appointments internationally: Cornell University's management announced Soumitra Dutta as the new dean in January 2012, when he was to take over in July 2012. Nitin Nohria was announced Harvard Business School's dean in May 2010, when he was to take over in July 2010.
In fact, the board of governors at IIM-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) had sent names of three contenders - Ashish Nanda of Harvard University and IIM-A faculty members G Raghuram and Rakesh Basant - for the post of Director to MHRD on May 9, 2012. But the ministry is yet to respond. The board, in the absence of a clearance from MHRD, this month asked Dean (Faculty) Ajay Pandey to take over as the Acting Director. While IIM-Calcutta appointed a Director this week, IIM-Bangalore is yet to appoint one.
"I do not understand why an IIM needs the MHRD or the permission of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to appoint a director. Why can't decisions regarding educational institutions be left to them? We are institutions of the 21st century. Why do we have a board of governors if we can't be allowed to select our own directors?" asks an IIM director.
Sources at the premier management institutes say the process of selecting a director should be accelerated, as it would be a good model to have a director-designate six months to one year in advance. This would allow the outgoing and incoming directors to work together, allowing for better hand-holding before one takes over.
As an IIM director completes his term, a search committee is constituted to shortlist eligible candidates and recommend them to MHRD. The ministry approves the list, sends it to the Department of Personnel, which forwards it to the PMO for the Cabinet Committee's approval.
Globally, however, much before a director or dean's term comes to an end, headhunters identify some key names of eligible candidates and send these to the dean of a search committee, which comprises faculty members from the institute. Committees at the university and school levels come together to interview and shortlist candidates. The appointments are usually done months in advance.
A M Naik, chairperson of the board of governors of IIM-A, says though the selection of directors six months in advance would be a good move, the government's role in the process would remain, as it was an important stakeholder. Ashok Thakur, Joint Secretary at MHRD, could not be contacted for comments despite repeated attempts for two weeks.
Source: Business Standard, April 11, 2013
Consider this: Samir Barua, Director at IIM-Ahmedabad, was to remit office in November 2012 but was given an extension of a few months. Ditto with Shekhar Chaudhuri, Director, IIM-Calcutta, and Pankaj Chandra, Director, IIM-Bangalore, who is still on extension. In contrast, look at similar appointments internationally: Cornell University's management announced Soumitra Dutta as the new dean in January 2012, when he was to take over in July 2012. Nitin Nohria was announced Harvard Business School's dean in May 2010, when he was to take over in July 2010.
In fact, the board of governors at IIM-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) had sent names of three contenders - Ashish Nanda of Harvard University and IIM-A faculty members G Raghuram and Rakesh Basant - for the post of Director to MHRD on May 9, 2012. But the ministry is yet to respond. The board, in the absence of a clearance from MHRD, this month asked Dean (Faculty) Ajay Pandey to take over as the Acting Director. While IIM-Calcutta appointed a Director this week, IIM-Bangalore is yet to appoint one.
"I do not understand why an IIM needs the MHRD or the permission of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to appoint a director. Why can't decisions regarding educational institutions be left to them? We are institutions of the 21st century. Why do we have a board of governors if we can't be allowed to select our own directors?" asks an IIM director.
Sources at the premier management institutes say the process of selecting a director should be accelerated, as it would be a good model to have a director-designate six months to one year in advance. This would allow the outgoing and incoming directors to work together, allowing for better hand-holding before one takes over.
As an IIM director completes his term, a search committee is constituted to shortlist eligible candidates and recommend them to MHRD. The ministry approves the list, sends it to the Department of Personnel, which forwards it to the PMO for the Cabinet Committee's approval.
Globally, however, much before a director or dean's term comes to an end, headhunters identify some key names of eligible candidates and send these to the dean of a search committee, which comprises faculty members from the institute. Committees at the university and school levels come together to interview and shortlist candidates. The appointments are usually done months in advance.
A M Naik, chairperson of the board of governors of IIM-A, says though the selection of directors six months in advance would be a good move, the government's role in the process would remain, as it was an important stakeholder. Ashok Thakur, Joint Secretary at MHRD, could not be contacted for comments despite repeated attempts for two weeks.
Source: Business Standard, April 11, 2013
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