EducationWorld August 16

After completing my five-year bachelors degree in law, I want to pursue a Masters in law as well as an MBA. Can I study for both qualifications simultaneously? Also, will a Ph D enhance my career prospects? Nalini Rajan, Bangalore Generally it is impermissible to read for two Masters programmes simultaneously. However, check with the university you are applying to if this is permissible. If keen on a career in research, a Ph D is very useful. I’ve just completed Plus Two and want to study for a B.Com degree simultaneously with a diploma programme in banking. Anil Desai, Ahmedabad Most banking diploma courses are offered only to graduates, so first complete your B.Com degree programme. As a graduate (any discipline), you become eligible for the position of a trainee officer in private banks. You also become eligible for entry into public sector banks by writing the Probationary Officers Examination. A better option is to sign up for an MBA degree/diploma programme. I’m interested in a career in sports management. Which universities in India offer it as a study subject? Sukhwinder Singh, Delhi Sports management is quickly becoming a popular career option. Currently, individuals with diverse qualifications — MBAs, marketing professionals, business managers, sportspersons, etc — are involved in sports management. The Naval Tata Centre of Excellence in Sports Management, Mumbai; IISWBM, Kolkata (www.iiswbm.edu); Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University, Chennai (www.tnpesu.org); Lakshmibai National University of Physical Education, Gwalior (www.lnupe.gov.in) and International Institute of Sports Management, Jai Hind College, Mumbai (www.iismworld.com) are among several institutions countrywide offering postgraduate programmes in sports management. I’ve completed my B.Tech degree from an IIT and am currently working in the field of corrosion and metallurgy. I want to sign up for a postgrad degree programme in corrosion or metallurgical engineering preferably part-time or via distance learning. What are my options? Suresh Iyer, Chennai IIT-Mumbai and the Tata Institute of Social Science offer study programmes in corrosion science, metallurgical engineering, materials science and process metallurgy. The National Institutes of Technology at Durgapur and Jamshedpur also offer these programmes while MIT, Pune offers a postgraduate diploma in piping design and engineering. You should contact these institutes to check for distance learning programmes as no institution of repute offers correspondence courses in these hands-on learning subjects. I‘m a second year student of computer science engineering and want to apply for a Masters degree in the US. However in Plus Two, my average was a mere 58 percent. Will a top-ranked US university accept my admission application considering my low class XII academic scores? Suresh Patil, Pune Admission into most top-ranked US universities is competitive and academic grades are primary criteria for selection. However, while a low class XII score is a setback, you could make up for it by topping your engineering class, getting involved in research or applied research and signing up for internships during vacations. You need to follow all this up with high GRE and TOEFL scores. American universities weigh students academic records…

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Observers have predicted a brain drain of researchers from the UK in the aftermath of the vote to leave the European Union as rival countries snap up academic talent. Jonathan Adams, chief scientist at the consultancy Digital Science, says that the leave vote is a “real concern” and would strengthen the appeal of universities in places such as Singapore and South Korea. It will put off “people here who feel alienated by the attitude to internationalism in their own country”, he says. In addition, scientists from abroad would be deterred from coming to the UK by “anti-foreigner” sentiment. Adds Daniel Hook, managing director of Digital Science: “This puts Germany in an amazing position to capitalise on the UK’s exit.” Stephen Curry, professor of structural biology at Imperial College London, says his EU colleagues are feeling “increasingly unwelcome”, and one had said that he would leave the UK in the event of a Brexit vote. “There are plenty of good places to go,” he says, mentioning South Korea and other European countries. The vote would also have “a clear and immediate impact on recruiting people from abroad” and there will be a “rapid drop-off” in hiring academics from overseas. He adds that he has little confidence that any new government would put in place a “sophisticated immigration policy” that would allow continued recruitment. Sarah Main, executive director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering, says it’s “technically possible” for a new government to craft an “outward-looking migration policy” post-Brexit. However, “the big challenge is that globally the perception is that the UK has chosen… an anti-immigration” stance, she adds. Comments David Price, vice-provost (research) at University College, London: “The vote is likely to be a disaster for the long-term future of UK research and the higher education sector”.

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When Christine Ortiz imagines her ideal university she sees “no lectures, no classrooms, no majors, no departments”. Students will work on tough practical problems in huge open spaces. If they need to swot up, they will consult the internet, not a lecturer. Her vision is far removed from the traditional model of higher education. But it will soon become a reality. In July, after six years as dean of graduate education at MIT, this materials scientist will leave to found a new university set to open in the next five years. It will exemplify a trend that is reshaping how some students learn. Geoff Mulgan of Nesta, a British think-tank, calls it the “rise of the challenge-driven university”. In the past 15 years dozens such institutions have been set up, from Chile to China. Many more are planned. Though they differ in scope, they share an approach. They reject the usual ways of getting young adults to learn: lectures, textbooks, slogs in the library, exams — and professors. Instead, students work in teams on projects, trying to solve problems without clear answers. Companies often sponsor the projects and provide instructors. Courses combine the arts, humanities and sciences. (The slogan of Zeppelin University, founded in 2003 in Germany, reads: “The problems within our society are ill-disciplined, and so are we!”) There have been earlier attempts to disrupt higher education. Experimental College, in Wisconsin, attracted hundreds of free-spirited students when it was founded in 1927 without schedules or mandatory classes. The Experimental University, in Paris, was established by frustrated intellectuals after the protests of 1968. Both closed soon after. Worry about the state of young minds is behind the latest initiatives. Champions of “deeper learning”, an increasingly popular idea in American education, argue that today’s teaching methods stifle understanding. Tony Wagner, the author of Creating Innovators, says that schools and universities are failing to spark young peoples curiosity. He points to research by Richard Arum of New York University and Josipa Roksa of the University of Virginia, who estimated in 2011 that despite four years of study 36 percent of newly minted American graduates failed to improve their scores on the Collegiate Learning Assessment, a test of critical thinking. Advocates of the new model also often cite the studies of Kyung Hee Kim of the College of William and Mary, which suggest that American scores on a standardised test of creativity have fallen since 1990, even as average IQ scores have risen. All this is frustrating employers. About half the companies surveyed in 2015 by the Confederation of British Industry, a lobby group, said graduates are unprepared for business jobs. A report last year by the Association of American Colleges & Universities concluded that students lack applied knowledge, critical thinking and communication skills. The new approach is only one part of broader changes in higher education. But too often, governments get in the way of fresh thinking. Though most Chinese universities offer courses on how to innovate or become an entrepreneur, the…

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Singapore is home to the best two universities in Asia for the first time, while China and Japan have the highest density of top institutions in the continent, according to the Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings 2016. The National University of Singapore (NUS) claims pole position, while its neighbour Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is in joint second place (with China’s Peking University) — the highest positions for the two Singaporean institutions in the rankings’ four-year history. Singapore’s success in the table follows its rise in THE’s flagship World University Rankings; NUS has climbed 14 places in this table since 2012 to reach #26 last year, while NTU has risen 119 places since 2011 to #55. While mainland China and Japan each host almost a fifth of institutions in the extended Top 200 table (39 each), China has the upper hand, after a shift in power towards the nation in 2015. The country has 22 universities in the Top 100, including two in the Top 10, while Japan has just 14 in the upper half of the table, and its top-ranked institution — the University of Tokyo at #7 — has lost its place at the summit of the list. Gerard Postiglione, chair professor in higher education at the University of Hong Kong, says the Singapore government’s “strategic” positioning of its universities as “competing in the global economy” and generous financial support for research are two reasons why the city state has “shone the brightest” in the ranking. He adds that collaborations with world-class universities outside Asia — such as the partnership behind the Yale-NUS liberal arts college — have benefited Singapore’s universities. “Singapore also has a very high-quality school system and its immigration policy makes it possible to bring in talented people,” he says. China’s special administrative region, Hong Kong, has also performed well with six representatives, all in the Top 45, while South Korea and Taiwan are the most-represented countries after China and Japan, with 24 institutions each. Institutions from 22 countries, eight more than last year, feature in this year’s ranking, with several countries, including Bangladesh, Indonesia and Qatar, being represented for the first time. Among the Indian universities featured in the Top 100 are the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (#27), Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (#43), IIT-Kharagpur (#51) and IIT-Delhi (#60). The THE Asia University Rankings use the same 13 performance indicators as the World University Rankings, but have been recalibrated to reflect the attributes of Asia’s higher education systems. 

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If you ever meet engineering graduates of a Canadian university, take a look at the little finger of their writing hand. In all likelihood, they will be wearing a plain iron ring. This is part of tradition that stretches back to 1922 — and which emerged in the context of early 20th-century bridge collapses — in which graduating engineers take part in a ritual written by Rudyard Kipling to remind them of their ethical obligations to society as they enter the profession. The practice, which advocates say is effective in keeping engineers honest, raises the wider question of whether oaths and rings can bind graduates to good behaviour when they leave campus — something particularly pertinent to business schools in the aftermath of the 2008 financial meltdown. “The ritual and ring certainly do still have an impact” on engineers’ professional conduct, argues Leonard Shara, chief warden of the Corporation of the Seven Wardens, an independent Canadian body that administers the ceremonies. During the ritual, graduating engineers and the ceremony leader each grasp a link of a long iron chain that connects to a “very used” anvil, he explains. As they hold the chain, the group recites the Kipling-authored “oath of obligation”, he adds. “This is a powerful moment, one which most will remember forever.” Engineers vow they will “not henceforward suffer or pass, or be privy to the passing of, bad workmanship or faulty material in aught that concerns my works before mankind as an engineer, or in my dealings with my own soul before my Maker”. But despite initial enthusiasm, the number of new MBA students taking the oath has dried up (although engineering graduates at Harvard have kept faith with the idea). In 2012, DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University, based in Hamilton, Ontario, launched rings for graduating MBA students explicitly based on the iron ring tradition to remind them of their “commitment to principles of ethics and integrity upon graduation”. Meanwhile UK business schools and universities appear to be doing a roaring trade in graduation rings, albeit without any explicit intention to strengthen graduates’ ethics in the workplace. A London-based jeweller, Eva & Eva, offers graduates products ranging from signet rings to a £325 (Rs.28,667) golden band. The US appears to be one step ahead, however, with one company, Jostens, offering not only gemstone-encrusted rings but graduation dog tags, which can cost more than $1,000 (Rs.67,150). “Your one-of-a-kind collegiate story never looked so good,” its brochure says. 

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Every researcher in the Netherlands is to be questioned about whether she has committed research misconduct or engaged in “sloppy science” in a major national effort to bolster scientific standards. In response to rising concerns over a “reproducibility crisis” in science and a series of high-profile fraud cases, the country is to commit €8 million (Rs.59 crore) to understanding the problem, finding solutions and trying to reproduce critical studies. Lex Bouter, professor of methodology and integrity at VU Amsterdam and one of the driving forces behind the initiative, says that “during the past 10 years we had three to four really serious wake-up calls” about scientific misconduct in the Netherlands. The most prominent is the case of Diederik Stapel, who was sacked by Tilburg University in 2011 for fabricating data, and who left a trail of fraudulent social psychology papers. There are two parts to the Dutch investigation into research integrity: a €5 million programme called Fostering Responsible Research Practices, which will include a €1.2 million national survey of researchers and €2.7 million research grants into the area, and a €3 million pot to fund replication studies of important “cornerstone” research that has been relied on to make policy or has attracted considerable media attention. The programmes are set to be signed off soon and calls for proposals are expected before the end of the summer. The mass survey of researchers in the Netherlands will encompass all disciplines, including humanities scholars, who, like scientists, can be “selective” in their use of sources, says Bouter. The anonymised results will be reported back to universities so they can judge the extent of the problem. According to him, this is an overdue initiative. A metastudy found that 2 percent of scientists admitted to having “fabricated, falsified or modified data or results,” although Prof. Bouter says this is likely to be a “gross underestimate”.

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Two years ago, Krzysztof Rybinski, a Polish economist heading a private university in Warsaw, was contacted by headhunters from Moscow. They had spotted his profile on LinkedIn and wanted a Russian-speaking European university leader to reform the prominent Narxoz University in Almaty, a city in the far east of vast Kazakhstan, a few hours’ drive from the border of north-western China. Sixteen months into his job as rector, his efforts to root out cheating, plagiarism, corruption and staid teaching, have led to the firing of hundreds of academics. “I worked with clients in many places… I thought nothing would surprise me,” says Prof. Rybinski, also a former vice president of Poland’s central bank. But even he was “shocked” at how different Kazakh culture was, with its very strong family ties and old Soviet practices. Higher education in the country, although “changing very, very slowly”, still prioritises “testing and memorisation”, he says, even though “on paper” Kazakhstan has signed up to Europe’s Bologna Process, which focuses more on skills. Corruption is everywhere, says Rybinski. “The vast majority of universities in Central Asia… have the problems of corruption, plagiarism and cheating”. “When the cheating culture is everywhere from primary school to Ph D… you have to take tough measures.” To counter cheating in exams at Narxoz — students routinely talked to each other, took in “cheat sheets” and tried to bring in smartphones — the university installed cameras in exam halls. In the past six months, Rybinski estimates that between 100 and 200 students have been caught and forced to retake exams. Now the level of cheating is “much lower”, he insists. To tackle plagiarism, all first year students must take an academic writing course that impresses on them how wrong the practice is, and the university runs essays through plagiarism-detection software. Payments to lecturers to boost grades and get exam papers in advance also plague Kazakh higher education. “Wages of teachers and academics are very low, which forces them to seek additional income,” he says. At Narxoz, “we had a few cases, and these people were fired.” Prof. Rybinski has also crushed resistance by academics to the introduction of the “flipped classroom” method — where students learn from online material by themselves and solve problems in class with teachers — and the use of massive open online courses. “A large percentage of our staff continued to conduct the courses in the old way, the Soviet way,” he says. “We said ‘goodbye’ to them.” In the past two years, more than 250 have been fired. Concerns have long been raised about academic freedom in Kazakhstan, which has been ruled by President Nursultan Nazarbayev since 1991. Last year, a Dutch academic alleged that he had been edged out of Nazarbayev University — named after the president — after the Russian embassy took issue with lectures about the fighting in Ukraine. “In terms of academic freedom, it’s very different from the standard we are used to in the UK and the US,” acknowledges Rybinski.…

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The Country Of First Boys And Other Essays by Amartya Sen Oxford University Press; Price:Rs.550; Pages: 276 This collection of essays written at various points by erudite economics Nobel laureate Dr. Amartya Sen, stimulates thought and reflection while being easy to read because of the conversational style and ironic humour, that distinguishes India’s arguably most-loved writer on the dismal science that’s economics. The selection of 13 seminal essays spanning almost 15 years, cover a wide range of subjects. Essays intriguingly titled ‘India through its Calendars’ (“The study of calendars and their history, usage and social associations can provide a fruitful understanding of important aspects of a country and its cultures”) to ‘On Nalanda University’ which details the multinational proposal to revive the world’s oldest university (estb.500 BCE), and the author’s role as its first chancellor and his premature resignation in February 2015 prompted by the election of the BJP-NDA government at the Centre. Stringing these diverse essays together is what Sen describes as a non-sectarian concern about the development of India in terms of “equity and justice, in different areas of human life — social, political, economic, cultural and intellectual”. The book’s title refers to a critique of our current education system, its deficiencies in coverage and quality, as well as its privileging of the few. Its massive disparity and gender imbalance manifests itself in the “huge mess” that is Indian education. Meanwhile, Western corporates snapping up the best “first boys” — successful products of India’s premier colleges and institutions — believe that India’s education system is a spectacular success. Countering this, the author addresses the country’s class rather than mass education system which neglects the primary education of a huge number of children to focus on first boys who are quick to emigrate given the first opportunity. The aggregative penalty of vast education disparity is that compared to Asian peers like China, South Korea, Taiwan or Thailand, India lags behind with a sparsely educated labour force. Lack of education and stark illiteracy affects employment, legal rights enforcement, political disenfranchisement and health of citizens, argues Sen. Sen’s primary academic studies in welfare economics and social choice theory have often highlighted the economic fallout of famine, hunger and poverty and addressed issues of economic and social justice. Essays titled ‘Hunger: Old Torments and New Blunders’ and ‘Poverty, War and Peace’, included in this compendium reiterate his humane concerns about “hardened inequalities in Indian society” and the urgent need to overcome the multiple injustices suffered by the huge majority of free India’s citizens. A recurring theme in these essays is the author’s sense of an expansive syncretic India, grounded in the wisdom of its cultural traditions which are being over-shadowed by narrow-mindedness and intolerance, communal animosity, a spillover from days of the Partition to contemporary times. Advocating democratic dialogue, the author takes on the media in an essay titled ‘Why Media is Important for Economic Development’ for bias and inaccuracy. Acknowledging that press freedom — “along with other democratic freedoms” — has helped…

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The political damage being caused by runaway train, bull-in-a-china-shop, eternal gadfly — call him what you will — Dr. Subramanian Swamy, MP, is prompting much head-shaking, if not downright embarrassment, within the inner circles of the ruling BJP whose leadership must be regretting elevating him to the Rajya Sabha in April. Since being inducted into the upper house of Elders, Swamy — an articulate and highly educated former economics alum and faculty at Harvard University, no less — has launched high-decibel, personalised broadsides at Dr. Raghuram Rajan, governor of the Reserve Bank of India and a globally respected economist in his own right who predicted the over-lending and cheap mortgages-driven global economic crisis of 2008. Nor has he spared Arvind Subramaniam, chief economic advisor to the Union government. According to Swamy, these distinguished economists who have retained their Indian citizenship despite being on the faculties of the University of Chicago and Global Development Center, Washington respectively, are agents of American business and the World Bank and IMF, hate institutions of the RSS, the befuddled ideological mentor of the BJP. In his long career as a self-confessed member of the RSS and hindutva champion, Swamy has played a major role in exposing corruption and fraud in government and public life (Jayalalithaa’s disproportionate assets case, 2G spectrum scam), contributing to the common good by his outspokenness on matters of national interest. Over three decades ago, your correspondent in his capacity as editor of Business India and BusinessWorld became acquainted with Swamy, because the latter is well aware of the private enterprise history and traditions of the Indian subcontinent, which right until the mid- 19th century generated 20 percent of global GDP. But our relationship soured when I queried how he reconciled economic liberalism with his antediluvian views on hindutva and RSS ideology. This query prompted him to order me to “get out” of his home in Delhi. Yet that is quintessential Dr. S. Swamy — a bundle of contradictions (his wife is Parsi and son-in-law Muslim) and political wrecking-ball — who comfortably reconciles his advocacy of second-class status for minorities as per atavistic RSS/hindutva ideology, with economic liberalism. London heartburn A recent sojourn in London, the city of your editors exuberant youth, which should have been a fulfilling and nostalgic interregnum, instead prompted heartburn. Over four decades ago, when I was a law student in this metropolis at a time when Great Britain had just lost its empire, the Labour party and belligerent trade unions were riding high, and the public sector British Steel Corporation was chalking up a staggering loss of £1 million per day, predictions were rife about the decline and fall of Britain into third world status. London itself was a grey, grimy and windy city, largely bereft of central heating. But last month’s brief visit after a gap of ten years, revealed a neat, clean, well-governed, indeed a beauteous city rivalling Paris, Geneva and Berlin. The streets are well-washed, roads are remarkably potholes-free, traffic is smooth and orderly,…

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An estimated 180,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students from across India fly to universities abroad every year to pursue higher education. The great majority (over 54 percent) enroll in American universities while 11 percent still prefer to study in British higher education institutions. For adventurous parents/students prepared to invest family fortunes in higher education overseas, the first point to note is that the higher education system in the US is markedly different from that of Britain. Therefore before choosing a university you should choose the country in which you want to study. The higher education courses you opt for should be able to fulfill your academic objectives and enhance your skill-sets. Therefore it’s useful to get an overview of the higher education systems of the US and the UK to aid the decision-making process. Interdisciplinary learning defines the ecosystem of America’s colleges and universities. The flexible US higher education system encourages students to customise study programmes to suit their individual interests. For instance, you could combine religious studies with sociology, or pursue your love of music alongside your penchant for mathematics, or even do art history and business management courses simultaneously. Moreover, in addition to the primary curriculum, you are free to attend lectures, study, write examinations and obtain credits in other subjects of your choice in wholly unrelated disciplines. For instance, legendary Apple Computers founder, the late Steve Jobs, studied calligraphy coterminously with his major in science at Reed College, a combination which ultimately translated into the sleek design of Apple products. US admission process. The admissions process for US colleges/universities is thorough and extensive. For prospective undergraduate students, writing prescribed tests — SAT/ACT and language tests such as TOEFL/IELTS — is mandatory. In addition, application essays, letters of recommendation from the school principal, class teacher and respected academics, and proof of community service, internships and extracurricular activities are also required to be submitted. Therefore it is advisable to start working on applications a year in advance. Graduates of Indian universities applying for admission into postgraduate programmes of US universities need to write the GRE or GMAT exams plus an English proficiency test (TOEFL/IELTS). Admission applications are judged on the basis of academics, professional exam scores and co-curricular and extra-curricular records of applicants during their undergraduate education and work experience. On the other hand, unlike the longer four-year undergraduate and two-year Masters programmes offered by US universities, the shorter three-year undergraduate and 10 or 12-months Masters programmes of British universities provide more focused education, while offering arts, science and commerce and professional degree programmes. As in India, courses at British universities focus on a single discipline. There are also similarities between the British and Indian school systems, both of which encourage early streaming, making it easier for Indian students to adapt to the British higher education system. The shorter duration of British degree programmes is also a great advantage because of the lower overall cost, while the quality of education dispensed by elite British institutions is on a par with the…

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Instead of leaving the task of promoting and managing industrial and business enterprises to entrepreneurs and businessmen who had a 5,000-year record of establishing the subcontinent as the worlds richest region right until the mid-19th century, post-independence India’s Central and state governments wasted taxpayers money and the huge amounts that our great leaders received as foreign aid immediately after independence, to promote massive, capital-intensive public sector enterprises (PSEs) managed by business-illiterate bureaucrats and clerks. Inevitably, this Nehruvian experiment to establish “a socialist pattern of society” in which the State would dominate the commanding heights of the economy has proved a dismal failure. Naturally, the colossal national resources invested in non-performing PSEs resulted in other sectors of the economy being starved of investment. Indian agriculture and rural agri-businesses in which 60 percent of the population is still engaged, is several centuries behind developed OECD countries in terms of technology and per hectare productivity. Yet undeniably, the sectors worst hit by perennial shortages of investible resources, are public education and health. Despite the country hosting the worlds largest child population, annual investment (Centre plus states) in public education and health has averaged a mere 3.5 percent and 2 percent of GDP respectively, for the past 68 years since independence. Against this, global average expenditure on education and health is 5 percent in each sector, with OECD countries routinely spending 6-7 percent of their GDP in these sectors. But for India’s much-pilloried 300,000 private schools and an estimated 2 million voluntary organisations (aka NGOs), the country’s education and health systems would have collapsed entirely. And even private tuition-fees charging schools have limited impact as the great majority of impoverished households at the bottom of the country’s iniquitous socio-economic pyramid cannot afford their fees. In the circumstances, NGOs which provide qualitatively acceptable free-of-charge education and health services to the poor majority, play a critical role in national development. Therefore, its regrettable that NGOs, which have never been popular with the Central and/or state governments because they ipso facto highlight their failures and shortcomings, are experiencing unusual pressure and scrutiny under the BJP-led NDA government which was voted to power in Delhi in 2014. Several NGOs and/or their promoters such as human rights activist Teesta Setalvad are being persecuted, and foreign fund flows of 14,000 NGOs have been proscribed. Against this backdrop of politicians and hindutva ideologues propagating hatred, ridicule and contempt for voluntary organisations, our cover story reminds the public of the commitment and dedicated contribution of the country’s most respected NGOs to the cause of public education.

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Oil and gas companies, national governments and environment organisations are engaging the services of marine biologists to study aquatic plant and animal life: Paromita Sengupta With rising global awareness about the importance of preserving and protecting marine flora and fauna and its direct impact on sustainable life on Planet Earth, the study of oceans and water bodies, and underwater life or marine biology has emerged as a highly-specialised vocation. Pharmaceutical, oil and gas companies, national governments and environment research and conservation organisations are increasingly engaging the services of marine biologists to study aquatic plant and animal life ranging from the microscopic pico plankton to the majestic blue whale, and suggest ways and means to protect the fragile oceanic ecosystem without adversely affecting commercial shipping, oil and gas drilling, recreational cruises and the plastics, chemicals, among other industries. Marine biology covers all facets — evolution, physiology, and biochemistry — of marine organisms and their environments, and much of the work of marine biologists is done in research labs. Typically, this involves building species inventories, testing and monitoring marine life exposed to pollutants, collecting and testing ocean bed and water samples, preserving specimens and mapping the distribution, multiplicity and migratory movements of marine populations. Given that marine biologists spend most of their time outdoors or in the water collecting samples, affinity for science-based field work, love of ocean, wading, snorkeling, scuba diving, ability to rough it out on sea and land and an analytical mind are desirable aptitudes for success in this 21st century profession. STUDY PROGRAMMES Graduates with a bachelor’s degree in botany/biochemistry/biotechnology/fisheries and aquaculture/microbiology/zoology are eligible to apply for postgraduate degree programmes in marine biology offered by Pondicherry University, Port Blair campus; University of Goa, Centre for Advanced Study in Marine Biology; Annamalai University, Department of Marine Biology, Microbiology and Biochemistry; University of Cochin, and the department of postgraduate studies, Karnatak University. Among the reputed foreign universities offering marine biology programmes are Carolina, North Carolina, Miami and Hawaii universities (USA); the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences, Charles Darwin and Queensland universities in Australia; Cambridge University, Scottish Association of Marine Sciences (UK); University of Ghent, Belgium; Stockholm University; University of Bremen (Germany) and the Finnish Institute of Marine Biology, Helsinki. PAY & PERKS In academia, a research assistant with a Masters in marine biology or a Ph D student (junior research fellow) can expect Rs.25,000-30,000 per month, while a post-doctoral fellow is likely to draw Rs.40,000-50,000. On the other hand, marine conservation and oil and gas exploration companies offer start-up pay packages of Rs.50,000-100,000 per month. Marine biologists can also work in education, research and development, energy or other industries requiring environment clearances, aquariums, zoos, the tourism industry, environment NGOs and in government fisheries and natural resources departments. PROFESSIONAL PROFILE “For environment-conscious youth inclined towards a seafaring life, this is an exciting career option offering the satisfaction of contributing to the preservation of critically important marine ecosystems. The importance of ecological renewal by conserving the flora and fauna of oceans, seas and…

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In collaboration with the Indian subsidiary of the US-based Cisco Systems Inc, the Bangalore-based Parikrma Humanity Foundation (PHF) hosted the Intra Parikrma Spelling Bee finals to mark the launch of Cisco’s CEED technology connecting Parikrma schools in Bangalore, on July 12. CEED ‘boxes’ sponsored by Cisco enable students and staff of all four PHF schools to communicate inter se using real-time video conferencing technology. “Cisco Systems is the largest IT networking company in the world, which also invests in scalable and self-sustaining programmes using cutting-edge technology to meet some of society’s biggest challenges through its CSR (corporate social responsibility) programmes. Cisco’s social investment programmes focus on four areas — education, healthcare, economic empowerment and disaster relief,” said Dinesh Malkani, president of Cisco System (India), speaking on the occasion. Added Shukla Bose, founder-CEO of PHF: “PHF is a non-profit organisation providing the best English language education to poorest children from the slums of Bangalore, since its inception in 2003. We value our association with Cisco Systems and are thankful to the company for its sustained support to PHF.”   SBI-Oracle’s D-Change The State Bank of India (SBI) and Oracle India have launched a ‘D-Change’ initiative which supports prime minister Narendra Modi’s Skill India and Digital India programmes. Under the initiative, employees from both organisations, including senior leadership, will support education and learning, women’s empowerment and skills development in rural India. Oracle and SBI volunteers will help to enhance IT literacy among high school students, teachers and parents of over 100 SBI-supported government schools through an initiative named ‘Digital kushalta ki aur’. The first project to be launched under D-Change will be initiated at the Rotary Bangalore Vidyalaya, Bengaluru and Mandal Parishad High School, Kondapur in Hyderabad on August 6. “For more than two decades, Oracle employees around the world, including here in India, have volunteered their time to improve the quality of life in communities where we live and work. Today, we extend our 20-year-old relationship with SBI to support India’s mission of creating a digitally empowered society. Through this programme, we will leverage SBI’s financial expertise and expansive reach with Oracle’s technology expertise to bring about substantial change in the community and support the development of a skilled economy,” said Loic Le Guisquet, president, EMEA and Asia Pacific of Oracle, addressing a media conference in Bangalore on August 1.   Enactus India national champion A students team of the Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, Delhi, recently crowned champions of the Enactus India National Competition, will represent the nation at the Enactus World Cup in Toronto, Canada from September 28-30 to compete with national champion teams from 34 other countries. Teams from IIT, Delhi and Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi, were the first and second runners-up in the national competition. The Enactus India National Competition provides a platform for student innovators to present unique social projects to leaders of India’s business and industry. This year, the national competition attracted 67 teams from higher education institutions countrywide who showcased their…

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Rajasthan School ragging lacuna A class XI student of a private higher secondary girls school near Jodhpur was allegedly ragged and stripped by five of her classmates, prompting police to register a case against the accused and the schools management, says assistant commissioner of police Swati Sharma. In the absence of a law against ragging in schools, we have decided to register a case against the accused girls and the school administration under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, police commissioner Ashok Rathore informed the media in Jodhpur on July 14. The anti-ragging law applies to college students which is not the case in this instance, he added while declining to identify the school. The state governments education ministry has also initiated an inquiry into the incident and directed the district education officer to submit a report within two days. The secretary of the school said an internal committee has been constituted to probe the incident. Meanwhile the accused girl students have been suspended. Punjab Secondary education revamp Disappointed by the consistently low class X board exam scores of students, Punjabs education minister Daljit Singh Cheema has commissioned a comprehensive study of this phenomenon. Addressing a brainstorming event with 500 teachers at the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) auditorium in Mohali on July 13, the minister said the governments intention is not to embarrass teachers but to analyse poor exam results and draw up a blueprint for improvement. Cheema invited suggestions from teachers and directed education ministry officials to act on them. The minister also instructed PSEB chairperson Tejinder Kaur Dhaliwal to convene a meeting with subject experts to implement constructive suggestions on syllabi and textbooks. A mid-service training programme for teachers of schools with poor results will be announced soon, he added. Bihar Faculty indolence ban Ex officio chancellor of all public universities in the state, Bihars governor Ram Nath Kovind has issued a circular to the states higher education institutions directing faculty to mandatorily put in a minimum five hours of work per working day, a government official informed media personnel in Patna on July 1. The governor had discussed this issue with vice chancellors of state universities in two meetings held on January 18 and May 14 this year, the circular said. The academic calendar of universities and colleges in Bihar comprises 180 working days in a year, it added. The circular also directs proctors of colleges and universities to report unauthorised absence of faculty to the governors secretariat on a daily basis. Haryana Moral education order Haryana education minister Ram Bilas Sharma announced the state governments decision to introduce moral education into the curricula of all government secondary schools (classes VI-XII) statewide. The minister made this announcement at a special function at Kurukshetra University, a government official informed media personnel in Chandigarh on July 5. All religions focus on character-building. Therefore, extracts from religious texts like the Bhagavad Gita, Quran, Bible and Guru Granth Sahib have been incorporated into the moral education curriculum,…

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“In the syllabus, we will take care of the differences and we will do standardisation of syllabus so that rural students can also (be) taken care of.” J.P. Nadda, Union health minister, on the NEET (National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test) Bill, mandating a single common exam for medical and dental courses, which was passed by the Lok Sabha (Outlook, July 19) “Brexit means Brexit, and were going to make a success of it.” Theresa May, leader of Britain’s Conservative Party, who replaced David Cameron as prime minister on July 13 (Time, July 25) “I trust Hillary to lead this country because I have seen her lifelong devotion to our nation’s children. Not just her own daughter, who she has raised to perfection, but every child who needs a champion: kids who take the long way to school to avoid the gangs…” Michelle Obama, US First Lady, endorsing Hillary Clinton’s candidature for US President at the National Democratic Convention (July 26) “Under the new Child Labour Act, the more invisible forms of child labour and exploitation may go unseen and the most vulnerable and marginalised children may end up with irregular school attendance, lower levels of learning and therefore subsequent dropping out of school.” Euphrates Gobina, UNICEF India’s education chief, on the provision in the new Child Labour Amendment Bill, 2016, which permits children to help in family-run enterprises (The Times of India, July 27) “All such disasters occur because of a convergence of factors related to climate change and a crisis created by mismanagement and corruption. In popular culture, while the political failures are rightfully played up and debated, the reasons behind such freak phenomena hardly finds any mention…” Amitav Ghosh, well-known novelist, releasing his latest book The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable (July 30)

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Given that Mumbai University (MU, estb.1857) has 159 years of education management experience, it’s natural to expect it to have streamlined its assessment and examination systems. But as is the case with most of the country’s ancient universities ruined by successive state governments given to beating populism and parochialism drums, administration and academic standards in Bombay University, whose name was changed to Mumbai University in deference to parochial sub-nationalism in 1996, have steadily gone from bad to worse. Latest proof of declining standards in MU is the delay in declaring results of 63 undergraduate and postgraduate exams held in March/April, until August. This postponement which is in violation of MU’s norm of 45 days as stipulated by the Maharashtra Universities Act, 1994, has clouded the future plans of more than 100,000 students who wrote the exams 60-90 days ago. The furore over delayed results could not have come at a worse time for the varsity which is already facing flak after data gathered under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (which empowers citizens to seek information from government institutions) has exposed its maladministration regarding assessment of answer scripts. Unsurprisingly, students who wrote postgraduate (MA, M.Com) and several undergraduate exams including bachelor of management studies (BMS) and have waited for their results for more than three months, are up in arms. Even the marksheets of students who applied for re-evaluation of their October 2015 exam answer scripts are not ready as yet. Consequently, a large number of undergrad students have missed the deadlines for admission into the postgrad programmes of several universities in India and abroad. “Mumbai University hasn’t declared exam results on time in the past three years. Despite the clear 45-day time window mandated by the Maharashtra Universities Act, it takes around 60-70 days for hard copies of marksheets to be ready. The varsity’s indolent administration doesn’t care about students and has no intention of getting its act together,” says Rohit Chandode, organisational secretary of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student union wing of the RSS, which claims 50,000 MU students as its members. ABVP has planned a protest rally on the university’s suburban campus at Kalina on August 30. Moreover, the Maharashtra Navnirman Vidyarthi Sena — the students’ wing of Raj Thakeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena — has threatened to storm the office of the vice chancellor, if results are delayed any further. Harried MU administrators attribute delays in completing assessments within the prescribed time limit to severe manpower shortage and infrastructural deficiencies. “We still have the same number of employees as 10-15 years ago despite the number of enrolled students having risen by 47 percent to 715,000 during the past decade, due to the state government’s budgetary constraints,” says M.A. Khan, registrar of MU. The real problem is that although the MU’s budgetary outlay has risen from Rs.465.20 crore in 2015-16 to Rs.639.54 crore in 2016-17, the varsity is experiencing cash flow problems because over the past few years, the state government has been paying merely…

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The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) government, which was voted back into the eastern seaboard state of West Bengal (pop.91 million) for a second consecutive term on May 19 this year, has yet to fulfil its electoral promise to bring “positive change” in the education sector ruined by persistent government interference during 34 years of uninterrupted rule (1977-2011) of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM)-led Left Front. Unfortunately, instead of introducing education reforms during its first term in office, the TMC also became infamous for rampant campus violence, political interference, exam malpractices and scams including the TET (Teacher Eligibility Test) scandal which has rendered 150,000 TET-qualified teachers unemployed even as there are 92,000 teacher vacancies in West Bengal’s government schools. And to add to the government’s discomfiture, a report of the School Service Commission (SSC) released in Kolkata on July 20, says that 2,500 government schools statewide have been functioning without principals since 2012. Vacancies for posts of principal in government schools are notified to the SSC, on the basis of which circulars for recruitment are released. However during the past four years, no such circulars have been issued. According to a SSC spokesperson, recruitment of principals has been deferred due to certain procedural changes, which include reducing the years of work experience required for applying for the post, and redefining job responsibilities of heads of school. Consequently, an estimated 2,500 government schools in West Bengal are without principals and are being managed by stand-in teachers also obliged to discharge their responsibilities as class teachers. Top-level vacancies have resulted in poor learning outcomes in government schools, most of which are understaffed with 70,000 notified vacancies in primaries and 18,000 for class IX-X teachers. According to Niharendu Choudhury, secretary of the West Bengal Headmasters’ Association (WBHMA), the state’s head-less schools are “experiencing great difficulty in covering the curriculum and in completing increasing paperwork to initiate the latest state government schemes on education”. “The problem of headmasters’ vacancies needs the immediate attention of the state education department,” he adds. The prevailing precarious condition of government schools in West Bengal is exacerbated by a shortage of 10,000 non-teaching staff because the TMC government introduced changes in the application process for these posts in 2015, with the result that the recruitment process is on hold. According to Swapan Mandol, assistant general secretary of the Bengal Teachers and Employees’ Association, “the TMC government is directionless and has been deviating from its promise to change the education and employment scenario in the state”. “Instead of addressing the problem of huge vacancies in government schools, the TMC government is donating large amounts to its youth clubs bidding for government contracts. This is misleading youth and driving them away from education, employment and development,” says Mandol. Still celebrating its thumping second consecutive win in the legislative assembly election of last May, it’s education as usual with the TMC government even as discontent among unemployed youth gathers momentum. This is a situation which can turn ugly for the TMC…

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Even as the legislative assembly election in Uttar Pradesh — India’s most populous (215 million) and arguably most under-governed state — is less than a year away, the auguries for the ruling professedly socialist Samajwadi Party are not good. The state is making national headlines for all the wrong reasons. In September 2013, over 52 Muslim citizens of Muzaffarnagar in Western UP were killed in a pogrom; in September 2015, Mohammed Aklaq was lynched by a riotous mob for allegedly storing beef in his refrigerator (beef consumption is a crime in this state which hosts over 30 million Muslim minority citizens); and on July 31, a family travelling by car on the Delhi-Kanpur national highway was waylaid by six robbers who gang-raped the mother and her 14-year-old daughter. Against the backdrop of these, among other atrocities in UP making daily headlines countrywide, a report of the Lucknow-based Giri Institute of Development Studies (GIDS, estb.1973 and supported by the Delhi-based Indian Council for Culture & Social Research) which lauds the state government’s distribution of laptops to students who pass the class X and XII board exams, is a silver lining to the dark clouds on the Samajwadi Party’s horizon. The scheme to distribute laptops and tablets to school-leavers was initiated in 2012 to encourage students to pursue higher education. For example the eligibility criteria for class XII pass outs included admission into a college, recognised polytechnic or ITI. The free laptops scheme was one of the highlights of SP’s 2012 election campaign, and reportedly swung the youth vote in favour of the party led by its 43-year-old chief ministerial candidate Akhilesh Yadav. Though 1.48 million laptops have been distributed under the scheme thus far, it received no budgetary support between 2013-15 after the state’s comptroller and auditor general (CAG) criticised the wastage of public funds for organising huge electoral calculus-driven jamborees for distribution of the laptops. However, the GIDS study credits it for resulting in numerous positives, from increasing social awareness of new technology learning options, to creating opportunities for self- employment. For the study, 3,200 beneficiaries from 16 colleges in 13 districts were interviewed with 86 percent of respondents stating their academic performance has improved after receiving laptops. Moreover, 53 percent of the respondents said they have become tech savvy, 21 percent claimed to have landed part-time jobs or started small enterprises with the help of technology. An interesting conclusion of the study is that almost all respondents believe they have earned family and social respect for becoming eligible to receive the laptops. Comments Dr. Charan Singh Verma, senior fellow at GIDS and author of the study: “While there might have been a political purpose behind the scheme, its benefits cannot be overlooked. Better electricity supply, internet connectivity, training to make optimal use of the laptops etc will make this an even more potent tool to bridge the state’s digital divide and equip young people, especially in rural and semi-urban areas, to change their mindsets and embrace new information and…

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Within two weeks of taking charge as Union minister of human resource development (HRD) following a Cabinet reshuffle on July 5, Prakash Javadekar — former minister of environment, forest management and climate change in the BJP-NDA government which was swept to power in General Election 2014 — met with top leaders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the acknowledged ideological parent organisation of the BJP, and leaders of affiliated hindutva organisations such as Vidya Bharati, ABVP, Bharatiya Shikshan Mandal, Vigyan Bharati etc for a six-hour conclave in Delhi on July 29. According to reliable HRD ministry sources, the RSS top brass is less than satisfied with the draft of the new National Education Policy (NEP) 2016 prepared by Javadekar’s controversial predecessor in office, Smriti Irani, who has been moved to the textiles ministry. Even Javadekar’s first public outing after assuming office was to an event organised by the Bharatiya Shikshan Mandal on NEP 2016. “We need views from all ideologies. We need each and every suggestion because I believe education is a national mission to take the country ahead,” said Javadekar, who announced extension of the deadline for public comment on NEP 2016 to August 15. The general expectation is that like his predecessor Irani, Javadekar will continue to be heavily influenced by the RSS while discharging his duties as Union HRD minister and NEP 2016 will have RSS fingerprints all over it. This is bad news for Indian education because although Irani toed the RSS/sangh parivar line by appointing RSS nominees to highly-reputed higher education institutions, they failed to do the BJP’s reputation any good. The appointments of RSS nominees such as Prof. Y. Sudershan Rao as chairperson of the New Delhi-based Indian Council of Historical Research; Gajendra Chauhan as head of Film and Television Institute of India, Pune; former editor of RSS mouthpiece Panchajanya Baldev Sharma as chairman of the National Book Trust, invited a volley of criticism from academia and the media. Nor during Irani’s two-year tenure in Shastri Bhavan, Delhi, which hosts the HRD ministry was the BJP/NDA government able to notch up any notable successes in education. Pratham’s Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2014, released in early 2015, revealed a declining trend in student learning outcomes countrywide. Institutions of higher education continue to experience a severe faculty crunch (30 percent of faculty positions are vacant countrywide). Only two of India’s 800 universities are ranked in the QS Top 200 World University Rankings 2015, and even the top-ranked, globally respected Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) weren’t spared Irani’s reckless interference with their administration and autonomy. Unsurprisingly, civil society groups and academics aren’t particularly enthused by the change in leadership of the HRD ministry. “The new minister is unlikely to bring about the reform the education system needs. With the Centre’s expenditure on education slashed from Rs.82,771 crore in 2015-16 to Rs.72,394 crore this year, and casual approach towards implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education…

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You have rightly criticised Indian industry for failing to engage with education institutions to design syllabuses and curriculums (cover story, EW July). The predominant mindset within India Inc is that it’s the job of colleges and universities to produce skilled and employable youth. However, with education ministries at the Centre and states infested with lazy, corrupt officials ill-equipped to revise syllabuses and school and college managements obsessed with examination success, it’s in the interest of business leaders and managers to engage deeply with education institutions, as they are the end-users of graduates. The examples you have cited of graduates and postgrads applying in thousands for low-end government jobs graphically illustrate the deep disconnect between Indian education and industry. Captains of industry who pay lip service to education and human resource development need to walk the talk, and begin the process of comprehensive engagement with education institutions to transform India’s huge population of unemployable youth into industry-ready and productive employees. Manoj Srivastava Dehradun Alienating attitudes Thank you for the in-depth and revealing special report on Aligarh Muslim University’s fight for minority status (EW July). Without doubt, AMU is one of the greatest educational achievements of the Muslim community in India. It was promoted by social reformer Sir Syed Ahmad Khan to provide modern Western education to the Muslim community and over the years, has done a commendable job of delivering high-quality education to thousands of Muslim youth. Any effort by the BJP or the courts to take away its minority status should be firmly opposed. As highlighted by several committees including the Sachar committee, the educational status of Muslims in India is lower than of Dalits and the OBC communities who enjoy the benefit of reservations in higher education institutions, denied to Muslims. Therefore, minority status, which enables AMU to reserve 50 percent of its capacity for Muslim students, is perfectly justifiable. The BJP government’s stand that AMU is not a minority institution — if upheld by the Supreme Court — will deny thousands of Muslim youth access to higher education, and will further alienate them. Danish Khan Lucknow Communal agenda The BJP-led NDA government’s contention in the apex court that Aligarh Muslim University is not a minority institution reveals the anti-minorities agenda of the BJP and its ideological mentor, the RSS (EW July). For over a century, AMU has been operating as a Muslim minority university and has been acknowledged as such by an Act of Parliament. The contention of the Modi-led BJP government that AMU is not a minority institution has to be viewed in the context of the numerous vitriolic anti-Muslim speeches made by several BJP and RSS spokespersons over the past two years. Stripping AMU of its minority status may serve the communal agenda of the BJP/RSS, but is bound to create discontent and resentment within the country’s largest minority community. The attack on AMU is part of a larger RSS game plan to wrest control of the country’s top universities. Earlier in JNU, Hyderabad and Jadavpur…

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Prakash Javadekar, the newly-appointed Union minister for human resource development (HRD) who assumed charge at Shastri Bhavan, New Delhi on July 5 following a Cabinet reshuffle at the Centre begins his new innings with the goodwill of the entire academic community and the media. In his earlier two-year stint as minister of state for environment, forests and climate change, Javadekar won good notices all round for commendably balancing the need for environment conservation with sustainable industrial growth. Reportedly a patient listener unlike his predecessor Smriti Irani, who during her two-year stint as HRD minister antagonised almost the entire academy with her domineering, bull-in-a-china-shop style of governing this sensitive ministry, Javadekar needs to adopt a simultaneously loose-tight style of governance in a ministry which has proved the graveyard of four successive political heavyweights — Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, Kapil Sibal, Dr. Pallam Raju and Smriti Irani — since the dawn of the new millennium. None of them were able to slow — let alone reverse — the steady slide of Indian education from school to Ph D into irrelevance and mediocrity. Javadekar’s immediate task is to formulate the new National Policy on Education 2016 based upon the recommendations of the high-powered T.S.R. Subramanian Committee which suo motu released its 200-page report on May 28, after Irani refused to make it public without prior consultation with state governments. The most important recommendation of the Subramanian Committee’s report is to increase national (Centre plus states) annual expenditure on education from the current 3.25 percent to 6 percent of GDP (as recommended by the Kothari Commission in 1966) “without further loss of time”. The backstory to this recommendation is that although every major political party since 1966 has promised to meet this goal for the benefit of the world’s largest — and most short-changed — child population, national education outlays have averaged a mere 3.5 percent per annum in post-independence India. The committee has suggested several other overdue reforms to get the country’s floundering education system back on track. Among them: repealing the no-detention until class VIII provision of the Right of Children to Free & Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, and introducing examinations after class V; provision of early childhood education for children in the four-six age group; introduction of vocational education from class VIII; establishment of an all-India education service on the model of the Indian Administrative Service, among others. But the first priority of the new HRD minister should be to persuade prime minister Narendra Modi and the Union Cabinet to provide an additional one-time capital outlay of Rs.1.10 lakh crore to revamp Indian primary education as repeatedly roadmapped by EducationWorld (see EW April, 2016). Given the foolishly low priority accorded to education during the past 68 years since independence, that’s a formidable task requiring more than mere listening skills.  Unwarranted brexit apprehensions A discerning tourist visiting the UK in the aftermath of the June 23 referendum under which the majority population voted for Brexit or exit of Great Britain from…

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