Odisha HRD

2011 open-close ranks (after the 1st and 3rd rounds) of EE and Mech of IITs, IT-BHU and ISM

The following table is extracted from http://jee.iitd.ac.in/openclose2011.php at two different times. The black version is after the first round and the red version is after the 3rd round.

 Among the new IITs the preference this year seems to be H > N >> {A, U, E} > J > {C,P}.

• The 2010 open-close ranks are here.
• The 2009 open-close ranks are here.
• The 2008 open-close ranks are here.

June 30th, 2011

Admission situation in Utkal and Sambalpur

Following is an excerpt from Shilpi Sampad’s report in Telegraph.

A university official said the sale of forms have soared this time as compared to previous years. Around 6,100 forms have already been sold at the two counters as against 7,000 last year. “We are expecting 2,000 more forms to come in. There has been an increase in sale of forms probably because more students are now opting for traditional and regular subjects,” the official said …

Following is an excerpt from a report in Times of India.

While there is just one applicant for statistics, which has 16 seats, there are very few aspirants for anthropology, food technology, bioinformatics electronics and home science.

Tripathy said there are very few colleges offering statistics at the graduation level. Hence, very few students want to pursue post-graduation in statistics. On the other hand, there are 66 applicants for 16 seats in MA or MSc mathematics.

The home science department this year has just four applicants for 16 seats. "This may be because the course had a new nomenclature this year. It was earlier called MA/MSc in home science. From this year, the varsity has changed it to MA/MSc home science (nutrition and human development) ," Tripathy said.

The varsity has got a record 250 applications for MSc Physics which has 24 seats. Some of these students will be given option to take admission in MSc electronics which has received around 10 applications for 20 seats.

The Sambalpur University Institute of Information Technology, which offers the bioinformatics and electronic courses, said students who have applied for MSc life sciences but failed to secure a seat will get a chance to take admission in MSc bioinformatics.

… Besides physics, departments of chemistry, English, sociology and political science also have received huge number of applications.

The varsity has got over 230 applications for 24 chemistry seats and 88 applications for 24 English seats. The varsity has got around 1800 applications this year for various PG courses compared to 1500 applications last session, varsity officials said.

3 comments June 29th, 2011

Many top management schools and other institutes coming to Hyderabad

Update (July 5 2011 news): Due to political uncertainty in Hydearbad IIM-A and XLRI coming to Hyderabad is on hold. See http://businessstandard.com/india/news/iim-a-xlri-put-hyderabad-entryhold/441546/.

Following is an excerpt from a report in mydigitalfc.com.

Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad is setting up its campus in Hyderabad. …

This apart, Narsi Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), rated among the best business schools in India, too will start its new campus at Jadcherla, Mahabubnagar district.

This is all set to come up with an excellent infrastructure in two years involving an investment of approximately Rs 35 crores in the first phase. …

The GMR group is associating with SCHULICH School of Business, one of the top business schools in the world and is a part of York University, Toronto, Canada.

It is setting up an international business school in Hyderabad, which will make efforts to promote business education with a global perspective.

… Hyderabad is already home to ISB, IIIT, IIT, BITS Pilani, Nalsar Law University, ICICI Knowledge Park, Genome Valley, University of Hyderabad. It also boasts of Institutes of excellence, research and development establishments and a large number of universities.

… Last year, Andhra Pradesh also invited IIM- Ahmedabad (IIMA) to set up a satellite campus near Hyderabad. This was supposed to be a seamless campus for which the IIMA will make the admissions for it. The faculty will be part of the IIMA.

The state earlier had also invited Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, CMC Vellore, Birla Institute of Technology (Pilani) and others to set up centres in the state.

June 29th, 2011

Manipal group interested in establishing a university and a multi-speciality hospital near Bhubaneswar: Dharitri

More information on Manipal can be found in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manipal and its official website at http://www.manipal.edu. 

Among its various constituents the following have been ranked:

• Manipal Institute of Technology is most well known and ranked 36 in Outlook 2009 ranking.
• Kasturaba Medical College (KMC) is ranked 9 in 2009 and 6 in 2010 by India Today in Medicine.
• Kasturaba Medical College (KMC) is also ranked 9 in 2009 and 10 in 2010 by India Today in Healthcare management.
• TA Pai Management Institute is ranked 21 among B-schools in the 2010 Outlook ranking.
• Its hotel management college is also ranked.

Some of its other salient features are (from its factsheet):

• Manipal has several international campuses including the Sikkim Manipal University. The other international campuses are in Malaysia, Nepal and Dubai.
• Over 300 courses offered across 14 professional streams in over 25 colleges
• India’s largest Foreign exchange earner in its category
• Over 1,20,000 students and 3,00,000 alumni from over 52 countries
• Established in 1953, Manipal University is the first educational Institution in private sector to become a deemed University; Over 20,000 students from over 52 countries
• Over 3000 practicing doctors in the US and every 4th doctor in Malaysia is an alumnus of
  Manipal.
• SMU has two constituent institutes – Sikkim Manipal Institute of Medical Sciences (SMIMS) and Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology (SMIT)
• Dubai Campus: Set up in September 2000 and is currently located in Dubai International Academic City; Has over 1400 students from over 20 countries, enrolled in its various specialized programs

Finally, Manipal is in the process of establishing Manipal International University in Jaipur. They are taking students from this year. Following is an excerpt from that page.

On invitation by Govt. of Rajasthan to Manipal Group, to start a multi-disciplinary Private University, Manipal International University, Jaipur, in the state comprising of courses in different disciplines like Engineering, Medical, Hospitality, Allied Health, Management, Communication, Jewellery Management etc.

… Allotment of 100 Acres of land at Dehmi Kalan Village near Jaipur in for the proposed campus.

June 29th, 2011

Ministry of MSME to establish a Footwear Training Institute in Barang: Samaja

Currently MSME has two central footwear training institutes in Chennai and Agra. Their websites are:

• Central Footwear training institute, Agra.
• Central Footwear training institute, Chennai.

The Ministry of commerce also has similar institutes which are called Footwear design and development institute. The HQ is in NOIDA with campuses in Noida, Fusatganj, Chennai, Kolkata, Rohtak, Chhindwara & Jodhpur. The one in Jodhpur is a recent one; announce in March 2011.

While the Footwear training institutions focus on manufacturing the FDDIs focus on design and management. The former offers short term and diploma courses while the latter offers B.Sc and M.Sc programs.

June 28th, 2011

First cut-offs for the B.Sc/B.A/B.Com admissions in degree colleges via e-counselling

This year 162 degree colleges are participating in e-admission to their B.Sc/B.A/B.Com programs. Following are some numbers on this process from a Telegraph report.

After the announcement of Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE) or Plus Two results on May 30, students had applied to colleges of their choice online. Higher education officials said they had received a total of 74,968 application forms.

Around 48,019 candidates have been shortlisted according to the first selection merit list. …

In Bhubaneswar, BJB (Autonomous) College has increased the qualifying marks by one to five per cent in separate subjects for general students. In the arts stream, the cut-off mark for the general category was announced as 63.5 per cent as against 58.67 per cent last year. In commerce, it is 77.58 – an increase of over one per cent from the previous year. The science subjects, too, have seen a substantial rise. For physics-chemistry-mathematics (PCM) combination, it is 84.33 per cent, against last year’s 84.20 per cent, and in chemistry-botany-zoology (CBZ) combination, the cut-off is 80.33 per cent as against 78.5 per cent last year.

… Srilekha Ray, principal of Ramadevi Women’s (Autonomous) College here.

“We have raised the qualifying marks by over 10 ten er cent in PCM, around nine per cent in CBZ, seven per cent in arts and two per cent in commerce for the general category,” she said.

June 25th, 2011

L & T to execute NISER Bhubaneswar construction; work to start next month and be completed in 36 months

Following are excerpts from Bibhuti Barik’s report in Telegraph.

… The master plan is ready and the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has selected Larsen and Toubro (L&T) to execute the job. They are expected to start the work next month. The project has to be completed within 36 months … We hope that the Phase-I work comprising four major schools and the administrative block will be over by the end of 2013,’’ said the institute’s registrar, AK Naik.

The campus is coming up on 298 acres near Jatni.

While the forest department has already marked 285 trees for felling top facilitate work, steps to ensure enough greenery are being taken by planting 2,500 saplings along its fenced boundary. “We are planning more afforestation programmes in future,” added Naik.

The project envisages an expenditure of Rs 457 crore in the first phase including Rs 160 core on residential township and Rs 130 crore on academic buildings and a sports complex. The Centre has sanctioned Rs 823.19 core for the entire campus project in Bhubaneswar.

After fencing the authorities have deployed a 25-member security team with a supervising officer to keep watch. … the NISER campus site is safe. A transformer has been installed at the site to ensure uninterrupted power supply. Two corrugated tin sheds have also been put up at the site for the engineers to work out of.

The Registrar added that the construction work was getting delayed as the approval of the one of a senior officials of the Ministry of Finance was still awaited. Once it was available the executing agency would go ahead with the work. Earlier there was some delay on account of the time taken by the department of atomic energy (DAE) to grant certain approvals.

“The DAE technical panel inspected, checked and approved each and every aspect of the engineering drawing which took one year,” said a senior professor, who is an advisor and member on the NISER Board.

Currently operating from a transit campus of 5,000 square metres within the Institute of Physics (IoP), Bhubaneswar premises, NISER has lab, teaching and research facilities. While Rs 12.5 crore has been spent on these facilities for the school of chemistry Rs 13.5 crore for the school of physics, Rs 25 crore for the school of biology and Rs 5 crore for the school of mathematics.

… “We have been promised a three-acre plot by the state government for setting up a city campus in future. This will include a 1,500 seated conference hall,” said the registrar.

1 comment June 24th, 2011

The recent phenmenon of community colleges in India

Following are excerpts from an article in Indiaeducationdiary.

As per the latest statistics, the community colleges of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) have become a rage in the country. "In just three years, IGNOU has over two lakh students in about 600 community colleges pursuing vocational education, skill development and work integrated learning," announced Vice-Chancellor Prof. V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai,.

… In the early 1990s, the University Grants Commission had sent a committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals to the USA to study the well-established community college system there. Following the recommendations, the Pondicherry Central University had started the first community college in the publicly funded university system. Pondicherry University is now augmenting the community colleges by appointing faculty and creating other facilities.

In Tamil Nadu, state universities like Manonmaniam Sundanar University, Tirunelveli and very recently, all the state universities in Tamil Nadu have decided to start 10 community colleges each. The Tamil Nadu Open University (TNOU) has started Community College programmes at the Certificate and Diploma levels and the state has also a large number of community colleges supported by charity organisations, particularly by the missionary institutions. …

"The Community College System the world over is the most open and flexible pattern of post-secondary education, life-long learning and skill development. It provides a supplementary route to higher education through an appropriate mix of skills and academic knowledge. In the US, according to the latest statistics, 46 percent of the students go to the Universities through the two-year community colleges. Several of these Community Colleges are much bigger than some of the premier universities over there. Open education practices, flexi-time approach, technology-enabled teaching and learning, On-line and distance learning, work-integrated learning, and very recently use of Open Education Resources (OER) are the most salient features of these community colleges," said the VC.

Open University of China (OUC) offers full-time, part-time and spare-time two-year and three-year degree programmes in addition to various modular, certificate and diploma programmes. The two-year degrees (Associate Degrees) are analogous to the community colleges in the US, Canada and Australia, and to the advanced diploma programmes in the UK and European post-secondary education system.

The 2010 Statistical Bulletin of the Open University of China indicates that the Associate Degree, which is in between the Certificate and the Bachelor Degree, is the largest qualification base in China. In 2010, 4,12,400 students from OUC received Associate Degrees in contrast to 6,914 Bachelor Degrees and 38,000 Certificates. More than 50 percent of the students enter into higher learning in the Universities through these two-year degree colleges in China.

Open and Distance Learning (ODL), On-line Learning and Open Educational Resources (OER) constitute major delivery strategies as of today in the Community College System. The two-year Associate Degree Community Colleges have more than 50 percent of their enrollment through Distance Education.

Looking at these global trends in Open University and Distance Education Systems and considering the challenges of the National Skills Mission, chaired by the Prime Minister of India, IGNOU initiated the Community College Movement in the country in 2008, after countrywide consultations and drawing inputs from the National Knowledge Commission and the Planning Commission. In just three years, IGNOU has over two lakh students in about 600 community colleges pursuing vocational education, skill development and work-integrated learning, full-time, part-time and spare-time. …

June 21st, 2011

IMI Bhubaneswar gets AICTE approval; Prof. Somayajulu Garimella joins as Director

IMI Bhubaneswar has now received approval for its PGDM program with an initial intake of 60 students. It also has now hired Prof. Somayajulu Garimella as its director. Its web page is revamped.

2 comments June 20th, 2011

IIT Bhubaneswar plans its first construction tender in July and second one in December 2011; but overall campus is not likely to be ready by 2013

Following are excerpts from a report in ibnlive.com.

… The Ministry of Human Resource Development held a meeting with the representatives of IITs, including the eight new ones, in Delhi on Thursday.

… Like its counterparts, the Bhubaneswar institute too is behind the schedule and unlikely to meet its 2013 deadline given the existing pace of work. With problems of land acquisition and transfer, the IIT Bhubaneswar has been able to construct only boundary walls measuring about six km. …

Sources said that IIT Bhubaneswar would submit a report to the Ministry detailing its bottlenecks about land transfer, forest land conversion, acquisition of private land and infrastructure like road, power and water.

With the slow progress raising hackles, the IIT has decided to hasten establishment of its campus at Arugul, about 25 km from here. Works estimated at  30 crore will soon be taken up with two-phase tenders.

The first tender will be scheduled in July and include works such as roads inside the 935-acre campus, sewerage and site development. The second tender will be floated around December for construction of buildings.

… Most of the new IITs, sources said, sought that new project proposals be chalked out since the 12th Plan is only three quarters away and the project costs will stand revised at the current prices. The IIT Bhubaneswar was earmarked 760 crore, half of which is towards infrastructure.

The sources further said that each of the new institutions is likely to cost close to  1,400 crore for which funding proposals will have to be placed in the 12th Plan.

June 18th, 2011

Excerpts from Mohandas Pai’s article on IITs possibly becoming less relevant

Following are excerpts from the Economic Times article.

The IITs have completed 50 years and have helped build India. They were set up for producing high quality technical human capital for India and have met their objectives. But, as is the character with such institutions, they have not changed with the times and are not providing India with what she now needs.

… The IIT boards and the directors are unable to take any financial decision which they deem fit without the approval of the government . Even for an overseas travel of the director or the faculty, permission is needed. They are subject to austerity measures of the government, a perfect situation to emasculate an educational institution.

The demand for an IIT seat is enormous and has spawned a tutorial industry that earns more revenues than the IITs themselves. This has resulted in large number of students spending up to two years of their youth going to cramming schools learning pattern recognition, forgetting the art of thinking and problem solving knowing that their lives are made once they get entry into the hallowed portals. Today about 60% or more of the intake is from the coaching mandis. This has also resulted in many bright young Indians deciding not to undergo the ordeal and go overseas for higher education. 250,000 of them study overseas, over 110,000 in the United States, about 45,000 in the UK spending about $ 6bn on fees and costs annually …

Overall , the 15 IITs graduate 7000 undergraduates, 6000 post graduates and about 1700 PhDs annually . Sadly only about 2% of the undergraduates go on to their masters and PhD in the IIT system. The IITs hold fast to the idea that by squeezing input they can get a quality output, an idea that has been consigned to the dustbin of history. Increasing the scale and size can give them the diversity of talent, the resources, the ability to have more quality faculty and the depth and width needed for an elite educational institution.

… the IITs will live in their ivory tower and possibly become less and less relevant to India’s need as neither are they meeting India’s need for more human capital nor producing the kind of PhDs India needs.

… The best solution is to open up the education system and allow competition, the dreaded word in academics, to come forth. India should revise her educational policies and allow the private sector to set up "innovation universities" granting them all that they need. Full autonomy, academic, administrative and financial to chart their own future. Some safeguards are needed, as this is a public good. A large corpus of say Rs 100 crore, an open merit based admission policy, a faculty compensation policy based on minimum UGC scales and an assurance that they will aim to be amongst the top 100 in the world over the next 25 years. To ensure access to the merited we need a national scholarship scheme which will fund students. India needs to trust the genius of her citizens to create institutions that are world class and not look at them through myopic eyes with suspicion.

… Today there is a flight to quality. The bad colleges are dying since students have a choice, they are voting with their feet. The good ones are expanding and seeing greater demand. The market mechanism has worked, not by design but by serendipity. So there is hope. Look at various other sectors today. Bharti has made BSNL redundant and has given us a choice, Jet has overtaken Air India and given us a choice, the power system in Mumbai is still the best, and in education the Indian School of Business has turned our IIMs inside out. The IIMs actually want reform, expansion and are concerned about their future .

Competition and an open liberal environment for higher education will work .

I agree with most of the points made in the article and its arguments buttress the need for early approval of universities like the proposed Vedanta University.

One point where I disagree is the suggestion that 100 crores is a large corpus. If the goal is to be in the top 100 in the world, a corpus of 100 crores is very little. That is only 20-25 million USD. In comparison the corpus of Harvard and Stanford are of the order of 25+ Billion USD.

June 16th, 2011

IGNOU Community Colleges

IGNOU has started a Community College Scheme.  Its web page is at http://communitycollege.ignou.ac.in/Default.aspx and additional detailed information is available at a wiki http://ieg.ignou.ac.in/wiki/index.php/IGNOU_WIKI/Community_Colleges. Following is an excerpt from the latter.

Community Colleges are an alternative system of education which aims to empower individuals through appropriate skill development leading to gainful employment in collaboration with the local industry and community.They offer the advantage of tailoring programmes to local needs and state-based requirements by using approaches that will be most acceptable to workers in the given community. Community Colleges generally have a 2-year curriculum that either leads to an Associate Degree for transfer to an undergraduate college or to the students direct entry into any occupation or trade.These colleges are a source of economic growth because they provide an educated and skilled workforce that improves the quality of life for individuals students, communities, and the nation.

The current list of Community Colleges is given at http://ieg.ignou.ac.in/wiki/images/9/98/FINAL_Community_College_as_on_23_May%2C_2011.pdf. The Community Colleges listed there are:

• ATDC- IGNOU Community College,  A/33, Rasulgarh Industrial Estate, Bhubaneswar – 751010, Orissa
• ATDC – IGNOU Community College, Ispat Lower Secondary School, Sector 8, Rourkela-769009
• Dr. Zakir Husain Institute, Plot # 435, Badajena Complex Old Station Square Bhubaneshwar – 751006 Orissa
• Green Valley Community College, GVPS Campus, AT/PO Penta, Via J.K.Pur, Rayaguda Dist, Orissa – 765017
• Holy Lord Education Society, Ramaballav Road, Po/Dist – Puri –752001 Orissa
• Manara Academy, IBF Education and Charitable
  Trust, B-1654, Sector-10, Markat Nagar, CDA, Cuttack-753008, Orissa
• MSSRF Community College (M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation), Phulbad, Jeypore, Koraput, Orissa 764002
• SVTI Community College, Mary Villa, Jharsuguda, Orissa
• UPAYA Community College, UPAYA Centre, At. Ramabahal, P.O. kesramal, Via. Rajgangpur, Dist. Sundargarh, Orissa-770017
• Viswa Yuva Kendra, Baninali, Luhamunda, Kishoreganj , Angul-759127, Orissa

In addition to the above, theer are two JIndal-INGOU community colleges that are coming up in Angul and Barbil.

The FAQ at http://ieg.ignou.ac.in/wiki/images/a/a3/FAQS_FINAL.pdf answers many relevant questions such as how to become an IGNOU Community College. Following are some excerpts.

Q: After doing Associate Degree Programme from Community College will the third year be done from IGNOU or any other University?

Ans.    We are targeting for IGNOU only.

… Q: How to get an approval of a proposal regarding Community College?

Ans:    Please go to IGNOU website and visit the link "Community College‟.

… Q: Who will be eligible to enroll in Community Colleges?

Ans:    Anyone who has completed 10+2 or its equivalent is eligible to enroll for the Associate Degree Programme. Similarly students who have completed the BPP Programe of IGNOU may also enroll for the Associate Degree Programme. Eligibility for Certificate Programmes vary from 8th pass and above and that for Diploma Programme vary from 10th pass and above.

… Q: What is the suggested structure of Certificate and Diploma Programme?

Ans:    Certificate programmes should be of 6 months‟ duration and equivalent to 16-20 credits. A Diploma programme is of one year duration with 32-36 credits.

The pattern of credits is as follows:

Full-time programmes – one credit is equivalent to 15 contact hours. Part-time / Distance learning programmes – one credit is equivalent to 30 hours of study by a student which includes self-study, assignments, library work, etc. All Community Colleges must conduct theory/practical/in-service/apprenticeship in appropriate proportions commensurate with the teaching methodology.

… Q:  How will students transfer from an Associate Degree to the third year of graduation?

Ans:    For students who complete an Associate Degree and wish to register for the third year in IGNOU, a credit transfer policy will be worked out between the Community College and IGNOU. The international pattern is to accept about 80% of the credits earned during Associate Degree Programme.

Q:    What is the structure of Bachelor’s Preparatory Programme (BPP)?

Ans:    Bachelor’s Preparatory Programme has the following three courses.
i) Preparatory Course in General Mathematics ii) Preparatory Course in Social Sciences iii) Preparatory Course in Commerce
A student has to select any two from the above courses.

… Q: Which are the Associate Degree Programmes that can be run through a Community College?

Ans: A Community College is supposed to identify the programmes as per the need of the community. The Master List given on the IGNOU website carries the names of all programmes on offer by the Community Colleges. This would definitely give you an idea.

… Q: What is the minimum educational qualification and age of formal students in Associate
Degree Programmes?

Ans:    10+2. No age bar.

My thoughts: This seems like a good start with some details yet to be formulated. The community colleges will formalize various trade oriented courses and will allow people doing those courses to do a bit more work towards a Bachelor’s degree. At present, there are only a few of these in Odisha. As the awareness increases, it should pick-up. At present most of the current community colleges seem to be run by private entities (the ATDC ones are exceptions). I hope Odisha starts district community colleges in each of its districts and creates a mechanism so that it is funded by district funds and the locals have a say in what is taught.

1 comment June 15th, 2011

ATDC-IGNOU Community Colleges at Bhubaneswar and Rourkela; other ATDC centers at Cuttack, Berhampur, Baripada and Sambalpur (two of them)

June 15th, 2011

NIT Rourkela advertises for Teaching Assistant positions in Computer Science leading to an M.Tech (Res) degree

June 14th, 2011

Sai International College of Commerce & Economics opens in Bhubaneswar; to offer B.Com with Honors in Accountancy and Management with option of a BA in Management from a UK University

The web page of this college is at http://sicc.in/. Its founder is the person who established the well regarded Sai International School in Bhubaneswar. Based on that, I am hoping that  this will be a good college and will fill the lacunae of a good commerce college in Odisha, especially in the Bhubaneswar-Cuttack area. At one time the commerce program at  Ravenshaw was ranked, but that was a long time back. I hope the commerce program in this college gets national ranking and other institutions in Odisha (especially the private ones like KIIT and SOA) get inspired by this to start their own quality commerce programs. While there is a plethora of colleges (several of them quite good) in the Bhubaneswar area for pursuing an MBA, there has not been any top-notch (i.e., nationally ranked) colleges for B.Com.

Following is an ad for this college and pages from its brochure.

1 comment June 13th, 2011

Ad of Indian Institute of Yogic Science and Research

Its web page is http://iiysar.ac.in/.

June 13th, 2011