Ten Goan scholars chosen for grants for higher studies

Ten Goan students have been chosen this year under the Goa Scholars Scheme for grants to pursue higher education in reputed institutes inIndia and abroad. 

For the first time, the names of the students were announced within an hour of the interviews being completed to bring about transparency in the process of selection. 

"The interviews were conducted yesterday and today and the results were declared within an hour of the interview round being completed. This will lay to rest doubts, if any, over manipulation of names of the chosen candidates under the scheme, bringing about transparency in the process," director of higher education Bhaskar Nayak told TOI on Wednesday. 

The Goa Scholars Scheme was initiated in 2003-04. Since its inception, 54 Goan students have been awarded the prestigious scholarships. Most of these students have completed their studies and are presently pursuing various vocations in India and abroad. 

The basic objective of the scholarship is to promote the pursuit of postgraduate studies by the younger population of Goa by way of recognizing merit. The scheme awards scholarships based on merit alone. 

Under the scholarship, 2 lakh per year is provided to the selected candidates for two years to pursue higher studies in India and a one-time grant of US $ 15,000 to pursue studies abroad. 

During the current year, 47 students applied for the scheme, out which 29 students were shortlisted for the interview round, based on completely transparent yardsticks. 

A high-powered committee under the chairmanship of Anil Kakodkar, chairman, AtomicCommission of India, was constituted to select the 'Goa Scholars'. 

Names of the candidates chosen for the scholarships unanimously for 2011-12 are Girish A Shenvi Malkarnekar for masters in computer science at the University of Texas at Austin; Chinmay Sripad Bhat for a postgraduate progamme in management at IIM, Shillong; Jonathan Fernandes for PhD in mathematics at University of Maryland, USA; Pralav Pramod Dessai for masters in computer science university of California Los Angeles; Arjun Pundalik Kamat for masters in communications-radio engineering, Finland; Neeraj Pai for master in electrical and electronics engineering, University of Florida, USA; Avinash Waman Prabhu for masters in industrial engineering (manufacturing), the Ohio State University, USA; Priam Mario Fernandes for masters of science in engineering aerospace, University of Michigan, USA; Siddi Kashinath Jalmi for P D National Institute of Plant Genome Research and Shanti Serena D'Souza for masters in immunology at Kings College, London. 

Education faces lawmakers’ test

The ongoing session of Parliament is critical to the education sector, with around 15 Bills, including one that will allow foreign universities to operate in India and another that will curb the menace of fake degrees, waiting to be cleared.

In an effort to ensure their smooth passage, human resource development minister Kapil Sibal, who has in recent months emerged as the government’s preferred crisis manager, has been doing his bit to convince members of Parliament, across parties, of the merits of the Bills. Two officials in his ministry said the minister has, in recent weeks, met members of the parliamentary standing committee, which discusses Bills and suggests changes before they are put to vote in Parliament.

“The government understands that education reform is a key issue as it touches everybody’s lives. It is also known that one of the high points of the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government is the Right to Education (RTE) Act,” one of the two senior ministry officials said. For the record, RTE, which guarantees education for all children between the ages of six and 14, came into effect on 1 April 2010.

The official, who didn’t want to be named, added that because many of the Bills were interrelated, they wouldn’t have the desired impact unless passed in concert. “For example, the Educational Tribunal Bill and the unfair practices Bill are related legislation,” he said, explaining that the two will together make the functioning of educational institutions more transparent by curbing unfair practices such as donations or capitation fees students pay in return for admission.

The second official, who too did not want to be named, said the standing committee has submitted its report on the foreign university and unfair practices Bills to Parliament. He added that while the committee has made a few suggestions, it is largely in agreement with the direction of the laws.

Narayanan Ramaswamy, executive director (education practice) at audit and consulting firm KPMG, said that the number of Bills indicates the seriousness with which India is taking education.

“It’s a good thing that education is getting its due. Some of the Bills are real game-changers for the education sector. If foreign universities enter India, then the landscape of the sector will change the way the entry of foreign auto companies changed the automobile sector in the country.” He added that some of the Bills could need changes. If foreign universities are not allowed to repatriate a portion of their earnings—the current Bill doesn’t allow this—then they may not be interested in entering the country, he said.

Ramaswamy struck a note of caution about the implementation of the Bills once they are approved. “Here (on implementation) I’m a little sceptical,” he said.

N.K. Singh, a member of the Rajya Sabha and part of the standing committee, said the number of Bills that can be passed depends on the urgency shown by the ministry. “The committee has given its report on two Bills and let’s see how quickly they move on this,” he said. “There are many education Bills on different stages, but this session has many important issues to debate and decide,” added Singh, who represents the Janata Dal(United) and also sits on the board of HT Media Ltd, the publisher of Mint.

Singh was optimistic about the chances of the Education Tribunal Bill being passed. The Bill seeks to set up tribunals at the Centre and in states to adjudicate on disputes involving students, teachers, university authorities and statutory regulators. The order of the tribunal shall be treated as a decree of a civil court.

That risky rush for a US degree

It is illegal for universities in the US to use agents to recruit students within the country. However, the law does not prevent the institutions from paying agents to recruit students from other countries. Nor is there any law in India barring agents from approaching students on behalf of foreign schools. This, along with the strong demand in India for an education abroad, may be putting a number of students at risk of being duped.If the shutdown of the Tri-Valley University in California by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in January was a wake-up call, the raid on the University of Northern Virginia on July 28, was another warning signal for Indian students in the US. In both schools, an overwhelming number of students enrolled were from India, the majority from Andhra Pradesh. Both universities are alleged to have violated the law by enrolling more foreign students than they were allowed to. In the case of Tri-Valley, the institution was charging tuition fees but not holding sufficient classes on campus, and allowing students to take up employment in the US as soon as they enrolled, which is also against the law.

Some or several of the students may not be blameless victims. They had enrolled at these universities precisely as a way of getting into the US on student visas to work immediately – some at grocery stores or a McDonald’s, in cities hundreds of miles away from campus – while ostensibly taking classes online. But for those who joined these schools in pursuit of their dream of a US education, it’s a grim awakening.

The Telugu Association of North America, or Tana, which has been counselling the affected students, fears the Tri-Valley and UNVA cases are just the tip of the iceberg. “There are another 15,000-20,000 Indian students minimum” at similar universities of dubious repute, says Ashok Kolla, the Chair for NRI Student Services at Tana.

RECRUITER ISSUE
It’s not known whether the students at these two schools were recruited by agents in India. Court documents in the Tri-Valley case alleged students themselves often acted as recruiters, being paid a portion of the tuition fee of new students they had brought in.

New York-based Harjiv Singh is the founder and CEO of an online resource, braingainmag.com, for students who want to study in the US and other countries. When it comes to Indian students heading to US universities, says Singh, the problem cuts both ways. “There is a severe lack of information, especially in the smaller towns, about US universities where students can get legitimate degrees. At the same time, a lot of universities in the US don’t know how to tap genuine students in India and use consultants or middlemen to do the job.”

Facing budget cuts at home, several US universities are desperate to add full-fee paying students to their ranks. While prestigious universities like Harvard or Yale don’t need agents, several smaller schools are not known well outside the US and hire consultants to get noticed.

Due diligence is essential, advises Singh, especially since going to the US to study is expensive. “Are you being asked to pay the consultant for enrolling in a school? That should be a warning sign, as US universities typically don’t require payment for considering a student for admission.”

Philip Altbach, Director of the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College, is familiar with the problem, having taught in India. He wants recruiters to be removed from the process. Altbach says the practice of using recruiters is becoming widespread in the US because many schools don’t want to make the effort or invest enough resources to vet individual students and simply pass off the task to agents, who push as many students as possible because they are often paid per student enrolled.

However, there are strong advocates for the use of recruiters and Mitch Leventhal, vice chancellor for global affairs at the State University of New York (SUNY), is one of them. “The most direct way to recruit students is through agents,” he says. Leventhal is also co-founder of the American International Recruitment Council (AIRC), set up three years earlier, to develop standards and a framework for certification in the recruiting industry. SUNY, says Leventhal, works only with AIRC-certified agents. Consultants in India also use their certification by AIRC as a selling point. For instance, Global Reach declares on its website that it has been certified as “the first Agent to recruit students from India and Nepal for all our partner institutions in the US by the American International Recruitment Council”.

ACCREDITATION
But this is a recent effort. Leventhal admits only 43 agents have gone through the AIRC’s training and certification process. He points out there are more Indian agents in this group than from any other country.

Another minefield for Indian students is trying to identify genuinely accredited universities. The US State Department’s Education USA website is a good resource for identifying accredited institutions. Singh of braingainmag.com advises students to also check placement records of their chosen schools. And, the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, or CHEA, functions as an accreditor of accreditors, helping students verify whether their university is accredited by a genuine accreditor.

US not good for education: Top Indian scientist

Even as more Indian students are taking wings to the US for higher studies, a top Indian scientist today said "America is not at all good for education". 

"Everything in (the) US is no good. They are (Indian students) going to some second rate institutions. Just because you go abroad, doesn't mean that you get good education. Now, there are excellent institutions in India doing research," C N R Rao, chairman of scientific advisory council to the Prime Minister, said here after delivering a oration. 

"Most of the parents are sending their children even for schools to America, wasting a lot of money. I think we should give them good enough schools so that we don't send them for that (good schools). They should go there for specialisation in university or college." 

Terming the focus on teaching and teachers, a "national emergency," Rao called for a mission spearheaded by the Union government. 

Asked about his efforts to make education a national mission, he said a meeting with the Prime Minister was over and he will next meet HRD Minister Kapil Sibal. 

He was worried that the country was not spending even six per cent of GDP towards education. 

"Though there are 67 engineering colleges in Bangalore city alone, not many of them have enough teachers. Many colleges in the country have biotechnology department where there are no biotechnologists, computer science departments with people not having a degree in computer science," he said. 

Exhorting the importance of quality teachers for the country, Rao said the government needs to focus on teachers as they create the future India. 

Gujarat forms taskforce to study medical education entrance

The Gujarat Government today formed a three-member taskforce to study the proposed National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for medical education.NEET, all-India common entrance test for admission to medical colleges, is proposed to be introduced in 2012-13 by the Medical Council of India (MCI). The MCI has asked for the opinion of states regarding the NEET."We have formed a three-member taskforce to give us suggestions on how the NEET will affect the students of Gujarat who wants to go for medical eduction," Health Minister Jaynarayan Vyas told reporters here."There is much anxiety among parents about NEET. So the taskforce, headed by Dean of B J Medical College Bharat Shah has been asked to give a report by August 5," he said."After we receive the opinion of the taskforce we will decide whether Gujarat will join NEET or not." He said a group of parents of the medical education aspirants met him today and expressed reservations against NEET.

Oz down & under, US is top education magnet

Australia has dropped out of the good books of Indian students looking for education abroad, while the US is gaining lost ground. 

There has been a dip of 63% in the number of student visa applications from India to Australia between July 2010 and June 2011, compared to the same period the previous year. The US Consulate, meanwhile, registered a 20% increase in the number of visa seekers from October 2010 to June 2011 over the same period the previous year. In absolute terms, there are more than one lakh Indian students in the US and about half the number in Australia. 
The slide in numbers for Australia comes after a steep increase in the number of offshore student visa applications from 12,592 in 2004-05 to 67,141 in 2008-09.It declined sharply in 2009-10 to 18,514 and dropped to 6,875 in 2010-11. 

This resulted in India, which had the highest student population in Australia in 2008-09, going to the second position behind China in 2009-10.The next year, it went down further, to the third place as the US took the second position. 

The quality of applications received has also gone down steeply, with less than half the applicants (49.6%) being granted visas in 2011. In 2008-09, the approval grant rates was 88.4%, which went down to 46.7% in 2009-10. 
Australia's minister for tertiary education, skills and jobs Chris Evans attributed the trend to visa regulations. "We tightened visa approval in that section of the market. We are trying to attract postgraduate students and finding new ways to collaborate with the education sector in India. In vocational education, we are looking at collaborations with Indian skill training providers," said Evans, who is in the country for the Annual India-Australia Ministerial Dialogue on Education Cooperation. 
Meanwhile, the number of non-immigrant visas, which includes student visas, issued to Indians by the US has gone up from 4,99,686 in the US fiscal year 2009 (October to September ) to 5,28,286 in 2010. As the current fiscal year is not complete, the figures for 2011 are unavailable, but so far show an increase of 20% compared to the same period last year. 

Analysts point to a combination of reasons. "The earlier visa policies of the US were responsible for the growth of traffic to second and third level countries like Australia and Canada. Too many visas were refused in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. This gave way to the popularity of the Australia market. But with the recent violent incidents against Indians in Australia, other markets are picking up," said C B Paul Chellakumar, president of the Association of Accredited Advisors on Overseas Education.

Australia and India foster higher education linkages

New exchange programs for academics and college principals were among a range of initiatives designed to foster higher education links between Australia and India announced today in Delhi by Australia’s Minister for Tertiary Education, Senator Chris Evans.

“There are currently more than 300 collaborations between Australian and Indian universities, business and industry which involve the sharing of knowledge and expertise,” Senator Evans said.

“The Gillard Government wants to see these collaborations expand.”

During a visit to the University of Delhi today the Minister announced a host of new measures to foster further higher education linkages. The initiatives include;

-  the new Australia India Higher Education Exchange, building on the successful Bureau for Vocational Education and Training Collaboration, set up in 2010.  The Exchange will meet regularly to consider collaboration proposals from the higher education sector and provide advice on the best ways to achieve successful partnerships in country;

-  the Australia-India University Shadowing Pilot 2012, funded by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), which will provide full support for up to five Australian and up to five Indian University executives in a particular administrative or academic discipline to undertake a capacity building shadowing exchange in 2012; and

-  The Energy and Resources Institute–Deakin University Scholarship Program for Indian students to study at TERI-Deakin in India and Deakin University in Australia.

The Minister highlighted the importance of the recent India Australia Vice Chancellors’ and Senior University Executives’ Workshop held in Delhi on 31 July, hosted by the University Grants Commission. 

“I am pleased that Universities Australia has agreed to host a reciprocal workshop in Australia in 2012,” Senator Evans said.

“This will promote greater institutional collaboration, credit transfer, student and staff mobility, and joint research.” 

The Minister also announced a new program to showcase Australia’s universities to the heads of Indian university colleges and foster closer cooperation between the nations’ higher education sectors.

The Australia-India College Principals’ Program 2011-12, funded by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations and the Australia India Council and administered by Asialink, will allow heads of leading colleges to visit Australia and see first hand the state-of-the-art facilities our universities have to offer.

“It will also be a good opportunity for the principals to see the support available to students and gain an understanding of international student life in Australia,” Senator Evans said.

The first group of college principals to travel to Australia in 2012 were announced today at the University of Delhi.