Education Insider June 2014

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Universities must raise people’s skills: Hendrik van der Pol

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Asia’s rise in higher education Universities can play a valuable role in the economic development of low-income countries

Nepal Window Rangjung Yeshe Institute Scientist speak Dr Partha Pratim Majumder Premier Institute IIM Indore

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EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

from the editor

Asia’s rise in higher education

I

t seems to be good time for Asia in education. With aggressive enrolment drive and well-planned efforts to improve the quality of universities, Asian powers are rising in higher education.

The rise of graduation and university research has whipped up the economic growth of many Asian powers, including the Republic of Korea and Singapore. The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), the statistical office of UNESCO and the UN depository for global statistics in the fields of education, science and technology, culture and communication, went for a 360-degree study on the higher education scenario in Asia.

The UIS report, titled Higher Education in Asia: Expanding Out, Expanding Up, was released in Bangkok on May 19, 2014, at an event organised by the Office of Higher Education Commission, Mahidol University and UNESCO. The report analyses many factors that are relevant for both the higher education sector and the economic growth of the countries, which include the ways in which they can accommodate more students by strengthening the quality of university programmes and research.

The report tries to answer the question how university-based research can led to national economic development with the support of case studies.

Another interesting finding in the report is about R&D intensity. R&D intensity is a commonly used indicator reflecting R&D expenditure as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP). The Republic of Korea tops the list in this

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parameter, with 4 %, followed by Japan (3.4%), Singapore (2.2%), China (1.8%), Malaysia (1.1%), India (0.8%) and Thailand (0.25%). As countries like Korea and Japan have sound policies on R&D and top the rankings, there is nothing for India to cheer about.

For this edition, Education Insider interacted with Hendrik van der Pol, Director of UNESCO Institute for Statistics, to map out the growth of higher education in Asia. In an interview with Education Insider, he says: “Over the past 20 years, we have seen phenomenal growth in university enrolment across Asia, and the demand for higher education will continue to rise.

This is good news for the region, but it also poses a serious challenge for governments.

How can they provide more students with access to high-quality education? We see countries engaging in a mix of strategies to expand their higher education institutions.

They begin by expanding outwards, by building new campuses, for example, and encouraging growth in the private higher education. At the same time, these systems are expanding upwards – to reach new academic levels – by introducing new postgraduate education programmes. Why? There are two central goals: to ensure that there are enough qualified professors for future generations of students and to accelerate national economic development through university-based research.”

The UIS report will help governments and policymakers frame policies that are capable of expanding access to high-quality universities and research institutions.

Enjoy reading!

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

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EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

Informative, inspiring

Corporate funding

The interview with eminent scientist R A Mashelkar, published in the May 2014 issue of Education Insider, was informative and inspiring. It provided a wide range of information on chemical engineering. I look forward to reading more interviews with scientists.

–Aswathy Poonacha, Kolkata

The article titled ‘Corporates must raise funding of education’ was simply great. Dr Aaron Benavot has revealed a lot on the initiatives of corporates in education. I hope that, with the support of established corporates, we can provide education for all.

–Deepti Mohan, Chennai

MOOCs story good The article titled ‘MOOCs won’t replace universities’ was a good read.

It was a great attempt on the part of the editorial team. I completely agree with the views expressed in the article. Congratulations!

–Tripti Gusain, Gurgaon

Kerala needs IIT I read the interview with T P Sreenivasan, vice-chairman and executive head of Kerala Higher Education Council. The interview was substantive. Denying an IIT to Kerala is discriminatory, and this affects the career growth of ambitious students in Kerala. I request Team EI to do a detailed report on this in order to attract the attention of the authorities concerned to the issue.

–Preethy Nair, Kochi

Yale World Fellows The writeup on Yale University’s signature global leadership initiative was inspiring. Indian universities need to adopt such programmes in order to bring together global leaders in education, business, etc.

–Yuvraj Patel, Delhi

Rare spiders The article on spiders of Aranmula was quite informative. Congratulations to the team behind the research. I look forward to reading more research-oriented articles.

– Sumithra Chandran, Kochi

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CONTENTS COVER STORY 25 Higher Education Expanding with Care A recent report from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics reveals the explosive growth of higher education across Asia over the last 20 years. As the Republic of Korea and Japan lead on many fronts, the superpower-in-waiting, India, is weak in many facets, including research and development (R&D) intensity

EXCLUSIVES

31 Hendrik van der Pol Hendrik van der Pol, Director, UNESCO Institute for Statistics, talks about a range of issues regarding higher education in the backdrop of a recent report titled ‘Higher Education in Asia: Expanding Out, Expanding Up’

42 Science & Scientists

Dr Partha Pratim Majumder, renowned scientist and Director of National Institute for Bio-Medical Genomics, says Indian universities are ignoring genetic studies

THE REGULARS

10 Edu Capsule Edu updates from across the world

16 Nepal Window Kathmandu University Centre for Buddhist Studies at Rangjung Yeshe Institute, Boudhanath, Nepal, demonstrates the successful integration of traditional and contemporary pedagogical methods

18 University Village University Village (UV) in Kathmandu, Nepal, is an international information centre for providing information and proper counselling to students seeking foreign education

20 Perspective Sanjay Shivani of Pearson India says India badly needs skill-based education initiatives

22 Research Glasses-free 3-D Projector is here

34 Viewpoint Dr. B Ashok IAS drafts an agenda for Indian higher education to enhance its success in every field

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46 Skilling Healthcare Workers As India is facing a healthcare epidemic of a different kind, of unskilled workers, Wadhwani Foundation, Bangalore, is ready to address the crisis

52 Do You Have A Bloody Good Book?

Renowned writer and entrepreneur Rashmi Bansal comes up with a unique concept of entrepreneurship to flourish the talented – budding authors

54 The EI Interview Prof. B P Sanjay Bharthur, an expert in media education, speaks about the latest trends in the sector

57 Premier Institute – IIM Indore Established in 1996, Indian Institute of ManagementIndore is the sixth in the family of state-supported management schools

61 Science & Innovation IGNITE 2013, the national science talent hunt by National Innovation Foundation, proved that India has the capacity to produce world-class scientists

72 Campus Voice “Will you argue and win cases of criminals?”

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

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24 Down Memory Lane June 27 is Helen Keller day

39 Birth To 3 Years Crucial Lakshmi Krishnakumar takes us to the fifthe part of Montessory system

45 After plus-2, What?

Career expert TP Sethumadhavan on what to do after plus two

68 Empowering Academics Iversity CEO Hannes Klopper says MOOCs forced Universities to rethink the way they deliver education

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

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EDU news

ASIA

Asia’s workforce need better education, training Giving a clear indication to the need for giving better education and training for the workforce in Asia, World Bank recently stated that the employment policies in East Asia-Pacific countries favour men in better positions and often fail to help women, young people and low-skilled workers.

According to a recent report on labour in the region, World Bank stressed the failure of policymakers in protecting and educating their working populations at a time when ageing populations are putting a greater strain on resources. Truman Packard, one of the report’s authors, said Asian governments often focus on training for specific professions while neglecting education of younger students, which is key to overall productivity gains.

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Hong Kong varsities down in world rankings

Osmania University blacklisted

How can larger investments reshape a country’s higher education scenario? Some of the recent Asian rankings have a clear answer: Universities from Hong Kong, which were leading till then, have been eclipsed by institutions from Singapore and South Korea, thanks to the authorities who have poured money into the higher education sector of these countries.

For the first time in the QS rankings’ five-year history, a Hong Kong university is not the top Asian institution for higher education. The University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, which has been heading the Asian rankings for the last three years, went down to fifth and was replaced by the National University of Singapore, which was in the second position along with the University of Hong Kong in 2013.

According to reports, compilers of the rankings said that strong research and technological development in the universities in Singapore and South Korea had contributed to their fast development, while Hong Kong’s universities had weakened in their teacher-student ratio.

Here is bad news for the graduate holders from Osmania University through distance education and looking for a job in West Asia; some of the countries in West Asia have blacklisted Osmania University, and, therefore, do not recognise the certificates issued by it to students of both distance education and regular stream.

“Osmania University is blacklisted because those who completed the distance education course pass themselves off as regular day scholars of the varsity. These students do not have the basic standards required to perform well in a job,” a manager in a Dubai-based recruitment agency reportedly said.

According to the reports, Gems Education, a leading recruitment agency, said that Osmania University is blacklisted in the UAE as the distance education and regular courses offered by the university is not recognised on technical grounds.

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

world

Google introduces ‘Classroom’ education app Google, aimed at expanding the technological frontiers in education, is set to introduce its new app for education suite named Classroom.

This application, designed to help teachers create and assign assignments quickly and provide feedback well and help in mass communication, is expected to lessen the use of papers as it enables the teachers to create and collect assignments paperless. It will also allow the teachers to track how many students have not completed their tasks and provide real-time feedback.

According to the producers, Classroom will be an ad-free product. This simple and easyto-use tool is already in its testing phase with schools and universities. Classroom, expected to distribute free for users, will have its developer tools from Google itself.

Online course on happiness

College diploma before high school diploma Have you ever heard of a girl hogging headlines for receiving her high school diploma? When Grace Bush, a 16-year-old girl from the United States, received her high school diploma recently, it became news.

Grace had received her college diploma days before graduating high school. She attended Florida Atlantic University (FAU) High School in Boca Raton where students are given the opportunity to dual enroll in college courses and earn credits for a higher degree.

Grace is one of the youngest students to graduate from FAU in over 100 years. She plans to join law school to continue her studies soon.

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

University of California at Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Centre (GGSC), an organisation that studies the science of well-being, is ready with a new online platform to educate the public about how to lead a happy, meaningful life.

What could be the reason for beginning this kind of a course? According to statistics, there are over 75 million Google search results for the term happiness and 40,000 happiness-related books available for purchase on Amazon.

Sonja Lyubomirsky, Rick Hanson, and Barbara Frederickson, some of the leading thinkers in positive psychology, will join Simon-Thomas and Keltner as guest-lecturers throughout the course. Topics including mindfulness, compassion and gratitude will be covered in the programme.

The eightweek course is the first of its kind, and nearly 30,000 people have already signed up, and the centre is expecting up to 100,000 to enrol.

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EDU news From jail to corporate job Tihar jail, the largest jail in Asia, is not only a place filled with notorious criminals but also, according to reports, a place where we can see highly educated people.

Here comes the good news from Tihar jail: around 66 inmates are going to join private companies. These educated prisoners were placed by the recruitment drive conducted on the Delhi jail premises.

The highest package is Rs 35,000 a month. Inmates with a good conduct and behaviour, as suggested by the jail authorities, participated in the recruitment drive.

Vedanta Group and IDEIM India Private Limited offered the highest number of jobs, while Taj Mahal group offered the highest package to Raju Parasnath, who has spent over eight years in Tihar jail.

Raju is an MSW holder from IGNOU. He pursued his degree while in jail.

india

Foreign students in US: India ranks second Reports from the US education sector show that there exists a very healthy relation between India and the US in terms of matters related to higher education. The US has become the most sought after higher-education destination for the Indian students in 2014.

Around 1.13 lakh Indian students are currently enrolled in different US universities and educational institutions, making them the second largest group of international students in America.

A majority of these students are interested in pursuing their graduation and postgraduation in subjects like Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). This trend reveals the fact that the US is becoming the major centre for STEM courses.

According to the report recently released by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), India accounts for the second largest number of international students in the US. China ranks third in the category, with 2,90,133 students. But, when counted on the basis of courses, India ranks first with the largest number of STEM students. As many as 78% of the Indian students are enrolled in STEM categories, while the figure for China is 37% in this group. In all, 85% of the total international STEM students in the US are Asians.

The report also states that the Indian students registered 8% increase in the enrolment since January 1, 2014.

La Trobe institutes ‘Big B’ scholarship What is the relation between India’s pride ‘Big B’ and Australia’s education sector? La Trobe University, Australia, has instituted a scholarship programme for the students in the name of the Big B, acting legend Amitabh Bachchan. The university inaugurated this scholarship recently at the Indian Film Festival in Melbourne.

The 71-year-old Bachchan has welcomed the decision of La Trobe University with cheer.

“La Trobe University names a scholarship after me, to be accorded to deserving students from all walks of life who will come and study media and entertainment courses here. The warmth and graciousness shall be carried by us all to India, and in particular to our countrymen,” Big B posted on his blog srbachchan.tumblr.com The 11-day-long Indian Film Festival in Melbourne was inaugurated by Big B.

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EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

EDU news

Nepal

School toilet being used as classroom

Bangladeshi students praise Nepal’s PM

Throwing light on the poor education condition of the children in rural Nepal, the students at Dostiya Primary School at Santapur VDC are forced to study in the school toilet. Though the toilet, where the students are currently studying, was never brought in use, it certainly does not offer the comfort of a classroom.

The school, which has no dearth of students, has but only two classrooms, according to a report. Around 200 students are studying in the school that runs classes up to grade five.

Established in 1959, Dostiya Primary School is one of the oldest schools in the district.

It had closed down in 1983. According to the reports, the head teacher and other teachers, however, were receiving payment for the last about 24 years.

The school opened again, a month ago, after the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority launched an investigation.

A group of Bangladeshi students, who were in Kathmandu as a part of their three-day tour to Nepal, lauded Prime Minister of Nepal Sushil Koirala for his honesty and integrity. The students, ranging from kindergarten to secondary levels, were accompanied by their parents and teachers.

According to a press release, the students extended their admiration for the Prime Minister and his contributions to democracy. They also stated that he was a role model and a source of inspiration. They were particularly interested in his simple life, which has provided considerable motivation for them to work on strengthening relations with the Nepalis.

Nepal to step up literacy drive The Government of Nepal, in its attempt to meet the ambitious target of ‘Literate Nepal Mission’ by 2015, has decided to award local bodies having 100% literacy rate. The national Non-Formal Education Council (NFEC) will award Rs 5 lakh, Rs 2 lakh and Rs 50,000 to districts, municipalities and VDCs, respectively, which have achieve universal literacy.

According to the criterion created

by NFEC, the local bodies can be declared fully literate if 95% of their population is literate. In all, 78 VDCs, one municipality (Tansen of Palpa) and 34 wards have earned the ‘fully literate’ tag so far and several others are in the queue.

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‘Literate Nepal Mission’ was launched in September 2012 by NFEC with the aim to earn complete literacy in the country by 2015. The literacy rate of the country was 7.8 million in 2008 at the launching. According to statistics, the campaign has helped educate 3.8 million Nepalis aged between 15 and 60 years so far.

NFEC conducted intensive literacy programmes in nine districts in the fiscal 2011-12 and 13 districts in 201213, respectively, and such programmes are under way in 36 districts in the current fiscal, and 17 districts are waiting for their turn in the next fiscal.

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

Nepal

Diploma course in midwifery Midwifery Studies at Tribhuvan University’s Institute of Medicine (IoM) will be a separate diploma course from the upcoming academic year, Nepal’s Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) has announced. The decision comes in the wake of the growing importance of midwifery service to minimise maternal and child mortality.

With the support from UNFPA and the United Nations Population Fund, the Ministry of Health and Population is currently working on this three-year course. The ministry would decide on an act to amend the existing policy on midwifery, and thereby promote midwifery services in the country.

According to UNFPA Nepal Representative Giulia Vallese, “the 2006 government SBA policy clearly reflects MoHP’s position of new cadres of professional midwives as a crucial human resource for safe motherhood. UNFPA believes that this new cadre of professional midwives would play a complementary as well as supportive role to the existing cadre of skilled birth attendance and we advocate for the inclusion of the midwife within the revised organogram of the Ministry of Health and Population.”

Call for biggest investment in education Nepal’s former Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai has said that the education sector in Nepal should have the highest amount of investment in the country. He was speaking at the 75th anniversary of Juddhodaya Secondary School, Kathmandu, recently.

He said that all the people in the country were not getting equal education owing to the dual concept of government school and private school

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

Bid to bring special-needs kids to school Aimed at increasing the enrolment of children with disabilities in schools, the Department of Education in Nepal has introduced a one week-long programme. The programme, based on the theme Equal Right, Equal Opportunity: Education and Disabilities, has materialised with the association of National Campaign for Education Nepal (NCEN).

As a part of ‘Global Action Week for Education,’ concluded on May 10, 2014, awareness campaigns were conducted with a strategy to increase the number of children with disability in schools.

According to Nepal’s Ministry for Women, Children and Social Welfare, the current net enrolment rate is 95.6%. Still, 4.4% children of school-going age are out of school.

The department has started a household survey across Nepal to find the actual status of disabled children opting out of school.

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Nepal window

Buddhist Studies thru modern pedagogy Kathmandu University Centre for Buddhist Studies at Rangjung Yeshe Institute, Boudhanath, Nepal, demonstrates the successful integration of traditional and contemporary pedagogical methods within a unique monastic environment wherein meditation practice is as highly valued as new theoretical knowledge “I’m Buddhist, and I want to say to my Buddhist brothers and sisters that Buddha’s teachings are over 2,500 years old, but still Buddha’s teachings are very much relevant in today’s world.” – His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet

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here is a general perception that Buddhist studies in the higher education institutes are becoming old-fashioned and losing relevance, but Kathmandu University Centre for Buddhist Studies at Rangjung Yeshe Institute, Boudhanath, Nepal, is keen

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by Dipin Damodharan on making Buddhist Studies popular among the students with new-age technology tools. An excellent example of a fruitful partnership between Kathmandu University and an NGO, Rangjung Yeshe Institute, the Centre for Buddhist Studies is demonstrating the successful integration of traditional and contemporary pedagogical methods within a unique monastic

environment wherein meditation practice is as highly valued as new theoretical knowledge.

Greg Whiteside, Principal of Kathmandu University Centre for Buddhist Studies at Rangjung Yeshe Institute, tells Education Insider: “We are witnessing a significant growth of interest in Buddhist Studies from students around the world, possibly as a reaction to modern materialism EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

and the decline of spiritual values.

Young people are looking for greater meaning and more direct experience of ‘truth.’ Many are turning to Buddhism, not necessarily in its capacity as ‘religion’ but as a science of mind and philosophy.”

Rangjung Yeshe Institute was founded by Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche for those wishing to develop their understanding of Buddhist philosophy and practice. The institute has been working with Kathmandu University since 2001 to manage the Kathmandu University Centre for Buddhist Studies. It offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses in Buddhist Studies and related topics.

Unique teaching methodology

Greg Whiteside claims that the teaching methodology at the institute is unique. “Our approach is quite unique. We combine philosophy classes taught by monastic professors (Khenpos and Lopons), in accordance with centuries-old traditional, with classes that follow the latest pedagogical techniques taught by professors from internationally renowned universities.”

The language programmes at the institute are intensive, according to Greg Whiteside. The institute purposefully keeps its staff-to-student ratio low and places great emphasis on one-on-one ‘drilling’ with language partners.

“Underpinning both of these approaches is our main objective of developing ‘scholar-practitioners’ – that is, those equally at home

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

90% of on-campus students at the institute are foreigners who have often been drawn by a desire to study Buddhism in its original South Asian context.

To this day, Kathmandu is home to many profoundly knowledgeable and experienced teachers and meditation masters in mediation as in the classroom, and for whom personal experience and insight are as important as theoretical knowledge,” Greg Whiteside explains.

In fact, 90% of on-campus students at the institute are foreigners who have often been drawn by a desire to study Buddhism in its original South Asian context.

To this day, Kathmandu is home to many profoundly knowledgeable and experienced teachers and meditation masters. Word is getting around!

The Centre for Buddhist Studies blends technology with Buddhist Studies in the right proportion.

Greg Whiteside continues: “It’s a double-edged sword – extremely useful, for example, in making

classes available to students on line, but there’s an addictive quality to modern technology that vacuums up our free time and may be limiting our abilities to be fully present and communicate effectively. It may also be contributing to the falling standards of written English. When other people’s ideas are so readily available and accessible, what reason is there to think originally and craft your personal expression of understanding?”

Change in students

The institute offers 12 classes online in the fields of Philosophy, Himalayan Languages, and Specialised Studies.

The most popular courses are Tibetan Alphabet and Introduction to Classical Tibetan.

The university has a profound effect on Nepal’s education sector.

“We are,” says Greg Whiteside, “constantly surprised by the number of students that quickly transform into thoughtful, knowledgeable, caring and highly compassionate human beings. This is extremely rewarding to witness. The award of formal academic degrees for what might earlier have been regarded as ‘monastic studies’ bears huge testament to the vision and creative spirit of the university.”

Vision

RangjungYeshe Institute envisions a world in which a wide diversity of people, interested in learning Buddhism, has easy access to a living Buddhist tradition in order to foster the qualities of wisdom and compassion for the benefit of all sentient beings.

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nepal window University Village

World’s top universities under one roof

Somnath Ghimire, CEO - University Village- Nepal Hon’ble Purusottam Paudel - Minister, Youth and Sports

University Village (UV) in Kathmandu, Nepal, is an international information centre for providing information and proper counselling to students seeking foreign education. It is the largest educational platform in Nepal for all the universities across the globe

U

V, inaugurated on May 3, 2014, has access to around 100 plus universities worldwide.

Aimed at tapping the highly unutilised potential of Nepal in the higher education sector, from where over 42,000 students are currently studying overseas, UV will provide information about various courses with academic syllabus, course schedule, fees structure, and placement details.

Student support services

Being a unique hub of the authorised

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representatives from universities, groups of institutions across the globe, UV is the centre offering the best selection to aspiring students of the possible choices of universities all over the world.

Student support services in the UV also include documents processing, financial support, legal consultancy, visa and residential assistance, aptitude tests, language labs, continuous student mentoring, parents office, doubt clarification sessions, a number of destinations to choose from, and insurance services.

The universities coming under the roof of University Village are from countries including the US, the UK, Australia, India, Singapore, Malaysia, New Zealand, Japan, China, Sri Lanka,

Germany, Ukraine, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Thailand.

International information centres of UV are based in the US, the UAE and India.

High potential

Considering that Nepal is a country of just 26.5 million people (Census: 2011), it is somewhat surprising to find that there were over 42,000 Nepali students studying overseas in 2012, up from about 24,000 in 2010.

According to the website of University Village, the Ministry of Education’s figures show steadily increasing numbers of students qualifying for higher secondary studies, which, in turn, suggests an increasing pipeline of university-

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

ready students. Ironically, Nepal has few good universities with limited seats and fierce competition for those seats. Going abroad to study has become a need – more than aspiration – in Nepal as the students look to foreign universities for goodquality education, better recognition of their studies, more exposure and new experience. All these have made the small mountain kingdom an appealing destination for the universities to attract potential and prospective students.

UV aims to serve both the university and prospective students.

UV’s website says: “We take into account both what the students are looking for and what the universities need. Critical to UV’s mission is matching students up to the right university. And, that means partnering with a suitable portfolio of universities all across the globe.

UV facilitates prospective students’ direct access to genuine information about the university and programmes in a way never before possible.”

Major benefits •

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Hundred-plus universities under one roof, so the students have more options to deal with direct representatives from universities without any mediator/ middleman It is a sort of 365-day, permanent education fair, and so the students get a chance to revisit and do the necessary admission formalities, after getting counselling from universities/ college representatives. The students can take time to rethink and discuss with parents and friends to confirm admission.

From the UV concept, all universities/colleges can save a lot without spending money for education fairs, and they can avoid paying hefty amounts to consultants and for advertisements In UV, only 40 universities can participate from India; the rest would be from other countries.

Even from India, only 10 each from one state are allowed to participate, to avoid needles competition From Nepal, at least 45,000

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

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students go abroad for their higher studies UV is located in the heart of the city of Kathmandu, which is surrounded by 2 main coaching centres and many small coaching centres, from where altogether 35,000 students study to pursue higher courses in Nepal. However, only 5,000 students are able to get the admission in Nepal, and rest prefer countries like India, the UK, the US, Australia, China, Ukraine, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Russia About 80% students and their parents like to take admission only through University Village in order to avoid all sorts of mess, which they have suffered a lot in the past UV has appointed its reliable representatives all over the country to spread awareness about of the golden opportunity to all the residents of Nepal The students should have to take prior appointment to reduce rush in university village According to a survey, UV expects over 1 lakh students to visit in a year

Other facilities •

Aptitude test for each student,

Student support services in the UV also include documents processing, financial support, legal consultancy, visa and residential assistance, aptitude tests, language labs, continuous student mentoring, parents office, doubt clarification sessions, a number of destinations to choose from, and insurance services

•

called UV CBE (University Village Computer-Based Examination) to understand the main stream and likes of a student UV will provide INR 10,000 to one staff member or representative of each university/college for food and accommodation, centralised AC, fully furnished office, insurance desk, travel desk, advertisement desk, bank information counter, seminar hall, monthly magazine, CCTV surveillance, toll-free number, HR assistance, U V counselor, Wi-Fi, electricity backup, and cafeteria

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perspective

Skill-based education

badly needed

Given the sheer size of its workforce, over 480 million, India can be the driving force behind a global skill-based economy. The one challenge that is repeatedly tabled at every industry/employer forum is the acute shortage of skilled workers that industry is facing

by Sanjay Shivnani

A

A recent study by the Manpower Group found that 67% of Indian employers are struggling to find resources that match their requirements. Take, for instance, the infrastructure sector: they build bridges, highways, railroads, airports, malls, and buildings.

Companies in this sector cannot seem to find enough appropriately skilled welders, masons, supervisors, etc. The important thing to note here

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is that the shortage is not of manpower for physical labour but one of appropriately skilled and qualified talent A decade ago, India’s huge population was perceived to be the country’s biggest problem. It was believed to be the main reason for the allpervasive poverty in the country. Today, we have a different perspective of these teeming masses; India’s population is now considered to be its biggest strength and is expected to be a source of competitive advantage. And, the icing on the cake

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

is that our population is primarily young – of the country’s over 1.2-billion-strong population, close to 600 million are below the age of 35. If we can capitalise effectively on this ‘demographic dividend,’ it can bring us great returns, economic growth and prosperity – but only if we can successfully put in place and execute a countrywide vocational or skills education strategy.

International studies have indicated that, by 2020, the Western world will be deficient in skilled manpower to the tune of 50 million people and India is probably the only country that will have as many in excess. So, it is not unthinkable that someday, our largest export may be skilled human capital.

Lack of relevant skills

However, there is a huge gap between what can be and what is. While we may have a mammoth workforce, most people lack relevant skills to do their jobs effectively at their workplace.

National Service Scheme data (61st round 2004-05) indicates that India’s youth severely lacks vocational training. In the 15-29 age group, only 2% have undergone any sort of formal vocational training and only about 8% have received non-formal vocational training, according to the National Knowledge Commission Final Report 2006-2009. In a bid to meet this skills deficit, the Government of India has launched various schemes to promote vocational education.

Getting down to technicalities, let us differentiate between vocational training and vocational education. While the former focuses on imparting training/skilling after formal education is over, the latter is all about ‘Catch them early and prepare in depth for a profession.’ Let us focus on vocational education (VE).VE essentially refers to skillsbased education within the mainstream K-12 education system geared towards enabling an individual to acquiring skills alongside knowledge.

Like any form of education or training, it is best if vocational education starts early in school.

The appreciation for amassing skills alongside knowledge must be developed in the formative years. Hence, vocational courses must be introduced in mainstream school curricula across all school boards.

Skill-based education is most appropriate from Class VIII onwards, though some may argue that it could begin even earlier and help address the problems of school dropouts. There is evidence to prove that vocational programmes in school curricula can help push up attendance EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

rates and encourage deeper participation from students.

Dignity of labour

Vocational education is currently offered at the senior secondary level (Classes XI-XII). However, most students who reach this level aspire to go for formal higher education. Only about 3% students in Classes XI and XII opt for vocational education. Overall, about 6,800 schools enrol 4,00,000 students in vocational education schemes, utilising less than 40% of their total student capacity. Vocational education is just not motivating enough for learners and, of course, the stigma attached to VE is yet to be addressed.

Concepts such as dignity of labour need to be hardcoded into our curricula, besides occupational skills and competencies. In addition, school education should embrace soft skills, also called ‘21st century skills’ – empathy, collaboration, teamwork, peer management, IT skills, communication, negotiation and the like.

However, there is a huge gap between what can be and what is. While we may have a mammoth workforce, most people lack relevant skills to do their jobs effectively at their workplace. National Service Scheme data (61st round 200405) indicates that India’s youth severely lacks vocational training These skills are essential for positive, workplaceready, sought-after social behaviours.

Our education system must focus equally on knowledge and skills. This will induce a shift from ‘telling what I know’ to ‘showing what I can do.’ The idea is to ‘demonstrate learning’ rather than ‘vocalise knowledge.’

The main purpose of education is empowerment, enabling one to earn one’s livelihood and live a life of dignity. Skill-based education, if taken and promoted seriously, can provide this empowerment to our huge, unemployed labour force and help India emerge as key contributor to a global skills-based economy.

(Sanjay Shivnani is the Business Head & VicePresident, Vocational, Pearson India)

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briefing Research

Glasses-free 3-D

projector is here When the researchers from the Camera Culture group at the MIT Media Lab had invented glasses-free 3-D displays three years ago, it was a huge surprise. Recently, the researchers came out with yet another wonder – a newly designed glassesfree 3-D projector, which builds upon the same technology

W

ith the new invention, the MIT Media Lab’s Camera Culture group introduces a novel approach to multiple-perspective, glasses-free 3-D, exploiting redundancy.

Over the last three years, the researchers have steadily refined a design for glassesfree 3-D displays, which could save power, widen the viewing angle and make 3-D illusions more realistic.

The researchers, following the invention of glasses-free 3-D displays, have designed a projector that exploits the same technology that could also make conventional 2-D video higher in resolution and contrast. The new design could make it an attractive transitional technology as content producers gradually learn to harness the potential of multiperspective 3-D. The researchers are set to unveil their new invention at this year’s Siggraph, the major conference in computer graphics.

Since the depicted objects disclose new perspectives as the viewer moves about them, just as real objects would, the new design might have applications in areas like collaborative design and medical imaging, as well as entertainment.

According to a press release from MIT, the MIT researchers – research scientist Gordon Wetzstein, graduate student Matthew Hirsch, and NEC Career Development Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences and head of the Camera Culture group Ramesh Raskar – built a prototype of their system using off-the-shelf components.

The heart of the projector is a pair of liquidcrystal modulators – which are like tiny liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) – positioned between the light source and the lens. Patterns of light and dark on the first modulator effectively turn it into a bank of slightly angled light emitters – that is, light passing through it reaches the second modulator only at particular angles. The combinations of the patterns displayed by the two modulators thus ensure that the viewer will see slightly different images from different angles. The researchers also built a prototype

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of a new type of screen that widens the angle from which their projector’s images can be viewed.

The researchers claim that the multi-perspective, 3-D video screen could provide a cheaper, more practical alternative to holographic video in the short term.

(With inputs from Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office.

The above news is based on the data provided by MIT)

Ramesh Raskar, the NEC Career Development Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences and head of the Camera Culture group

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

Rising Stars briefing

‘He could save 1 million lives’

A

faster and accurate device to diagnose malaria, invented by John Lewandowski, a Ph D student in mechanical engineering, has won $100,000 in MIT entrepreneurship

competition.

For John Lewandowski, it was like a dream-come-true moment when his invention, the malaria detector was selected for the MIT Best Invention Award at the MIT entrepreneurship competition.

“What if I told you I could save 1 million lives, every year, with just refrigerator magnets and a laser pointer?” John asked during his winning pitch for Disease Diagostics Group (DNG).

Fast, accurate

The device called ‘RAM’ helps in rapid assessment of malaria (RAM) infections.

The magnets in the machine helps to align and lasers to illuminate the iron-based crystals left behind by malarial parasites; this approach can determine infection level of the disease using a single drop of blood, in one minute, with 94%. This offers drastic improvement over traditional methods, where clinicians manually detect parasites using a microscope, offering results in about an hour with around 50%.

The handheld RAM device works because malarial parasites consume red blood cells and leave rod-shaped, iron-

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

based crystals called hemozoin in the bloodstream, which then become useful biomarkers for the disease.

The expert panel of judges including entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, scientists, and industry professionals were there to find aspiring entrepreneurs with unique ideas. John Lewandowski had a well-described plan to begin a startup of his own for producing malaria detector.

Six finalists received $15,000 apiece for winning their respective tracks: life sciences, products and services, mobile, Web/IT, energy, and the Segal Family Foundation’s emerging markets track. Some others have won Reuters Data Prize for data-centric business, and creative arts. The $10,000 Thomson Reuters Data Prize went to an innovative data-centric business, and a $10,000 Creative Arts Prize went to a team with an innovative use of art for enterprise.

The MIT entrepreneurship competitions were started in 1990. Since then, over 160 entrants have gone on to form companies, generating about 4,600 jobs and earning roughly $1.3 billion in additional funding.

The competitions were very tight, and each of the finalists was asked to produce a business idea in 60 seconds.

John Lewandowski won the session. About 330 entries were accepted in this year’s competition.

How it works

To use RAM, one needs to place a drop of blood and water into the device. A magnetic field surrounds the sample, while a low-powered laser light shines through it. If a person is infected, the magnetic field will align the crystals into an orderly pattern, partially blocking the laser.

Then, a sensor captures the light and transmits the results to a small screen with a number score indicating the amount of hemozoin: the less light detected, the greater the infection. It also detects malaria in people who do not yet show symptoms.

Vignesh Selvakumaran awarded Penn’s Sobti Family Fellowship The Center for the Advanced Study of India at the University of Pennsylvania has awarded its inaugural 2014-15 Sobti Family Fellowship to senior Vignesh Selvakumaran.

Established through a gift from alumnus Rajiv Sobti, Gr’84, and Slomi Sobti, Penn parents, the Fellowship is the first program at Penn to provide funding for a recent Penn graduate to conduct independent research in India. Selvakumaran, from Malvern, Pa., will graduate on May 19 from the School of Engineering and Applied Science with a bachelor’s degree in bioengineering. As a Sobti Family Fellow, he will work with Aurolabs at Aravind Eye Care System in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, this fall. His project aims to create a new low-cost medical device for cataract surgery.

Courtesy: Penn news

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Down memory lane Helen Keller

June 27 Helen Keller Day

True grit and

inner sight FAct FilE:

H

elen Adams Keller, deaf and blind, won the colours of life with her strong determination, hard work and the sight of her inner eye. She was woman of extraordinary courage, a woman of a wide outlook, determination and powerful decisions. Her birthday on June 27 is commemorated as Helen Keller Day in the US state of Pennsylvania.

Helen was a normal kid at the time of her birth.

She could see and hear. When she was 19 month old, she was affected with meningitis, which made her blind and deaf. However, her parents Kate Adams and Arthur H Keller were not ready to leave their daughter after her destiny. They appointed a teacher named Annie Sullivan to train young Helen.

The teacher became young Helen’s inspiration.

With the teacher’s support, she began to communicate with the family using signs. He had developed around 60 signs by the age of eight.

Helen attended the Perkins Institute for the Blind for her formal education. Thereafter, Helen, along

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Occupation: Activist Born: June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, Alabama, the United States Died: June 1, 1968, in Arcan Ridge, Easton, Connecticut, the USA Best known for: Accomplishing much despite being both deaf and blind Helen Keller’s letter on Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony got very popular The photographs contained in the Helen Keller Archives span the nine decades of her life Founded by Helen Keller in 1915, Helen Keller International is one of the world’s premier international not-for-profit organisations dedicated to preventing blindness and reducing malnutrition with her teacher, moved to New York to attend the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf. She also had her education from The Cambridge School for Young Ladies. Slowly, she learnt to ‘hear’ people by reading their lip language.

Helen worked for the American Foundation for the Blind for over 40 years. She worked hard to raise funds for the blind community. Helen was also actively involved in the political affairs of the state – she was a member of the Socialist Party. She joined the Industrial Workers of the World, in 1912, saying that parliamentary socialism was ‘sinking in the political bog.’

Helen spent her life as an advocate for people with disabilities. She had visited almost 40 countries with Annie Sullivan to know about the culture of various places. She had written many books from her experience with the hurdles of life, including The Frost King, The Story of My Life, The world I Live In, and Light In My Darkness.

There are some Hollywood movies about her, and a hospital in the USA was named after her.

The Lady of Determination passed away in 1968.

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

Higher education in Asia Cover story

Higher education expanding with care A recent report from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) reveals the explosive growth of higher education across Asia over the last 20 years. As the Republic of Korea and Japan lead on many fronts, the superpower-in-waiting, India, is weak in many facets, including research and development (R&D) intensity. The report highlights the ways in which R&D can boost national economic development and argues that expanding graduate education should be viewed as a means of increasing the economic competitiveness of the country. It also calls for the countries to have a balance between ‘expanding out’ and ‘expanding up’

by Dipin Damodharan

Cover story Higher education in Asia

K

aran Arya is an engineering degree holder from the South Indian state of Karnataka.

After a massive job hunt, she managed to get into a mid-sized IT firm, but now she is struggling hard to cope with the technical aspects of the job. The company labelled her unemployable and she is on the brink of losing the job. There are many who share Karan’s predicament in Asian countries as university enrolment has witnessed an explosive growth for the last two decades. Many countries, including India, have failed to give thrust to the quality of graduation programmes in line with the mushrooming of higher learning institutes.

Pavan Soni, an innovation evangelist and research fellow at Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore, India, tells Education Insider: “Though we have a significant ‘quantity’ of educated people, the ‘quality’ continues to suffer. This happens mainly owing to the demand of a huge population and also owing to poor standards set by bodies and academic institutions.

Studies conducted by firms like McKinsey & Company and India’s NASSCOM indicate that just about 25% of India’s educated population is employable! This means that a good three-fourths either would have to be retrained or would remain unproductive. A focus on research-led quality education is the need of the hour. I believe that even if we have fewer people educated, let us not compromise on quality. The case of smaller nations like Israel and Singapore comes to mind here, where quality pips over quantity.”

The situation is not the same in other Asian countries like the Republic of Korea, Japan and Malaysia. Getting into the issue seriously, many countries are intensively involved in a substantial mission to increase the quality of education by focusing more on

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research. It is also significant to address the core question – what should be the purpose of higher education, particularly in the universities?

It was in this backdrop that the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), the statistical arm of UNESCO and the UN depository for global statistics in the fields of education, science and technology, culture and communication, came up with a comprehensive report titled ‘Higher Education in Asia: Expanding Out, Expanding Up’. The report, which was released on May 19, 2014, in Bangkok, by the Office of Higher Education Commission, Mahidol University and UNESCO, looks at the dynamics associated with the development of higher education in Asia.

The UIS report analyses ways in which countries across the region can accommodate more students

(expanding out) while strengthening the quality of their university programmes and research (expanding up).

Hendrik van der Pol, Director of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, tells Education Insider: “We see countries engaging in a mix of strategies to expand their higher education institutions. They begin by expanding outwards, by building new campuses, for example, and encouraging growth in the private higher education. At the same time, these systems are expanding upwards – to reach new academic levels – by introducing new postgraduate

Seeds of great innovations and technological breakthroughs are often sown in academic institutions. This is so in the US, Japan and many advanced countries Prof C N R Rao

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

Pavan Soni

The data by World Bank indicates that the public spending on education, as a percentage of government expenditure, in Singapore, Hong Kong, and even Chile is nearly 20%, as compared to 10% of India. Education has led the growth of the Asian Tigers to global prominence, and state has played a key role in this transformation. In India, where state’s role is well-complemented by private educational institutes, we must be able to perform better. However, that is not the case, and much of that is owing to the poor quality of education in most private institutions. So, overall spending on education has to go up, and so must the spending on R&D. The bigger question remains: what type of R&D must be invested on? I believe that universities must excel in doing fundamental research, and collaborate with the industry for commercialising this work. So it is more of ‘R’ than ‘D’ in my view.

Also, universities must tie-up with India’s CSIR, ISRO, DRDO and DAE institutes, among other national research labs, to learn from them and support the ongoing research. The focus shouldn’t always be on teaching, for, if there is no research, there is no new learning

education programmes.”

The report focuses a range of issues varying from the spectacular rise in enrolment, the reshaping of higher education across Asia, case studies of Malaysia and Thailand to universitybased research and R&D intensity. However, in this edition, Education Insider tells you about the role of university-based research in the economic development of middle-income and low-income countries.

Defining the purpose

“What is the purpose of education? Is it for economic good or not?” asks Pavan Soni. “I believe that whether one studies for doing a job or research or even starting a business, it must result in economic growth. Hence, the key success factors to me are the quality of education and its content in terms of relevance. There is no purpose in an education which does not help in economic growth, directly or indirectly. The case of China is exemplary here, as it has rallied millions of people into doing globally relevant work and lifting the people off poverty. The instances of South Korea and Singapore – the countries that transformed themselves remarkably over the years – is mainly owing to their investment in education which was relevant to their growth,” Pavan says.

Hence the activities of the universities, in particular research, should yield economic results. For this, the universities have to focus on R&D, and university-based researches should get huge investment. When you look at history, the economic booms were found to be a result of technological advancements and these technological developments are the result of knowledge.

According to the UIS report, “the most dynamic economic sectors in the global marketplace are those that are technology-

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

intensive, and they depend on the capacity to generate, adapt and utilise knowledge as the foundation of productivity growth. This is equally true for the services sector as it is for manufacturing.” This is evident from the growth of high-income countries. Huge investments in R&D are regarded as the pivotal reason for innovation and economic growth.

“Technology accounts for over one-half of economic growth in all member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) except Canada,” UIS report continues. “The rate of return from R&D is about four times from physical capital. “The US Bureau of Economic Analysis’ first satellite R&D account estimated the contribution of R&D to economic growth to be 6.5% over the 1995-2002 period, up from the longer term 40-year average of 4.5% (by comparison, the 40-year average contribution of buildings and factories is only 2%). Of note is that this estimate is only for the impact of R&D investment on the industry in which the R&D is conducted. Analyses of industry-level impacts of R&D indicated that about one-half of output growth and three-quarters of productivity growth are attributable to R&D investment.”

The UIS study finds that the social return from the R&D exceeds private return by 50%-100% gradually. Look at another example: between 1988 and 2010, US federal investment in genomic research resulted in an economic impact of $796 billion, while spending on the Human Genome Project between 1990 and 2003 amounted to $3.8 billion only. Here the return on investment ratio is of 141:1.

Universities, research & economic growth For effective knowledge production and

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Cover story Higher education in Asia

In India, we have a dearth of University-led research. The research happening at universities is mostly esoteric. There’s a fundamental flaw in the system. After independence, in order to give impetus to scientific development, we created national research laboratories.

While these research labs served a purpose, it took away research from University campuses. Most of the research and related funding was prioritised towards these labs which should have come to Universities Dr. Ajeenkya DY Patil

dissemination, universities need to play a vital role. They can speed up innovation and technical progress. As said in the UIS report, they play a central role not only as producers of basic research but also by creating human capital in the form of higher skilled labour. Hendrik van der Pol of UIS says: “Research is a fundamental part of the mandate of universities in general. They are responsible for preparing students to participate in a knowledge-based economy. Research activities will raise the profile of a university and make it a more attractive place to study. These activities also ensure that professors stay abreast of current developments in their fields, which makes them better teachers.”

Unlike in the high-income countries, the contribution of university-based research to the national economic development of low-income and middle-income counties is not clear. These counties have to strengthen their channels to access and capacity to use technology. According to the UIS report, this process of ‘catching up’ generally occurs through imitation and technology acquisition rather than independent R&D and

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innovation. “However, technology transfer poses substantial problems of adaptation and absorption that are related to investments in technological capability. A successful transfer requires a complex array of skills, knowledge and organisational structures to operate a technology efficiently and accomplish any process of technological change.

This dynamic effort implies a process of learning.”

When you have a large poorly educated population, you certainly need no factors for poor innovative performance. The UIS report continues: “R&D is unprofitable for low levels of human capital and becomes profitable only when human capital reaches a threshold level. The presence of skilled labour is a more decisive mechanism for the transmission of tacit knowledge than either university research or industry research. Improving human capital by formal education and continuous R&D activities increases the absorptive capacity of firms, thereby facilitating technology adoption and mastery.”

Then what is the role of universities in lowincome and middle-income countries? The report answers: “The most important role of universities in these countries is not just to generate new knowledge but to raise the skills of the population, that is, to build up human capital, and to help absorb ideas from developed countries.”

Unlike their peer institutions in developed countries, these universities are under-funded and unable to purchase and apply the latest research equipment. The faculty and staff seem to be less qualified and the salaries of professors are so low.

Pavan Soni says: “India does not rank high on research. For instance, there is not a single Indian university in the 2013 Nature Publishing Index, or even in 2013 Times Higher Education Ranking Top 200. Research improves the quality of teaching, which, in turn, improves the effectiveness of the graduating students. In my view, research requires three ingredients: funding, ecosystem, and talent.

India needs to invest in building facilities and attracting top researchers from across India and even abroad, and help them with a conducive ecosystem. In India, our research is much more insular than most parts of the world; as a result, we are either working on wrong problems or working with wrong set of people. In this connected economy, one cannot afford to remain insular.”

In countries like Thailand, the number of Thai PhD graduates is inadequate to replace the professors who are retiring over the next five years.

Dr Ajeenkya D Y Patil, chairman of DY Patil Group, an active player in higher education, comments: “In India, we have a dearth of university-led research.

The research happening at universities is mostly esoteric. There is a fundamental flaw in the system.

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

After Independence, in order to give impetus to scientific development, we created national research laboratories. While these research labs served a purpose, it took away research from university campuses.

Most of the research and related funding was prioritised towards these labs which should have come to universities.

“Seeds of great innovations and technological breakthroughs,” eminent Indian scientist Prof. C N R Rao says, “are often sown in academic institutions. This is so in the US, Japan and many advanced countries. We, in India, have to ensure that at least some of our educational institutions contribute in a big way to industrial and economic development through their research efforts.”

In the opinion of Pavan Soni, “universities are crucibles of modern-day education as they offer holistic learning to the students.

The presence of multiple faculties/ disciplines at the same campus is vital for a broader appreciation of science and humanities by the students. A student only adept at Engineering or Commerce would be ineffective in a fast-changing world than someone who has an appreciation of multiple disciplines.

A university system where students from different disciplines exchange thoughts and share time is much needed now in India. For instance, the famed IITs and IIMs still remain non-university-oriented, as the focus remains unitary. On the contrary, most technology and management institutes in the West are based in a university setup, thereby providing the students with multiple avenues of learning.”

According to a report from World Bank, the universities in lowincome countries have to improve continuously their teaching and research capabilities in order to be able to meet the future needs of their societies.

Korean model

The Republic of Korea has witnessed a remarkable growth in R&D. According to the data of UIS, the GDP per-capita increased 12 times EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

over a period of 45 years. Look at the R&D expenditure – a dramatic rise from 166 million in 1965 (in constant 2005 PPP$) to PPP$55 billion in 2011. This shows an increase from 0.26% of GDP in 1965 to 4.04% in 2011 – one of the highest in the world. The private sector registered 76.5% of total R&D expenditure and 66.8% of the total number of researchers in 2011. Though the Republic of Korea was one of the poorest countries following the Korean War in the 1960s, the country has registered commendable growth with the development of its R&D over the last four decades.

According to UIS, the Republic of Korea’s development of R&D system can be divided into three phases. The following are the highlights of the three phases quoted in the report: First phase: The 1960s saw the promotion of both exportsubstitution and import-substitution industries such as textiles, garments, furniture, and assembly of electronic goods. When those labour-intensive industries expanded, they established select heavy industries and chemical industries to provide materials and components for these enterprises.

The formation of Korea Institute

of Science and Technology (KIST) in 1966 was crucial for technology assimilation and development of industrialisation. In the 1970s, the country expanded into strategic industries, such as shipbuilding, machinery, industrial chemicals, electronics and automobiles.

Specialised government research institutes (GRIs) were created as technology windows for diversified technological needs. Technological learning, as opposed to indigenous technology development, was at the core of the development strategy in the early stage.

Second phase: During the 1980s and 1990s, the socio-economic R&D demands focused on critical and essential technologies to overcome protectionism and secure competitive advantages in the international market. In the 1980s, efforts were made to ensure a market-conducive environment by deregulating various sectors and liberalising trade.

R&D in the private sector started picking up in response to these demands. More company research institutes began to emerge to create technology-intensive industries, and in-house R&D emphasised technology indigenisation for the creation of new information-technology industries. It

It is fairly well-established that R&D, both in the Universities and in the industry and strategic sectors, lead to innovation and technology transfer, which are essential for national economic development. A recent empirical study has shown that the GDP growth correlates with the number of WCUs in the country Prof R Natarajan

R&D intensity (a commonly used indicator reflecting R&D expenditure as a percentage of gross domestic product) varies considerably in countries across the region: The Republic of Korea (4.0%), Japan (3.4%), Singapore (2.2%), China (1.8%), Malaysia (1.1%), India (0.8%) and Thailand (0.25%) 29

Cover story Higher education in Asia

skilled workforce that had resulted from the government’s expansion of the higher education system.

In Pavan Soni’s words, Funding, Focus and Exposure are the three factors behind this kind of a success saga.

Singapore has the highest number of researchers per population of 1 million in the region

was during this phase that higher education was expanded, and the government launched national R&D projects and the Industrial Technology Development Programme. Large companies internalised imported technologies, and the joint efforts of GRIs and universities were able to provide complex technologies needed for industry.

Third phase: After the financial crisis of the late 1990s, emphasis was placed on fundamental technologies to lead the global technology market for continuous growth in the knowledge economy and public technologies (such as technologies for environmental protection) in order to meet various social demands. The role of universities in basic research became more important and industry academic linkages were encouraged. The private sector realised the necessity to develop technologies needed for future knowledgeintensive industries and directed the work of their research institutes towards this. It also began working with GRIs and universities in strategic partnerships to develop a domestic technology base. Investment in education has played a significant role. To achieve sustained productivity growth by consistently increasing the value-addition of output, a highly educated workforce was necessary. Education gives rise to a person’s initial tacit knowledge, which is an essential building block in technological learning. A continued expansion of R&D capabilities in industry drew on the

What universities can do The UIS report says that the overall level of human capital in many low-income and middle-income countries is insufficient to absorb foreign technology. Here is a list what they can do to contribute to national economic development, according to the UIS report: • Focus on raising the overall skills of the population. A part of this expansion should be in graduate education, as the impact of embedded technology can be very limited if capabilities in R&D are absent. The higher-education institutions should also be expanding undergraduate and technical education in order to raise the overall level of human capital in society • The most important role of universities in learning systems is not just to generate new knowledge but to raise the skills of the population. Applied research, engineering, design and technology are critical in this phase • The other direction universities can take is to increase the amount of research carried out internally. This will not only increase the overall level of research carried out in the country, which is beneficial to technology absorption, but will also increase the quality of education, raising, in turn, the level of human capital in the country. It will normally also raise the profile of the university, making it a more attractive place to study • The overall level of educational attainment in the country, the level of development of financial markets, university-industry links, supportive innovation policies, regulatory and administrative burdens, and the strength of the intellectual property rights systems – these are all elements governments and individual universities need to take into account • Increasing the mobility of scientists via appropriate incentive measures is the best route for knowledge transfer from university to industry Reference: www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Pages/ higher-education-asia-report.aspx

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EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

INterview/ Hendrik van der Pol

Universities must

raise people’s skills “For most low-income and middle-income countries, the most critical role of universities is to raise the skills of the population. This is more important than generating new knowledge,” Hendrik van der Pol, Director of UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), says in an exclusive interview with Dipin Damodharan. van der Pol talks about a range of issues regarding higher education in the backdrop of a recent report, titled ‘Higher Education in Asia: Expanding Out, Expanding Up’, published by the UIS

P

lease tell us about the report titled ‘Higher Education in Asia: Expanding Out, Expanding Up’.

Over the past 20 years, we have seen phenomenal growth in university enrolment across Asia, and the demand for higher education will continue to rise. This is good news for the region, but it also poses a serious challenge for governments. How can they provide more students with access to high-quality education? We see countries engaging in a mix of strategies to expand their higher education institutions. They begin by expanding outwards, by building new campuses, for example, and encouraging growth in private higher education systems. At the same time, these systems are expanding upwards – to reach new academic levels – by introducing new postgraduate education programmes. Why? There are two central goals: to ensure that there are enough qualified professors for future generations of students and to accelerate national economic development through university-based research.

This report is unique in that it brings together a range of data from different sources to evaluate the policy trade-offs in these expansion strategies.

So governments can use this report as an evidence base to make critical decisions about university funding and reform, which will not only affect the students but also the development of societies as a whole. Another unique feature of the report is the focus on low-income and middle-income countries, especially those that have experienced the most dramatic growth in university enrolment.

Countries outside of Asia can greatly benefit from the experiences of Thailand and Malaysia, for example, which have implemented a range of policies designed to accommodate growing student populations while boosting the rankings

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Cover story Higher education in Asia of their universities and research programmes. Both governments have sought to expand their graduate education programmes over the past decade. In Malaysia, graduate enrolment increased four-fold from about 21,100 to 85,200 between 2000 and 2010. Overall, the Malaysian government spends about twice the amount per higher education student than does Thailand. However, Thai universities have a broader resource base and more administrative autonomy than their counterparts in Malaysia have.

What is the relevance of this kind of a report in higher education?

Many governments are at a crossroads in terms of university reform. This report provides the data needed to compare experiences across the region. For example, policies designed to improve university rankings may be controversial but are nonetheless shaping university reform. This report highlights the pros and cons by comparing the three most commonly used ranking systems.

Many countries are feeling the pressure to compete internationally by building a small set of worldclass universities. But, by focusing on this small group, they may be overlooking niches of excellence in a wider set of universities.

By looking at data from different sources, the authors offer insight on the potential impact of these different strategies. Governments are also looking to expand postgraduate education partly to ensure that they have enough qualified professors for future generations of students.

However, these programmes require significant investments. So how do you find a balance in funding undergraduate and postgraduate programmes? This report highlights the trade-offs through case studies.

What are the major findings of your study?

The key facts concerning the expansion of higher education systems are: • Nearly 40% of tertiary students in Asia are enrolled in private universities and colleges, which have experienced phenomenal growth over the past decade.

However, the situation varies considerably between countries, with the share of students enrolled in private

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Governments can use this report as an evidence base to make critical decisions about university funding and reform, which will not just affect students but the development of societies as a whole

•

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institutions ranging from 15% in VietNam to 81% in the Republic of Korea, according to the report.

Many countries are introducing new postgraduate education programmes to ensure that they have enough highly trained professors for future generations of students. In China, for example, only about 16% of university faculty members have doctoral degrees and another 35% have Master’s degree. The situation is similar in VietNam, where 14% of university instructors have a doctorate and 46% have just Master’s degree.

To bridge this gap, countries are increasing investment in graduate programmes, but this may ultimately lead to a reduction in funding for undergraduate education.

Across the region, countries are not simply seeking to expand enrolment in universities – they are also striving to strengthen their foundations in R&D. The focus on R&D also highlights the debate over the role of universities in basic research.

To inform these policy debates, the report compares government investment in applied versus basic research. In Thailand, for example, 38% of R&D expenditure is devoted to applied research versus 14% to basic research. The rest (48%) goes to experimental development. In contrast, China devotes 78% of R&D expenditure to experimental development, 17% to applied

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research and 5% to basic research.

Another key point concerns the focus on international rankings. The race is on to build world-class universities as countries seek to attract more foreign students, companies and investment, but there are hidden risks. By directing more funding to top-tier universities, governments may overlook pockets of excellence in other institutions. In terms of national development, countries might benefit more by supporting these emerging universities that are excelling in niche areas but may not yet appear in international rankings.

According to case studies, the governments of Malaysia and Thailand see a direct line between the expansion of graduate education and national economic development. By investing in graduate education, they are seeking to build a highly educated workforce, which should ultimately help attract more international investment and raise living standards. So the pressure is on to improve the international rankings of their universities and to commercialise universitybased research in order to generate revenue and attract further investment. To achieve these goals, both countries have set up extensive incentive and accountability systems.

What are the striking points regarding the university research productivity across Asia?

The UIS report uses a set of bibliometric indicators to evaluate research performance of universities in broad and narrow subject areas.

Universities’ research performance is rated as ‘world-class,’ ‘excellent,’ above average’ and ‘below average’ based on the results of the selected bibliometric indicators.

Here are some main findings: By broad subject areas: Worldclass research performance at the broad subject-levels is relatively rare in Asia. One university in Japan has achieved world-class research performance in Physics and Astronomy, and two universities in the Republic of Korea and

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Singapore have achieved world-class performance in Materials Sciences.

Arguably, the three broad subject areas of greatest strength in Asia (considered as ‘excellent’) are Chemistry, Environmental Sciences, and Materials Sciences.

A comparison of world-class performance at the broad and niche subject levels illustrates the importance of carrying out niche-level subject analyses in understanding university research excellence. This report found that 40 Asian universities achieve world-class performance in at least one niche subject area. One can clearly see that performance analyses carried out only at the aggregate university level (that is, world university rankings) or even at the broad subject level miss significant pockets of research excellence, possibly creating the false impression of a lower level of research performance in Asia than is the case.

What do you think of the quality of Asian universities? Could you find any development in the R&D spending in higher education by them?

Concerning question A: Quality is difficult to measure objectively.

Concerning question B: It should be noted that many countries lack complete data. If we look at trends over time (since 1996), R&D expenditure in tertiary institutions has increased as a percentage of GDP in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand and Pakistan. For Japan and India, the trend is stable.

How can university-based research lead to national economic development?

Overall, there is considerable evidence that countries that spend more on research benefit from the investment financially. However, this linkage is not always apparent.

Universities generally carry out fundamental and applied research, which generally has very low direct returns and contribute to economic growth only indirectly. However, these indirect effects can be important and often take the form of knowledge spillover to the private sector, which converts this research into new products and processes through more applied research and experimental development. In that sense, university-based research can yield important benefits to EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

national development, but these contributions occur indirectly and require considerable time before they become apparent. Furthermore, in emerging countries, economic growth tends to occur by imitating and learning from imported foreign technology. This is done by firms, not universities. But, universities nevertheless play a key role by ensuring that the workforce has the skills for this technological adaptation and transformation.

For most low-income and middleincome countries, the most critical role of universities is to raise the skills of the population. This is more important than generating new knowledge. This can be achieved by expanding undergraduate and graduate education. Undergraduate education is the central motor for raising skills, but to expand a country’s capacity to undertake R&D, you need postgraduate education.

This also enables countries to not just import foreign technology but also to reverse-engineer it, so that they can imitate it, adapt, if needed, and reproduce without having to rely on costly imports.

What is the role of universities in making the low-income and middle-income countries research-driven?

Many low-income and middleincome countries do not have the capacity to absorb foreign technology fully imported by commercial firms. So, as previously explained, it is essential to raise the overall

“In Malaysia, graduate enrolment increased fourfold from about 21,100 to 85,200 between 2000 and 2010. Overall, the Malaysian government spends about twice the amount per higher education student than Thailand.

However, Thai universities have a broader resource base and more administrative autonomy than their counterparts in Malaysia”

skills of the population through undergraduate programmes while raising national capacities for R&D through postgraduate programmes.

Another related question concerns the role of universities in basic versus applied research. The literature repeatedly shows that basic research is essential and pays off significantly in the long term.

However, many countries are seeking more immediate results. As a result, a growing number of universities are foregoing basic research in favour of applied research, often with government encouragement.

The report shows that these different directions are not mutually exclusive. The key lies in evaluating the trade-offs in these different strategies. They all carry costs and have different impacts, which are influenced by conditions such as the overall level of educational attainment in the country; the level of development of financial markets; links between universities and industries; innovation policies; regulatory and administrative processes; and the strength of intellectual property rights systems.

These are all elements governments and individual universities need to take into account when deciding on the right mix of their research activities.

R&D data show a clear relation between the relative amount of resources devoted to R&D and the income level of a country. Generally speaking, the more developed a country, the more it invests in research. Countries that are more developed also tend to invest more in business R&D and engineering research than lesser-developed countries. In the end, a country looking to be research-driven must get the business sector involved.

Once the business sector starts to make significant investments in research, this will have a clear and positive impact on productivity and hence economic growth in a country.

The Republic of Korea remains one of the best cases in point. The picture that emerges from that country is of modest R&D spending in the early days of reverse engineering and manufacture under licence, with ramping up as the need arose to access new markets.

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viewpoint

by B Ashok IAS

Towards an Agenda in Higher Education The Indian higher education system must have an agenda to achieve a global status. Even with many favorable attributes the education sector in India is struggling for a pace of its own. What are the remedies? Dr. B Ashok IAS drafts an agenda for Indian higher education to enhance its success in every field

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The fact that higher education in general and the governance and academic outcomes of our universities are far from satisfactory and perhaps an irredeemably lost cause is too wellknown and indeed very disturbing.

However, considering the immense capital investment made in this strategic sector by both the government sector and private sector and the phenomenal costs incurred in their running compel us to refrain from writing them off and considering all available options to increase the

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enrolment and quality of graduates and postgraduates, equipping them to take up the challenges of their times and furthering the interest of higher knowledge and continuing life-long learning in society – contributing to better national and cultural development outcomes.

Conventional approaches explore the various facets of the crises the university system in the state and the nation face. This is also a much-treaded territory. Some of the oft-repeated themes are (1) the need to preserve quality while expanding its scope, (2) to maintain a healthy relationship between the interest of excellence and equity and (3) to balance the requirement of graduate

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manpower for the major professions as well as maintaining an edge in research and training required to further applied as well as pure and basic knowledge. However, there is no dispute that most of the ills plaguing the state’s higher education sector can only be even attempted to be rectified through focused governance reforms in the universities and addressing the big elephant in the room – the acute dearth of contemporarily trained high-quality teachers.

When we attempt a reform of the present unsatisfactory situation, we should focus on those reforms, which have a multiplying or cascading effect on most outcome variables that are prevalent in the system. If the nervous and circulatory systems are functioning optimally in the human body, most of the dependent sub-systems tend to perform normally. Similarly, essential governance reforms in the universities – of ‘blood and brain’ – could act as a trigger and fountain, which can, in due course, rectify various other issues that plague our universities.

Rationalising size Just as much as medium states and small states are administrated better generally, we need to reorganise the present state universities into manageable entities that are broadly co-terminus in scope with a revenue district and the affiliation system should be restricted to not more than 50 colleges per university, preferably within 50-60 square kilometres of the nucleus of the university.

This reorganisation with the current student numbers would establish about 32 universities in the state with roughly two being available per district, one focusing in Liberal Arts and Science and the other broadly covering Professional and Management education. This would trigger intense, deep regionalisation of the university system and the university’s management would come close to the shopfloor issues, that is, the arenas for teaching, research and training, spread across university departments and collegiate departments, centres and institutes.

The common facilities of the universities such as the governance structures, the centralised soft infrastructure such as modern ICT network, auditoria, libraries, evaluation and quality assurance system, etc., would become a part of daily student experience well beyond the collegiate-level, thereby making the learner a central element in exploring the university experience.

Instead of the university being a remote entity, which it is at present, the university should function more as an in-campus entity,

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When we attempt a reform of the present unsatisfactory situation, we should focus on those reforms, which have a multiplying or cascading effect on most outcome variables that are prevalent in the system auditing and assuring the teacher and the student quality continuously and governing collegiate education through policy and statutes. This singular reform – of freshly carving out 30-plus multi-faculty universities – from the present 13 in the state would unleash an era of unprecedented competition and excellence available to most students in the higher education sector of the state.

This reform can very well gel with the national endeavour to create about 600 more universities in the next two Plan periods under RUSA, with each catering to about 10,000 students on an average. A large number of these students must be pursuing Ph Ds and other higher degrees. It would be worth allowing those relatively excellent pedigreed colleges in the state situated in each district to become statutory universities wherever basic minimum developable infrastructure and researcher/teacher potential exist.

In theory, there is no difficulty with establishing even private universities floated by reputed, not-for-profit agencies and even capable industries when the government is short of adequate resources to float as many universities as required for the students. It may also be useful to issue a template Act to regulate the working of private universities in the state, as done by other states, balancing the need for regulatory requirement as well as the strong spirit of enterprise required to source and identify grants and funds and develop such institutions. Mere creation of universities without robust reforms in the management structure and attracting and retaining quality faculty would only cause further drift, and, therefore, the second reform becomes relevant. The teachers also need robust managerial training to occupy higher echelons of university management.

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viewpoint

Removing partisan politics The second reform required is to streamline and sequestrate the governance and management of public as well as private universities from highly avoidable external interference primarily of a partisan political character. While political activism, consciousness and taking part in larger debates ongoing in the country or state is desirable for the student community and campuses, the degree of democracy practised in our universities has taken the governance and management of our higher education institutions to absurdly impossible difficulties.

There has to be a profound rationalisation in the degree of democracy being practised and the rapid rate of change required to be implemented in the universities for them to retain a competitive edge on the global scene.

Just as starting an industry or business in India requires over 50 different regulatory approvals and a minimum of 72 working days of process, a university spends thousands of manhours in debate and several years for even revising curriculum and administering examination reforms by utilising the latest available technology. One of

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Instead of the university being a remote entity, which it is at present, the university should function more as an in-campus entity, auditing and assuring the teacher and the student quality continuously and governing collegiate education through policy and statutes

the key reasons why the requisite change in the content (syllabi) or methodology of imparting education or evaluating the student is difficult is that the democratic foray in our universities do not find adequate time to debate these critical issues in requisite depth as the chunk of nonacademic representation wastes away most of the time in non-academic and often frivolous matters. The selection of members in the governing councils in the universities needs to be based on sheer merit and suitability of the participant and ability to engage in a learned discourse than being unruly meddling backbenchers who are many a time just mouthpieces of manifest extraneous interest.

There has to be an all-party consensus that the key and managerial governance positions and structures of the universities shall be occupied by persons of profound eminence in society who are not taking part concurrently in active party politics. We have to draw the august members in the governing and the general councils (syndicates and senates) of universities from academics who have a robust record of contribution in the higher education sector, administrators who have knowledge and experience, EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

industrialists who have a track record of innovation, creative professionals like writers, poets, philosophers, musicians and inventors and similar successful professionals.

There is no harm if an educated and suitable MP or MLA is included in the councils. A vast majority of the members should be drawn up from the stakeholders in higher education who have deep knowledge in the teaching-learning process. The present practice of huge omnibus senates and syndicates organised at the whim and fancy of the Ministry concerned or transient political interest have helped only in bringing in extremely partisan interest in the selection of academic leaders and the resultant rapid erosion of academic quality down the line.

and libraries as live learning material. Increased mutual traffic of knowledge needs to be established between the students of different universities and

disciplines and between researchers and technologists working in industry and academia. Only by such handholding, exchange and co-generation of ideas can every

Conventional approaches explore the various facets of the crises the university system in the state and the nation face

Executive recruitment An associated reform would be the selection of the statutory officers of the new universities which needs to be in conformance with the instructions of the UGC and Acts of the University. While following the UGC, the manner of selecting Vice-Chancellors and Deans needs to mind that the universities have long lost their monopoly over acquisition of knowledge and innovations.

Therefore, practice leaders from the government, think-tanks, industry and other professions need to be inducted to bring in their professional competence in the management structure of the universities. Professional managers and lawyers are good cases in point.

Academic selection and orthodoxy must not be allowed in the selection, and the field of choice must not be restricted in any case to teachers or professional researchers.

Link with research institutions A third dimension of an essential university reform is to link the university classroom and laboratory with established, comparable standards in global practice as adopted by better universities in India and abroad and also to bring in real-life workplace problems as reflected by governments and industry into the laboratories EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

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viewpoint

Author’s Bio Dr B Ashok IAS is the Vice Chancellor of Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University

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university and laboratory handle part of the questions asked by the industry, and industry would recognise the value and opportunity offered by many innovations developed in the university laboratories.

It is a sad reality of the Indian scenario that the research and development networks of the CSIR, ICAR and ICMR stand aloof from the 700-plus universities which have academic departments of science and technology. This severe compartmentalisation of learning has impacted both the research institute system as well as the universities. If the researchers in the R & D sector are allowed some hours of university teaching and university teachers are allowed to take up well-defined, compact research modules in the nearest CSIR/ICAR/ ICMR laboratories, an unnecessary huge barrier can be broken down and the forces of knowledge and innovation can come together in a big way.

Challenging cynicism Kerala can show the direction in this regard by integrating the research institutes under the Kerala State Council for Science, Environment and Technology. By attaching relevant institutes with relevant institutes/ departments and

mutually inducting directors of institutes and heads of universities into each other’s governing councils and academic councils, a lot of inter-disciplinary work can be taken up. This segment of reform requires a very active and spirited State Higher Education Council and Councils of Science and Technology and other specialised organs of research, which have taken deep interest in academia. This also requires a lot of leadership from the government, and several administrative barriers need to be overcome in the process.

Needless to say, these reforms need to overcome a lot of rampant cynicism and self-defeatist ideas which are commonly encountered in the higher education system. From my experience in the international sector, a national institute as well as the current state university, I have noticed that effecting changes in the state systems is far more cumbersome and difficult than implementing changes in the Central Government system where almost all speak a common language.

This is also because the state system is prone to numerous pulls and pressures of extremely local politics, and it is usual for the academic quality and merits to be lost in the melee of real politick. It is for the research and academic community to regain its primacy by engaging in policy campaigns at this juncture. The state also needs several academic leaders with stature and leadership in the political system, which has, by and large, lost its way in higher education.

These reforms are so critical and badly delayed that one can only hope that they would be taken up, if possible, yesterday!

The teachers also need robust managerial training to occupy higher echelons of university management

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montessori education

by Lakshmi Krishnakumar

Birth to 3 years crucial Conception to birth is the period for pre-natal development when the being is referred to as the ‘physical embryo.’ Following birth, for the next 3 years, the child consolidates the various biological systems. This again signifies as a period of creation, since, during these 3 years, the child creates himself on a psychical level. During this period, Dr Montessori considered the being a ‘spiritual embryo’

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hus, between conception and 3 years lies another period of creation. From almost nothing at conception, a being with all the physical and psychical characteristics emerges at 3 years. Though not yet completely established, the child has a definite blueprint laid for a future personality. During the 3 years, intelligence and the related psychical faculties are formed.

During the second sub-phase of 3-6 years, the creativity continues but slows down to permit the consolidation of the psychical faculties hitherto created.

Simultaneously, other related and secondary faculties develop during these years.

Different from animals

Man, unlik.e animals, is not born with any predetermined EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

behavioural patterns. Instead, he has latent powers and potentialities to manifest typical human characteristics.

This task is achieved through adaptation to the environment. Assimilation, adaptation and abstraction are vital stages of human development. Conceding the fact that man-made environment has all the nutrients (physical and psychical) required for the formation of the individual, the supra-natural environment assumes a greater significance.

Unlike the animals and other living beings, the human being does not have a natural relationship with any environment. It is indeed cultivated during the period of early childhood. Interestingly, his adaptation is far more superior though not deliberate as compared to the adaptation of adults. The environment that he adapts to gets imprinted on his psyche. Gradually the developing mind of the young human being enables him to analyse

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montessori education

The cell multiplies till a few million cells are formed. Then they are grouped into 3 layers – endoderm, mesoderm and ectoderm. Eventually, each group focuses or specialises into forming particular type of physical organs. (I’m an educationist and not a biologist and so do not feel competent enough to describe this process in more detail. However, basically, this is the manner in which development in the prenatal stage takes place.) Following birth, a similar course is taken up by the human being to create a psychical personality with all the relevant psychical organs. Significantly, the 3 major steps are assimilation, analysis, and abstraction.

Absorbent mind

the environment. In the process of creation of his mind, he also succeeds in building up various mental faculties such as intelligence, memory, will, thinking capacity, reasoning power, imagination, etc. Though he possesses powers and potentialities from within to complete these tasks, he needs to be supported with the right kind of human environment. The environment not only needs to be conducive to development but also offer freedom for exploration.

Interestingly, the creation of mental capacities takes a course very much akin to the creation of the physical body of the human being, which begins from a single germinal cell. Considering the prenatal development, the fertilised germinal cell goes through various stages such as division, segregation/ localisation and specialisation.

The environments during both the prenatal and postnatal stages of development may differ in specifics but are very much similar in generic principles on the basis of which they are prepared. They serve as supportive factors by offering the necessary nutrients (and impressions). It is a fact that, at birth, even as the brain exists as a vital organ within the child, the mental structures, connections and synapses are not yet completed which would render the mind functional. However, the children already seem to have the ability to absorb the environment as a whole in a chaotic manner. Dr Montessori arrived at this revolutionary finding through her observations.

She noted that the children have a superiormost capacity to take in the environment with all its totality. For an example, consider the manner in which the children absorb language in its totality and as is found in the environment as opposed to the manner in which an adult learns a new language. This absorption capacity has neither focus nor selectivity.

As mentioned in the previous article, young children are sensorial explorers.

Whatever is available of the environment alive and consistent is absorbed by them and these impressions get stored in the yet-to-be-formed mind. Dr Montessori referred to this developing mind as the ‘absorbent mind.’ This capacity for absorption is just like a sponge soaking up any fluid and is significant of early childhood.

Absorbent mind is qualitatively different from that of the older child and the adult.

Dr Montessori also likened the process of absorption to

The emerging piece of art is a product of selectivity, subjectivity and lending itself to changes where and when required

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the biological process of osmosis where a fluid of lesser concentration passes through a semi-permeable membrane to assume a higher concentration. It is impacted by all the elements of the environment which surround him regardless of their being animate or inanimate. These elements include language, movement patterns, lifestyle, social norms, attitudes, and life in general as existing in the environment. Towards these elements, the children feel drawn owing to a special kind of energy, which serves as a connecting link.

Hormè and Mnemè

Two vital facets of the absorbent mind, aiding in its extraordinary activity of absorption, are the Hormè and Mnemè. The Hormè is a drive which pushes the child to fulfil his vital needs of development. Broadly, it may be compared to the willpower of an older child or adult. But, beyond this, it works totally in a manner contrary to the will. Unless there is an inner drive edging the children, nothing would happen by itself. No doubt, the children appear self-centred and egocentric and totally self-absorbed in actions and attitude.

This inner energy seems to propel them into absorbing the elements of the environment without making available the ability to discriminate the useful from the useless.

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young children are sensorial explorers. Whatever is available of the environment alive and consistent is absorbed by them and these impressions get stored in the yet-tobe-formed mind The Mneme is the ability of the absorbent mind to store information and experiences instantaneously and with perfect accuracy and detail. The impressions and experiences of the environment are stored as ‘engrams’ – a kind of memory capsules. These remain with the being for the rest of his life, forming a major part of the sub-conscious.

The absorbent mind of a child is comparable to the working of a conventional camera, which, when exposed to the elements in the environment, captures them with alacrity and later does not lend itself to any change whatsoever. In contrast, the mature mind of an older child or adult is analogous to the working of an artist with a paintbrush. The painting which reflects the artist and his style can be slowly and methodically created with many additions and deletions incorporated at his whim and fancy. The emerging piece of art is a product of selectivity, subjectivity and lending itself to changes where and when required.

The working of both Hormè and Mnemè are non-conscious and non-selective. This leads to the conclusion that both negative and positive elements of the environment impact the absorbent mind. Considering the above, the importance of providing a positive and consistent environment assumes a greater proportion.

Dr Montessori realised that the special form of mind, the absorbent mind, enabled the child to create the various human functions which characterise him as member of the human society. This process of creation also enables the child to translate the potentialities to create the human faculties. At the same time, if the absorbent mind had no focus to its activity, then we need to find explanation for the process of the creation of human functions in such an impeccable and enduring manner that these eventually reflect as unique traits of our individuality. This would be taken up in the next article.

Author’s Bio Lakshmi Krishnakumar, based in Andhra Pradesh, is an expert in Montessori teacher training

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science & scientists

Dr Partha Pratim Majumder

Indian Universities

Ignoring Genetics Studies “I always lament that less than a handful of universities in India have a Master’s programme in human genetics. Despite having adequate facilities, many of the science universities ignore the potential of human genetics studies,” says Dr Partha Pratim Majumder, renowned scientist and Director, National Institute for BioMedical Genomics

by Lakshmi narayanan

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ou started your career studying statistics at Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) and obtained your PhD in statistics, but later you got interested in biology.

What was the reason for this?

I got interested in genetics, more specifically human genetics. Much of statistics arose from early studies on human variation and inheritance. Further, genetics is one of the most statistical areas of biology, so I started some research in genetics. Over time, I realised that, to interpret genetic inferences more meaningfully, it is important to understand biology. Therefore, I got interested in biology.

What were the subjects you studied at ISI and how did you get interested in biology?

Even though I was reasonably good in mathematics in school, I was also fascinated with biology. The main courses that we were taught at ISI were mathematics, statistics and economics. However, the course structure at ISI was a mix of various other subjects, because the chief architects of the Bachelor of Statistics (Hons.) course of the ISI – J B S Haldane EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

FAct FilE: Name : Partha pratim Majumder Profession: Genetics Scientist Current Position: Director, NIBMG Favourite subjects : Statistics and Biology Specialisation : Genetic studies Qualification: PhD in statistics Place of birth : Vishaghapattanam Place of work : Kolkata Advice to young Scientists Science is useful, it is fun; be passionate about science.

and P C Mahalanobis – believed that, for novel applications of statistics, it is necessary to have knowledge of other sciences as well. Therefore, our B Stat (Hons.) course comprised exposures also to physics, chemistry, botany, zoology, geology, sociology, psychometry, etc. After joining the Indian Statistical Institute, my interest in biology was also revived by some wonderful biologists who taught us, especially T A Davis.

You completed courses in biochemistry, cell biology and molecular biology before you turned to do full-fledged research in population genetics. How was your turning?

As I said in answer to an earlier question, I realised that, to do meaningful research in human genetics and to draw meaning interpretations of genetic findings, it is important to know many other areas of biology, foremost among which are biochemistry, cell biology and molecular biology. Therefore, I took undergraduate and graduate courses on these topics while doing my post-doctorate. I enjoyed these courses, some of which were tough, and I did not fare well in some examinations. However, I was not

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enrolled as a degree student in these courses; therefore, my faring poorly in some examinations did not have an adverse impact on my career.

Have you faced any challenges in the initial stages while shifting yourself from statistical calculations to human genetics?

No challenges at all ! Human genetics is a very statistical enterprise. Mendel’s Laws are probabilistic. Statistics is at the core of human genetics. In fact, I would have faced huge challenges in doing human genetics if I did not know statistics.

Could you share your experience as a Genetics Consultant at the Department of Biostatistics and Human Genetics at University of Pittsburgh?

‘Genetics Consultant’ was only a designation. I did not have to do any consultations at all. I was expected to conduct research and teach in some graduate courses. I did both of these successfully and am very happy about that.

“Genomics research in India has shown a consistent upward trend. There was a time when we did not have access to modern instrumentation required for genomic research.

Such is not the case today”

Your career seems very interesting. After returning to India from University of Pittsburgh, you served as professor and later you headed the Department of Anthropology and Human Genetics Unit at ISI, Kolkata.

How did you enjoy this shift and what was your experience during this period?

It wasn’t a major shift at all. By the time I returned to India, I was deeply entrenched in research on human genetics and population genetics. Indian Statistical Institute had a long and deep tradition of population biological research, initiated by Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis and conducted by him jointly with the renowned anthropologist D N Majumdar and the world’s most renowned living statistician C Radhakrishna Rao. When I returned to ISI, I shifted my research gears a little, from genetics of human diseases to evolutionary genetics of human populations.

You had your higher studies in the United States and then you returned to India as a professor, so you have experienced the educational system of both countries. What is the difference? Which one would be the role model for global education? How? In India, I have taught mostly at ISI, before going to the USA and after returning from there. In the USA also, I taught several graduate courses. Teaching at ISI is so much more satisfying. The innate intelligence of students enrolled in ISI is so high that the average comprehension level of any batch of ISI students is much higher than comparable batches of students in most other universities or institutions. This is primarily because of the rigorous admission tests conducted by ISI. How do you evaluate the genetics studies in India and its recent developments?

Genomics research in India has shown a consistent upward trend. There was a time when we did not have access to modern instrumentation required for genomic research. Such is not the case today.

Even sitting in Kalyani, we can sequence an entire human genome in one week using exactly the same sequencing platforms that are in use in the USA or the UK. However, researchers in the USA or the UK can move faster because they have larger and more consistent funding than we

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science & scientists

Dr Majumder: Man who redefined genetics studies Dr Partha Pratim Majumder is Director of National Institute of Biomedical Genomics, Kalyani (near Kolkata), and Head of the Department of Human Genetics, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. He obtained his Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral degrees from Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, and completed his postdoctoral research at the Centre for Demographic and Population Genetics, University of Texas Medical Centre, Houston, the USA. Dr Majumder has worked as faculty in the Department of Biostatistics and Human Genetics of University of Pittsburgh. His major scientific research and contributions are in the fields of human population genetics and genetics of complex human disorders. He also served as Fellow of all three science academies in India. He is member of the board of directors of the International Genetic Epidemiology Society (IGES).

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have in India. They are also able to do bigger projects because of larger availability of funds. Everything has been looking up for us; our developments in human genetics have been quite satisfactory, but there is always room for doing much better.

Being the Director of NIBMG, what are your suggestions to improve genetics studies in India?

We need to do collaboratively bigger projects on genetics of human diseases that are of publichealth importance for us, and to set up infrastructure to acquire deep biological understanding of the genetic inferences.

Do you think that the Indian education sector is aware of the opportunities of genetics education? Where does India stand in this field globally?

I always lament that less than a handful of universities in India have a Master’s programme in human genetics. Such is not the global scenario, at least not the scenario of the developed countries.

Could you tell us about the current research being done at NIBMG? NIBMG’s research is currently organised in four arms dealing with genomics of (a) cancer (primarily oral, cervical and breast), (b)

complex disease (primarily chronic pancreatitis, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease], (c) infectious disease (primarily tuberculosis, sepsis and viral diseases), and (d) human statistical and population genomics.

How has the government supported NIBMG in carrying out its missions?

So far, excellent.

What are your views on genetically modified crops, which are necessary for future food security, and those who claim that these will lead to far-reaching health challenges?

I am a firm believer that the major key to food and health security is genetically modified crops. Negative aspects of genetically modified crops are overemphasised. Let us not forget that antibiotics have saved billions of lives and continue to save lives, even though antibiotic-resistant bugs have arisen primarily due to misuse of antibiotics. We are shouting to curb misuse, not ban antibiotics. Similarly, we should shout for adequate precautions to be exercised in cultivating genetically modified crops, not throw the baby with the bathwater.

What is your advice to young scientists?

Science is useful, science is fun; be passionate about science.

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

by Dr T P Sethumadhavan

After Plus-2, what?

We live in a world in which the monetary value of professionals does not always correlate with the magnitude of value they create for society. Since agriculture, industry and services sectors worldwide face a business environment, presenting unprecedented challenges, selection of courses should be aimed at reducing the threats and exploiting the opportunities. In 2014, compared to the previous years, the results of Plus-2 were announced early. Since the selection of courses after Plus-2 is related to choosing a career path, it will be probably the most challenging decision in a student’s life

How to succeed?

The common problems encountered while selecting the courses are the parents dictating every move, financial burden, social and peer pressure, information gaps, myths, biases and prejudices, hierarchical systems, pecking order, and fear of failure. Insecurity, superiority and impulsive trial affect the decision-making process.

Choice of the course should be based on interest, attitude, aptitude, goals, commitment and skills.

While selecting new courses, identify the favourite subjects based on strength and analyse whether these subjects can generate a job or not. Try to research the sector based on history, higher education, research and career opportunities. The students and parents frequently ask bout career trends, new-generation courses for higher studies, professional or nonprofessional courses, prospects of science, commerce, engineering and social sciences, fees structure, options for scholarships and study-abroad programmes.

While selecting the courses, policy decisions and development, which are affecting these sectors, need to be identified. The students can try to visualise the changes that are going to take place after completing the course. Recently, undergraduate programmes are emerging as the stepping-stone for higher education and career. The students can prepare for competitive examinations, civil services, study-abroad programmes, banking proficiency tests or management aptitude tests during their study period.

Trends in the services sector, need for skill and specialisation, entrepreneurship, sustainability and trade-related issues, foreign direct investment, foreign institutional investment, growth in small-scale and medium-scale industries, national IT and electronics policy, national policy on agriculture, national mission on dairying, Food Security Bill, Food Safety and Standards Act 2006, national health policy, and technology-enabled learning are the changing trends in these sector.

After the Plus-2 results, the students and parents are busy deciding to apply for higher education. Even

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

though some of the students were decided on their higher education programmes earlier, many are still apprehensive about the selection of courses after Plus-2.

There are a number of novel areas like developmental science, intellectual property rights, e-commerce, analytics, new media and research, cloud computing, customised management programmes, financial analyst programme, actuarial science, food processing, fashion technology, art and design, media engineering, electronics and instrumentation, Web journalism, and retail.

Making a decision

While searching for courses, the students are required to take appropriate decisions. They include education within the country, education abroad, professional courses, non-professional courses, new-generation courses, social sciences, business studies, media studies, language, science, paramedical courses, diploma programmes, certificate courses, graduate studies, research, skill development programmes, and degree programmes.

If the students are interested in skill development programmes and not interested in undergraduate programmes, they can opt for 3-year diploma programmes within the country or in Singapore. SAT and TOEFL are required for education in Singapore.

Even though the basic objective of education is to improve knowledge, skill and change the attitude of the students, the ultimate goal is to get better employment.

Lack of required skills is a major issue affecting the employability of students. Shortage of skills is closely linked to levels of education.

As economies become sophisticated and technologically complex, work demands a much higher and wider range of skills. The average gap between employment rates of skilled and low-skilled people is over 35%. In European Union, it is 37%.

Kerala is seriously thinking of establishing a National Skills University to give thrust to skill development, which, in turn, will improve employability.

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initiative

Dr Devi Shetty

Skilling healthcare

workers

As India is facing a healthcare epidemic of a different kind, of unskilled workers, Wadhwani Foundation, Bangalore, is ready to address the crisis

T

by ei bureau

ou’ve been taken to the hospital with a neck injury after being involved in an auto accident. The hospital is overwhelmed and you haven’t been able to see a doctor or a nurse for several hours. The only person attending to you is a nursing assistant. She’s pleasant, takes your blood pressure (incorrectly), and asks some of her colleagues to help her move you to a new bed. Unbeknown to you, she has not received the proper training for moving patients and her technique actually makes your injury worse. Now, multiply this experience several-fold. India is facing a healthcare epidemic of a different kind: unskilled workers.

This is India’s – and most other industrialised nations’ – reality in nearly every sector; the nation is

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facing a critical shortage of skilled labour. A recent study predicted a shortfall of 350 million skilled workers by 2022 in 20 high-growth sectors , ranging from infrastructure to textiles and clothing, from automotives to healthcare.

Yet, this staggering figure does not include the additional need for skills upgrading to raise productivity, gender equality, and social cohesion. It has been nearly 5 years since India’s National Skill Development Policy was unveiled in an effort to mitigate the skilled labour crisis, targeting the creation of 500 million skilled workers by 2022. To call it an ambitious plan would be an understatement, once the previous figures are married with the fact that India has 10 million post-secondary school dropouts a year.

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

Wadhwani Foundation

Enter Wadhwani Foundation (WF). With over 10 years of experience accelerating economic growth in India, WF entered the skills development arena with a bang. In its inaugural collaboration with the Bangalore-based leader Narayana Health and Healthcare Consortium (NH), WF’s Skills Development Network is turning vocational training, or applied learning, on its head.

With the challenge of providing training to new nurses, as well as refresher material for existing nurses and healthcare support staff (like nursing assistants) across 20 multi-speciality hospitals of Narayana Health, WF leveraged technology to repurpose existing training content into a groundbreaking online, offline education model (alternatively referred to as blended learning.)

NH provided domain knowledge and expertise, while Wadhwani Foundation’s instructional design team and developers created an industrydriven curriculum module by module, resulting in over 160 hours of content. Sixty- minute lesson segments revolve around job-specific and functional healthcare industry knowledge via a ‘how to’ approach, including video-based instruction, activities, games and simulations, and peerlearning.

Diverse areas

This is India’s – and most other industrialised nations’ – reality in nearly every sector; the nation is facing a critical shortage of skilled labour

The WF model has trained over 1,500 nurses in a variety of areas. For example, the competency-based modules developed for

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

General Duty Assistants and Nursing Assistants include medical procedures (infection control, movement, clinical care, patient hygiene, lab processes, nutrition, etc.), occupational health, environment, and safety, functional English, life skills (interpersonal skills, workplace skills, health communication skills), basic IT (computer basics, productivity tools, health systems), and medical mathematics.

All of Wadhwani Foundation’s courses are accessible online and open source, meaning that they can (and are) being rolled out to new healthcare markets, as well as universities, colleges, and individuals seeking self-learning opportunities. Designed to ease the burden facing training institutes and instructors, WF’s courses are self-paced and studentcentric. They are intended to precede class time and hands-on training – a flipped classroom approach, allowing teachers to operate as facilitators or coaches in the classroom and eliminating the need for additional in-house trainers.

Successful collaboration

Dr Devi Shetty, Padma Bhushan winner and founder of Narayana Health, says: “Our strategic collaboration with Wadhwani Foundation is a step in the right direction. India’s healthcare sector is facing an acute shortage of support staff, and I am glad that the skill development initiative of Wadhwani Foundation has already skilled over 1,500 competent staff. This happened despite fullshift schedules, because these learner-centric e-modules do not drain experienced teaching nurses’ time but instead allow the trainees flexibility in taking courses inside and outside the classroom. Since we seek to expand from 5,000 beds to 30,000 beds in 3 years, rather than running disparate and traditional teacher-driven training courses, this approach of creating and deploying repeatable, modular self-driven and peer-driven lessons can help us realise this goal without diluting the skills of our people or quality of our care.”

Hospital administrators are reporting positive results, citing relief that precious people resources do not have to be diverted from patient care to training; they can accomplish their objectives simultaneously. Based on the success of the collaboration with Narayana Health, Wadhwani Foundation aims to scale its e-learning initiative to reach 3 million students by 2020 in association with new skills colleges, also known as community colleges, across India.

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event

Emerging Kerala Education Insider

Education Conclave held Emerging Kerala-Education Insider Education Conclave Kerala 2014, a first-of-itskind mega event aimed at honouring the edupreneurs of Kerala and bringing them in touch with prominent educationists and thought leaders, was held at Dream Hotel, Kochi, on April 26, 2014 by ei bureau

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rganised by Education Insider, Asia’s leading magazine on education, in association with Emerging Kerala, a magazine on Kerala’s business, economy, and society, Education Conclave Kerala 2014 was inaugurated at a glittering ceremony. The one-day conclave included an award function.

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who inaugurated the conclave, stressed the need for timely changes in curriculum, in selecting courses and in shaping them in line with the needs of industry. “Kerala should become an international educational hub where even NRIs’ children can come for higher education,” he said.

Oommen Chandy continued: “Though we

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often claim that ours is the best public education system, the case is entirely different in higher, technical education sector here. There we have no room for large-scale claims. Even comparing to those states that we put aside in the case of public education, we are far behind them in the higher education sector. Our efforts should be channeled in line with excellence. I expect this conclave to turn as an effective platform to discuss the challenges that Kerala’s higher education sector faces today.”

Governor of Kerala Sheila Dikshit congratulated Education Insider and Emerging Kerala for conducting the conclave. She said: “At the outset, I would like to congratulate Emerging Kerala and Education Insider, the joint organisers of the event, for their insight, their initiative, EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

and the encouragement they give to the people to excel in the field of education.”

The Governor pointed that it is imperative to involve real professionals, innovative individuals and institutions to evolve modern schemes of action for the future of our country and the future of the next generation.

Earlier, Ravi Deecee, CEO of DC Books, in his welcome speech, explained the intention of this conclave, which is to build a society of edupreneurs and social entrepreneurship to mould a freethinking society and make people employable.

“We want to make Kerala,” Ravi Deecee said, “an education destination rather a centre of excellence, with research and knowledge generation, and also promote learning sciences, liberal arts, technology, medicine, management and skill development in all areas. I am sure that, if given the trust and conducive atmosphere, Kerala can produce some of the finest academic institutions in the world.

Together, we can make it happen.”

Five sessions

The conclave featured five different sessions based on unique themes concerning the present educational scenario. The inaugural session was

on ‘Higher education – What India needs’ and ‘The competitiveness of Kerala Model.’ Speakers at this session included Dr P C Thomas, founder of Good Shepherd International School, Ootty; Aruna Sundararajan, IAS, managing director of KSIDC; Prof. R Natarajan, former chairman of AICTE and former Director of IIT-Madras; and George Paul, of Kerala Christian Medical College Managements’ Federation.

The second session, based on the theme ‘Does Kerala need private universities and autonomous institutions?’ saw Santhosh Kurup, CEO, ICT Academy of Kerala; Prof. P O J Lebba, consultant to AICTE; and Prof. P J Joseph, founder-president, TIST; speaking on this topic. Prof.

Sreekumar, Fellow of IIM-Ahmedabad and Dean of DCSMAT, chaired the session.

The third session, ‘How research and innovation is important in higher education and how Kerala can develop as a role model’ discussed ‘The Way Ahead – Higher Education.

This session was chaired by Dr B Ashok, IAS, Vice-Chancellor of KVASU. The speakers included Prof. Kuncheria P Isaac, MemberSecretary, All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE); Prof. R Natarajan, former chairman, AICTE and Former director of IIT-Madras; Prof. Eluvathingal D Jemmis, Indian

Institute of Science, Bangalore; Dr S Ramachandran , Vice-Chancellor of Hindustan University; P V Mathew, founder-chairman of FISAT; Prof.

Francis Cherunilam, former director of School of Management Studies, CUSAT; and Dr Benny Antony, Director, Technical, Arjuna Natural Extracts Limited.

The third session was followed by a motivational workshop on how educational entrepreneurs of Kerala could be more competitive by Dr P P Vijayan, mind power trainer, Author and success coach.

In the award ceremony, Prof.

Sreekumar introduced the awards to the audience. Governor Sheila Dikshit distributed the education awards.

The valedictory session – ‘Higher Education: Vision Kerala 2025 –’ witnessed fruitful discussions.

The speakers at this session were P J Joseph, Minister for Water Resources, Government of Kerala, (former Minister for Education); Prof Eluvathingal D Jemmis, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; Prof. R Natarajan, former chairman of AICTE; Thomas Mar Athanasius, Bishop of Malanakara Orthodox Syrian Church, Chengannur; and Advocate T A Vijayan, secretary of KSFECMA. Kainakari Shibu, Head of Response, DC Media, proposed a vote of thanks. The day-long event came to an end after a networking dinner.

AWARD WINNERS Excellence Award for Contributions to Kerala Education Maharaja’s College, Ernakulam, Govt. Victoria College, Palakkad, Govt. Brennen College, Thalassery, CMS College Kottayam, College of Engineering, Trivandrum, University College Trivandrum, Govt. College for Women, Thiruvananthapuram, St. Thomas College, Thrissur, SB College, Changanassery, S.D. College, Alappuzha, NSS Hindu College, Changanacherry, CMS Educational and Charitable Trust, Coimbatore

Awards for Outstanding & Innovative Edupreneurship TK Shahal Hassan Musaliar, Chairman, TKM Group of Educational Institutions Dr.G.P.C.Nayar, Chairman, SCMS Group EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

M. Abdul Azeez, Chairman, Azeezia Medical College Dr P C Thomas, Founder and Principal, Good Shepherd International School (GSIS) Dr.A.P.Majeed Khan, Chancellor,NICHE Dr. Thomas P.John, Chairman, T. John Group of Institutions Dr. K. C. Samuel, Chairman, Hindustan Academy

Special Honor for Outstanding Contributions to Kerala Higher Education Fr.Jose Alex CMI, Founder Director, RSET P V Mathew, Founder Chairman, FISAT Dr. A.Younus Kunju, Founder Chairman, Fathima Memorial Educational Trust Prof. P. J. Joseph, President & Dr. K. Varghese, Founder - Director and

Manager, TIST Msgr. Philip Njaralakkatt, Chairman, Diocesan Technical Education Trust, Palai.

Prof. P.O.J. Lebba, Muslim Educational Society Rev. Dr. Abraham Mulamoottil, Founder, MACFAST Dr B. S. Krishnan, Managing Trustee, ASIET Adv. T.A. Vijayan, Founder President, SNGCE P.J.Joseph, Minister for Education, Govt of Kerala -1996 to 2001

Special Awards GVHSS for Girls, Nadakkavu, Calicut, Excellence Award for Changing Traditions in Education Arjuna Natural Extracts Limited, Excellence Award for Best Corporate, promoting R&D and Industry University Interaction

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P V Mathew, Founder Chairman, FISAT, receiving the award

Dr. Benny Antony, Director Technical, Arjuna Natural Extracts Limited

01 4

Em Ed e Ed uc rgin Co uc atio g nc at n Ker la ion Ins ala id ve er 2

Ravi Deecee, CEO, DC Books

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy

George Paul, Kerala Christian Medical College Managements’ Federation

Fr. Pradeep Vazhatharamalayil, Principal, MACFAST receiving award

Kerala Governor Sheila Dikshit

Dr. B Ashok, IAS, VC, KVASU

Prof. P. J. Joseph, Founder President, TIST receiving the award

Prof. Sreekumar, fellow of IIM –A, Dean of DCSMAT

Prof. P.O.J. Lebba, General Secretary, Muslim Educational Society, receiving the award

Santhosh Kurup, CEO, ICT Academy of Kerala

Aruna Sundararajan IAS, Managing Director, KSIDC

P.J. Joseph, Minister for Water Resources, Govt of Kerala receiving the award

Dr. P C Thomas, Founder, Good Shepherd International School, receiving the award

Professor R.Natarajan, Former Chairman, AICTE

Khalid Husain Musaliar from TKM Group of Educational Institutions receiving the award

Prof Eluvathingal D Jemmis, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

Dr.G.P.C.Nayar, Chairman, SCMS Group, receiving the award

Adv. T.A. Vijayan, Founder President, SNGCE, receiving the award

Dr. S Ramachandran , VC , Hindustan University

books

Do you have Bloody Good Book?

Rashmi Bansal, author and entrepreneur, always comes up with unique concepts on entrepreneurship – this time, with Bloody Good Book. Do you have it?

by Lakshmi narayanan

FAct FilE: Name: Rashmi Bansal Profession: Entrepreneur, Writer Alma Mater: IIM Ahmedabad Editor: JAM Magazine bestselling books : Stay hungry stay foolish, Connect the dots, I have a dream, Poor little rich slum

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After the success of her recent book, Take Me Home, Rashmi Bansal, writer, entreprenuer and youth expert, comes up with another unique initiative in entrepreneurship. Her new venture, titled Bloody Good Book, will provide an opportunity for budding authors. Let’s see, how Bloody Good Book works among the authors and

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EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

Bloody Good Book aims at discovering and supporting authors and publishing pathbreaking books. The way in which Bloody Good Book intends to fulfill these goals is through the creation of a crowd-sourcing and crowd-curating online platform that connects aspiring authors to readers across the country Rashmi Bansal the reading community?

Bloody Good Book aims at discovering and supporting authors and publishing path-breaking books.

The way in which Bloody Good Book intends to fulfill these goals is through the creation of a crowdsourcing and crowd-curating online platform that connects aspiring authors to readers across the country.

Rashmi Bansal tells Education Insider: “I believe that the worst thing to happen to an author is to have no readers for his/her books. Moreover, traditional publishing companies often overlook incredible writers because they believe they know best what is considered good writing. At Bloody Good Book, we rectify this by connecting authors with readers on our online, democratic and innovative platform. Here, authors are free to submit manuscripts, and the first three chapters of their work are made available for readers. The readers rate, review and give feedback to the authors about what they’ve read, and each month, the Top 10 best-rated and reviewed books will be considered for ebook publication by us.”

Bloody Good Book is Rashmi Bansal’s way of giving back, and helping aspiring authors. She says: “I receive several manuscripts every day by aspiring authors, and it reminds me

how lucky I’m to be a published and successful author. That’s why I decided to start a venture that is designed to discover, select and promote new writing talents.”

Bloody Good Book has a very wide reader community, which provides a unique chance to play an integral part in the publishing process. The readers’ views and opinions will decide each month which the Top 10 books that deserve a chance to be published are. The readers will no longer just be consumers of books; instead, they will have a strong voice and a platform to communicate what they would like to read, and what makes a good book.

According to Rashmi Bansal, “for an author, nothing can be more disheartening than not having any readers for his/her book. That’s why, at Bloody Good Book, we give all authors a freely available space to share their work with the reading community and get the chance to be published. And, even if their work is not selected for publication, the authors will get honest and valuable feedback from their readers, which they can use to improve their work.”

“Often, aspiring authors approach me for help because they don’t know how to navigate the confusing and opaque traditional publishing world. Most publishing companies are inundated by manuscripts and

Westland will publish the book in print while Bloody Good Book will publish it as an ebook

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

don’t have the time or the resources to read them all. At Bloody Good Book, we give all authors an equal opportunity to get published in a more transparent fashion.”

Criteria of selection

Through Bloody Good Book, Rashmi Bansal tries to give all authors who submit their manuscripts a chance to be a part of this venture. However, Bloody Good Book will publish only those books that are path-breaking, original and fresh. Basically, books that make you exclaim, “That’s a bloody good book!”

Publication tie-ups

Bloody Good Book has partnered with Westland Limited, a major Indian publisher for a co-publishing venture.

Each month, Westland will read and review the Top 10 books along with Bloody Good Book with the aim of finding a book to publish jointly.

Westland will publish the book in print while Bloody Good Book will publish it as an ebook. Bloody Good Book joined hands with Westland because of the shared commitment to discovering interesting, new, and fresh writing talents, and because of its aim to provide all its authors with the opportunity to be published in print and as an ebook.

Rashmi Bansal is all set to establish her new venture. “We are focused on launching and growing Bloody Good Book at the moment.

In the future, we plan to extend this platform to aspiring authors in schools because we want to discover and support new writing talents right from the beginning.

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the ei interview Prof B P Sanjay Bharthur

media education:

nEXT step ?

Prof B P Sanjay Bharthur, a media expert and founding Vice Chancellor of the Central University of Tamil Nadu, has been associated with various national and international bodies that chalked out policies on media education and research.

In an interview with Education Insider, he says that the media education institutional frameworks will slow down in terms of further expansion in the future

by LIJO V JOSEPH

H

ow important is media education today? Can you make a special note on media education in the Indian context?

Media education in the sense you are framing the question perhaps refers to the broader educational and instructional framework for journalism, mass communication, communication and media and combinations thereof. The other connotation of media education is, of course, at the societal level where we talk about education and critical inputs in understanding media and its content at all levels – for example, efforts to impart media education at the high school level.

The former, that is, the educational dimension, has many dimensions and institutional options including the mushrooming of institutions under what we call media-backed journalism and mass communication (J&MC) schools.

These institutions have mushroomed since the mid-1990s and increasingly cater to aspirants for a career in media, though skewed in favour of the glamour and byline orientation. They bring to the instruction both advantages and disadvantages; advantages in terms of their larger media institutional framework and the network including

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access to practical training separately or embedded in their daily operations, and disadvantages regarding lack of a broader macro and inclusive student interaction and liberal arts framework that let us say the university system can bring. University systems increasingly face resource constraints regarding balancing the blend of inputs, including high level of professional inputs with regard to the nuts and bolts of the craft.

Few institutions that have made the mark have as a policy-incorporated, flexible framework to optimise this balance.

What do you think should be the core of media education in India today?

Providing human resources to the growing media platforms and resources that are not merely craft-oriented but also with a critical perspective that enables them to understand and relay the context behind the events and issues that they report or write; also inculcating ethics that allows the public who place enormous trust in them to get the correct perspective. This is needed to sift through the maze of institutional pressures that confront them directly or at times indirectly in their profession.

The ethical stances of media today have caused several debates. How important is it to give priority to media ethics?

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

Ethics that range from simple issues of ensuring that different views are incorporated to sensitive issues pertaining to coverage of victims of various societal atrocities such as caste, gender and communal. Corporate and business reporting requires special care and balance and ability to go beyond the corporate kits. Print media has, for example, in the past, attempted code of conduct.

The Press Council of India, though frequently dubbed as toothless, has well-meaning guidelines regarding, for example, reporting on communal conflicts.

Education: Prof B P Sanjay Bharthur had his basic academic training in Communication and Journalism, in Bangalore, and obtained Ph.D from Simon Fraser University, Canada.

Career: He taught at Madras University and MS University, Tirunelveli, before he moved to University of Hyderabad as professor in 1995. In March 2009, Prof. Bharthur was appointed ViceChancellor of Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur.

Areas of expertise: Political economy of information and communication technologies, development communication, and international communication.

Current profile: Academic work at University of Hyderabad

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

You have been associated with various national and international bodies that chalked out policies on media education and research. How far has India grown in media education and research?

On media education, there have been well-intentioned efforts to incorporate many inputs that enrich the students’ capacity. Our challenges are striking a balance between the limitations of many of our students coming from diverse backgrounds and having several limitations in communication regarding language and the ability to interact. Media requires skills in both to be able to communicate.

The medium of instruction is another grey area. The spread and significant reach of Indian language media perhaps requires a relook at how we factor and balance their needs.

On research, while the track record of a few is comparable to the research practices elsewhere, in many cases, the rigour that is required to analyse is missing.

The dilemmas of communication and media research drawing from a variety of social sciences and humanities compound the framework and also the orientation that is required to do quality research. This is where academic research, particularly leading to research degrees, requires considerable improvements and for university departments and other academic institutions to reflect on this to offer meaningful

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insights. Media research is also mainly pursued by industry and trade bodies. The issues pertaining to TRPs, for example, apart from other aspects, raised several concerns about basics in sampling, ethics, etc. Many of us, owing to resource constraints, depend on industry statistics notwithstanding any errors or agenda. Researchers are also many a time guided by the critical questions they intend to raise or pursue. Therefore, you have a situation where the same set of data is interpreted by researchers and leads to different observations and findings. We need to strengthen ways and mechanisms to address this.

What could be the possible future of media education and research in India?

The media education institutional frameworks will slow down in terms of further expansion. The business and revenue models of private media institutions may have to be revisited in view of the changes in media industry and reduction of human resources. Public institutions will expand their training that will incorporate and provide training to the needs of the social sector and community media. Public institutions can sustain their programmes with realistic fees and matching remuneration offered by the employers across the sectors.

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“Our challenges are striking a balance between the limitations of many of our students coming from diverse backgrounds and having several limitations in communication regarding language and the ability to interact�

As the founding Vice-Chancellor of Tamil Nadu Central University, how far could you lead it in the path of excellence?

We are not yet ready towards such adjectives. The path was tortuous and also challenging.

A greenfield attempt that today has a well-developed campus and infrastructure for both students and faculty. We have many more steps in our path that includes boost to faculty recruitment, and matching and providing resources to faculty commensurate with their professional and research expectations. The attempts during the five-year tenure are there for everyone to see. We could always be better, but the conditions of the Tier Three towns, vendor dynamics and connectivity issues continue to challenge the university.

What are your suggestions to bring the Indian universities to top positions in world rankings?

This is an aspirational exercise and requires substantial systemic changes in attitudes and practices.

The profile of the students and faculty needs to be more representative that makes it a world institution. Yet there is also a concern whether our institutional ambience is adequately supportive for the same faculty or the student does extremely well in other institutions. We need to go through several layers of introspection.

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

IIM-Indore Premier Institutes

Most of

IIM-Indore

alumni opting for

India

Though most of the Indian students cherish the dream of getting a job abroad as soon as they complete studies or even while studying, reportedly, yet interestingly, 90% of the alumni of Indian Institute of Management-Indore (IIM-Indore) are living in India right now. Even though India is seldom seen as a preferred job destination to date, this statistics sheds light on the changing trend that India becomes a good place for top careers. Essentially, it becomes the major contribution of one of the premier institutes of India, IIM-Indore

E

by LIJO V JOSEPH

stablished in 1996, Indian Institute of Management-Indore is the sixth in the family of statesupported management schools.

Since its inception, IIM-Indore has been acting as a pioneer in the field of management education, interfacing with industry, the government sector and PSUs. Prof Rishikesha T Krishnan, Director of Indian Institute of Management-Indore, says: “IIM-Indore has been a trailblazer in many respects. Among IIMs, we have the largest EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

number of students in PGP programme. We are the only IIM to offer a five-year Integrated Programme in Management (IPM). We are the only IIM to offer regular PGP from other locations, including one international location.

We have focused on participant-centred learning and have nominated over 20 faculty to attend the Participant-Centred Global Colloquium at Harvard Business School.

We have some of the best sports facilities available in IIMs and have been pro-active in upgrading and expanding the campus infrastructure.�

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Premier Institutes IIM-Indore

Coping with change

Situated atop a scenic hillock, the 193-acre campus provides an ideal backdrop for contemplative learning.

IIM-Indore believes that the essence of management lies in managing one’s own ambitions and responding to emerging opportunities. A strong theoretical foundation is the basis of good corporate practice. Experiential learning, IT orientation and social sensitivity are some of the unique features of IIM-Indore’s academic programmes.

IIM-Indore offers interdisciplinary learning and research in its academic programmes by providing exposure to a format which integrates data, information, tools and techniques, perspectives and concepts, from various basic disciplines aimed at advancing fundamental understanding to solve real-life problems.

According to Prof Rishikesha, “one of the important trends in management education is to incorporate technology into the learning process to make it more participant-friendly. We are launching a new initiative to bring in emerging pedagogies like simulation and games to make our programme more contemporary and fun.”

IIM-Indore is one of the fastestgrowing institutions in India today, claims its website. For IIM-Indore, the last few years of its growth have proved to be the most rewarding years in terms of international

“There is no shortcut to quality and rankings. We have to build our own distinctive research capabilities and adopt a process of continuous improvement in all that we do” expansion, introduction of new programmes, infrastructure, strengthening of manpower, etc.

Major concerns

Recently, there were reports which said that IIM directors were demanding that the government should ease mechanisms for private players to enter the education segment. Reportedly, one of the IIM directors said: “Many companies have the money, willingness and wherewithal to be a serious player in the education segment. Why not use that? There are no gains by setting more IIMs.” Prof Rishikesha, has his view on this: “Setting up IIMs and allowing private players to enter higher education are two different matters, and I don’t see any

contradiction between the two.”

What about some of the new IIMs demanding more autonomy to make their own decisions? Prof Rishikesha replies: “The Government has already given considerable autonomy to IIMs through the revised Memorandum of Association (MoA) signed a few years ago. Even earlier, all academic decisions rested with the individual institute. At this point of time, I don’t see any major issue regarding autonomy.”

Modi’s proposal

Recently, BJP leader Narendra Modi had suggested a way to ensure quality education in the country by setting up an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), an Indian Institute of Management (IIM) and an All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in every state, if the party comes to power at the Centre. The proposal had raised mixed response among the educational experts in the country.

As the director of an IIM, Prof Rishikesha holds the view that “there is a need to enhance the scale and scope of quality higher education in India. To achieve this, starting new institutions, including IITs and IIMs, will be needed. However, the only caution that needs to be taken is to ensure that setting up new institutions does not outpace the availability of high-quality faculty.”

Research

What could be the ways to improve

FAct FilE: Established in: 1996 Main courses: PG diploma programme, FPM programme Course fee: PGP fee is Rs. 6.5 lakhs per annum Faculty-student ratio: 1:10 Top recruiters: Deutsche bank, Cognizant Business

Consulting, Accenture, Goldman Sachs, P&G, ITC, Yes Bank, ICICI Bank, PwC, and L&T

Famous alumni:

Abhinav Goel , Country Head – Emerging Corporates , Fitch Ratings Gaurav Parashar, Marketing Manager –India & South Asia, Kellogg India Vivek Pathak, Head Business Strategy & Operations, eBay India Sumeli Chatterjee , Head Marketing ,Media & Insights, MTV India

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EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

Where are IIM Indore Alumni?

Where do they live?

4500 + alumni of which 500 live abroad 1.5%

90%

India IIM Indore

3%

UAE USA

380

89

313

1%

47

Sales

Consulting

Operations

45 Finance

219

97 Entrepreneurs

Marketing

Education

60

333

389

Where do they work?

UK

41 40 Top Five companies where they have worked

Data Source: Linkedin.Com And Toptalent.In

Alumni & their jobs Quite interestingly, 90% of IIM-Indore alumni are living in India itself. The remaining 10% of the alumni are in the United States, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates. In the USA (3%), most of the graduates are located in New York. The United Kingdom has 1% of the total alumni, while the UAE has 1.5%.

Statistics show that most of the graduates from IIM-Indore have entered the fields of sales and consulting. The sales field leads right now, with 389 graduates, while consulting has 380. However, this does not mean that the students interested in other fields such as marketing, finance, and entrepreneurship must disregard IIM-Indore totally. A fair number of graduates are in these fields as well.

Operations is a popular field among the graduates from this institution as well. In all, 333 graduates are working in operations. In finance, there are 313 graduates, and, in marketing, there are 219. Also, 97 graduates from IIM-Indore have become entrepreneurs. Another 60 graduates have entered the field of education, with 5 of them working in IIM-Indore itself.

The above figures are not verified by IIM-Indore

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

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Premier Institutes IIM-Indore

Entry of forEign vArsitiEs

The entry of foreign universities to India will be a good thing for the country in the long run. If really good institutions enter India, they will raise the bar for all of us.

Hopefully, that is what we will see.

Good fAculty

Attracting good faculty is critical to the success of any institution. IIM-Indore has been fortunate to be able to attract a number of promising younger scholars from leading institutions. We will continue to pursue aggressively recruiting the best faculty.

WhAt’s to bE donE

Increasing the quality of each new IIM is very much up to the faculty and staff of that IIM. As I mentioned earlier, we have enough autonomy to pursue any initiative, which is in the cause of better management education. Some of the initiatives mentioned earlier like more and better research by the faculty and modifying the curriculum to include new pedagogies are some of the important steps we need to take.

the quality of the institutions and universities in India to turn themselves into topmost positions in the world rankings?

Prof Rishikesha says: “There is no shortcut to quality and rankings.

We have to build our own distinctive research capabilities and adopt a process of continuous improvement in all that we do.”

What are the initiatives of IIMIndore in this regard?

“There are several new initiatives we have taken to encourage research at IIM-Indore. We are scaling up our faculty so that faculty’s teaching loads allow more time for research. IIM-Indore’s board of governors has been very generous in supporting new initiatives like seed money research project, support to faculty to attend international workshops, picking up new research skills, supporting faculty to visit foreign institutions for research collaboration, and setting up three young faculty research chairs.

Research and publication are being emphasised in the faculty confirmation and promotion process.

Most of our recently recruited faculty understand the importance of research and are keen to use these new schemes to build us a strong research portfolio.”

Industry collaboration Industry collaboration seems to be

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closely related to the efficacy of an institution of the stature of IIMIndore. Knowing this, IIM-Indore has always been providing real-time exposure to industry dynamics and hence values its industry interaction.

Industry interaction programs are often held. Besides, a number of technical workshops, business workshops by corporate and guest lectures by industry veterans keep the students updated with the realities of the business world.

“Industry collaboration,” says Prof Rishikesha, “is important for

“IIM-Indore is the only IIM that offers a five-year Integrated Programme in Management (IPM).

The IPM allows us to catch young, smart students early and shape them”

all business schools, and IIM-Indore is not an exception. Fortunately, we have several mechanisms to be in touch with industry.”

The efforts of IIM-Indore in this line are twofold. “The first is compulsory industry visits by our students to industrial units.

Secondly, a large number of adjunct faculty from industry comes to teach in the second year of the PGP programme. The PGP has been designed with a number of workshop courses offered in the second year and these workshops courses are often taught by adjunct faculty.

Of course, executive education is another method of collaborating with industry.”

Future leaders’ nursery

IIM-Indore, as one of the premier institutes of management in India, is meant to be the. nursery of India’s future leaders. Its efforts seem to be in the right track, according to the claims of Prof Rishikesha.

He says: “IIM-Indore is the only IIM that offers a five-year Integrated Programme in Management (IPM).

The IPM allows us to catch young, smart students early and shape them.

We are confident that many of our IPM graduates will be leaders with a difference. Still, our main challenge is to execute the ideas that we have and translate them into positive impact.”

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

science & innovation

‘

India”s ’

scientists

in the making Education Insider tells you about five student innovators who won the IGNITE-2013, a national competition to harness the creative and innovative spirit of school children

by Lakshmi narayanan

science & innovation

s

in Sustainable Technologies and Institutions (SRISTI), various state education boards and other partners.

National Innovation Foundation

F

ormer President of India and eminent scientist Dr A P J Abdul Kalam dreamt, the young India is all set to prove its strength in the world of science. IGNITE 2013, the national science talent hunt by National Innovation Foundation, proved that India has the capacity to produce worldclass scientists.

The 7th edition of IGNITE was grand with thousands of entries from all over India, 635 patents and about 70 outstanding inventions. IGNITE 2013 succeeded considerably in its mission to convert India into a land of science and scientists. The best of these innovations were honoured with IGNITE 2013 awards, which were given away by Dr Abdul Kalam at a function held at IIM-Ahmadabad.

NIF has been actively engaged in promoting creativity and innovation in society. IGNITE, which is a national competition of school students’ technological ideas and innovations, is an effort to focus primarily on the creativity of the children and to promote original, inclusive and compassionate thinking in them. The IGNITE competitions were organised

by NIF in association with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Society for Research and Initiatives

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National Innovation Foundation is working on the mission to help India become an inventive and creative society and a global leader in sustainable technologies without social and economic handicaps affecting evolution and diffusion of green, grassroots innovations. It is governed by an expert panel of scientists and other experts, including Dr Anil K Gupta, professor at IIM-Ahmadabad, and Dr R A Mashelkar, reputed scientist. NIF promotes wider social awareness and possible applications of the knowhow generated as a result of these initiatives in commercial or social spheres and encourages their incorporation in educational curriculum, developmental policies and programmes.

Every year, the IGNITE awards are announced on October 15, which is Dr Abdul Kalam’s birthday and celebrated as Children’s Creativity and Innovation Day. In the last six years, 120 awards have been given to 174 children.

Ideas of another 11 schoolchildren have received special mention. The total number of submissions from schoolchildren received during the various IGNITE campaigns are about 44,200. NIF provides possible incubation support in all applicable cases.

IGNITE 2013

IGNITE 2013 was a great attempt at discovering young talents. The event succeeded in a big way in this regard.

Dr Abdul Kalam told the gathering: “Creativity is the base of an innovative society. In a knowledgeable society, we have inventions frequently, and the parents and teachers have a major role in moulding a science-oriented society.”

Five brilliant innovations

Education Insider introduces five brilliant innovations out of the awardwinning ones, along with their patents:

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

Low-cost Braille printer Innovators Santokh ’ name: S Innovation ingh, Khushwan t Rai Low-cost title: Braille pri nter District: Jalandhar State: Punjab Patent: 33 31/DEL/2 013

T

he idea of a low-cost Braille printer by two friends, Santokh Singh and Khushwant Rai of 12th standard, is a unique one and it got a wide range of appreciation from the NIF judging panel. It is a kind of dotmatrix printer modified at a low cost to work as a Braille printer.

Why this invention

Once, Santokh Singh and Khushwant Rai visited a school for the blind to do their school project. In that school, most of the printing was done manually and it was quite time-consuming, too. One of the teachers asked them to find an alternative to this kind of printing. After that, they did research. All other Braille printers were costly. Zeroing in on dotmatrix printer, the friends decided to go ahead with their plans to develop a Braille printer of their own.

They faced many difficulties while developing the printer.

While modifying the printer, there was a problem with the roller. They found that there was no friction on the roller to catch the rubber tube, so the friends used it as football EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

for a while, which made its surface rough and thereafter it started giving desired the results.

Scientists, personally

Khushwant is a great lover of cricket and chess. He also likes surfing, the internet and making electronic gadgets including electronic stethoscope, water-level indicators, and LED displays.

Santokh loves learning new things. He explores mathematics and physics with great enthusiasm. He also writes poems.

Wish to be‌

Khushwant wishes to become an astronaut, and Santokh wants to become an aeronautical engineer.

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science & innovation

Forget the worry of forgetting key in car Innovato r Chandra ’s name: Innovatio mouly K Kanda char Remindinn title: g th e o wner if ke forgotten ys are District: in the vehicle Bangalore State: Karnatak Patent N a o: 5135/C HE/2013

C

handramouly K Kandachar is a 12th standard student from Bangalore. For him science is his lifeblood. He has invented a system that alerts the owner if he forgets to take the key from his car. The system invented by Chandramouly intimates the driver through a phone call if the keys have been forgotten in the vehicle; prevents cases of theft.

Why this invention

Chandramouly had a genuine reason for his invention, because his sister often forgot the keys in the car itself.

Once their neighbours informed them that the keys had been left in the car and they could retrieve it in time.

The young science enthusiastic read about other similar incidents where the owner left the keys in the car, which got stolen subsequently; hence he came up with this idea.

Chandramouly worked on the project and developed the device. He has got patent for his invention.

enthusiast, Chandramouly, along with his friends, have started a technology blog where they post news about the latest gadgets and technologies.

The scientist, personally

Wish to be‌

Chandramouly loves to listen to music. He is a great fan of both Carnatic and Western music. He specialises in metal rap in Western music. Being a technology

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Being a big buff of technology and engineering, Chandramouly aspires to become an electronics engineer or computer engineer and make more inventions.

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

Breathe easy while on long drive Innovators Pratyush ’ name: Mallick Kumar Sahoo, Bik ash Kum Innovation ar ti tl e : Oxygen/c arbon dio xide level District: indicators Khurda (K in car h o rd ha) State: Orissa Patent: 50 89/CHE/2 013

W

hen two science loving friends of 12th standard from Khurda district of Orissa, Pratyush Kumar Sahoo and Bikash Kumar Mallick, determined to find something useful to society, their desire resulted in the creation of a system to detect levels of oxygen/ carbon dioxide and to open windows when oxygen level drops or carbon dioxide level rises.

Why this invention

The number of road accidents is increasing these days, especially with children and pets locked inside cars. The technology invented by Pratyush Kumar Sahoo and Bikash Kumar Mallick helps prevent such accidents as the system helps to regulate the oxygen and carbon dioxide level.

The scientists, personally

Pratyush is a basketball player and a great admirer of computer games. He loves to read books, especially novels and stories. He is a good painter and good at keyboard.

Bikash is also a basketball player. He believes that he

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

has the capacity to break a bigger problem into small ones and then solve them.

Wish to be‌

Both the young friends are similar in their lifestyle and ambition in a way. Both of them would like to be IAS officers.

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science & innovation

Preventing wastage of electricity in AC Innovato Aman V r ’s name: e Innovatio nkateshwaran Reductio n title: through n of AC energy wastage District: clamp meter Gurgaon State: Haryana Patent: 3 334/DEL /2013

A

man, a 12th standard student from Haryana, found that a clamp meter connected to an AC unit will monitor the current flow and indicate usage (range) through green, orange and red colour codes. Aman has invented the device with three of his friends – Mihiraan,Varun and Udai.

Why this invention

The 16-year-old Aman is concerned about energy wastage.

These days, a large number of offices and houses are air-conditioned. Air-conditioner is an electrical equipment with large wastage of electricity. This motivated Aman to find a device to reduce the energy wastage of AC. In their physics class, the four friends learnt about capacitor and its use in many electronic appliances. Ageing of appliances leads to lesser efficiency of the appliance. So they thought of introducing a clamp meter in the circuit to record the amount of current consumed, which is indicated by three different colours. If the colour turns to red, the user should know that it is time to service the appliance.

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Scientists, personally

Aman is a musician and plays guitar well. He loves mathematics, good food, movies and cricket. Mihiran likes playing cricket and basketball. He wishes to become an engineer.

Varun is the youngest in the team. He loves swimming and playing basketball. He is also good at dancing and theatre arts.

Udai loves trekking, volunteers at local schools and teach young students science. He has written a book titled Discover Science and developed a kit for the same. He is actively involved in blogging.

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

Making roads safer for pedestrians Innovator’ s Shameet name: Innovation Badarla Automatic title: District: spike system near traffic sign Hyderaba al d State: Andhra Pra Patent: 33 desh 48/DEL/2 013

H

Heavy traffic is a problem not only in cities but also in small towns. This has led to increase in the number of accidents, and the sad situation motivated Shameet Badarla to make a device called retractable spikes. Retractable spikes, placed before the zebra crossing, come out when the traffic signal is red and thus prevent signal-jumping by vehicles.

Why this invention

Shameet Badarla invented the automatic spike system after he lost his dear friend in an accident caused by a tuck’s signal-jumping. After the incident, Shameet was seriously thought about the cause of such incidents and came up with a solution.

Scientist, personally

Shameet Badarla likes playing table tennis and football. He is also interested in computer programming.

Wish to be…

Shameet wants to become a robotics engineer with specialisation in artificial intelligence. He also likes to use his knowledge to reduce agricultural costs and bring more benefit to the farmers.

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

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Iversity mooc

empowering

academics Iversity.org, a platform for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), based in Berlin, offers unparalleled opportunities for students and professors in the higher education sector through the effective means of online learning

by LIJO V JOSEPH

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EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

making use of up-to-date technology, giving the students more choices and resources and helping solve the problem of crowded lecture halls. Since Iversity only provides a great platform but not the course content itself, universities as well as the instructors working there are our partners and not our rivals. We have no intention to replace them.”

“Students from all over the world are eager to participate in our courses,” says Klopper. “The feedback we get from them is very positive. Soon, it will be common practice for universities to incorporate these digital formats into their curricula.”

Revolutionary concept

I

n the May 2014 edition of Education Insider, the cover story was on MOOCs, in which we had pointed out the enlarging room for a blended kind of learning: “A more mature outlook is gaining momentum: the right mix of traditional practices and MOOC platforms would serve the purpose. Borrowing the words of William Lawton, the future is basically blended.” Hannes Klopper, CEO of Iversity, echoes the same: “We believe,” says Klopper, “that the future will see an increased use of blended formats that merge on-site and digital offerings.”

Through the platform of Iversity, courses are mainly conducted in English, German, Russian and Italian, and adding more languages are planned. Some of its courses were the winners of the MOOC Production Fellowship held in early 2013. Iversity.org officially launched the MOOC platform online on October 15, 2013, with 24 MOOCs and over 100,000 users. The goals for 2014 are to have 1 million users and over 100 courses.

MOOCs a fad?

Recently, there was an article appeared in a website titled Invasion of the MOOCs: Is higher ed’s most disruptive force simply a fad? When asked for his opinion on this title, as the CEO of a MOOC provider, Iversity, Klopper said: “MOOCs are certainly not a fad but hold the potential to add significantly to university’s offerings and to provide the students with much more choice than has been available at any point in human history.”

For Klopper, the traditional university will still be here for many years to come.

“MOOCs are not meant to replace anything but are meant to support the education system as a whole by adding new ways of learning,

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

What could be the effect of the recent hype of the concept of MOOCs? Klopper has a clear-cut answer to this: “For the first time in centuries, the universities are forced to rethink the way they deliver education. MOOCs are experimenting with the new possibilities afforded to us by state-of-the-art digital technology: multimedia content such as ondemand video, digital images and illustrations and audio material, sophisticated quizzes and online examinations. Other online tools such as automatic code grading in computer science courses or social network functionalities chart a map for the future. Often, it is more about leveraging the inventions that have proven successful in the commercial web for teaching and learning.”

MOOCs have also got another important dimension than this technical aspect: universities have begun to rethink who exactly they are addressing. “For a long time,” says Klopper, “higher education has been the privilege of the wealthy few. On our platform, everyone can attend all courses for free.

That creates whole new target groups for universities – people who may not have a Hoc hschulzugangsberechtigung(higher-education access permit) as we call a high-school leaver’s certificate in German, but who are willing to learn, working adults looking for professional education, stay-at-home parents, and many others. This helps in building skills today and jobs and welfare in the long run.”

In addition, MOOCs enable new intercultural experiences. “Just look at our course, The Future of Storytelling. It has attracted over 90,000 students from almost every country in the world. You name one university that has such an international student body.”

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mooc In fact, and as opposed to traditional university studies, there are no limitations to access a MOOC. You don’t need a high-school degree or other formal qualifications to participate in it. All it takes is curiosity, passion, and commitment. When it comes to the price we charge for our services, it is lower than in the existing delivery model by an order of magnitude. Surely, there is still going to be a debate about who should have to foot the bill, and we are open to discussions about a voucher system or scholarships funded by corporations or foundations. But, there is no disputing the fact that MOOCs make certain forms of higher education more affordable than they have ever been.”

Challenges

“MOOCs are not

meant to replace anything but are meant to support the education system

as a whole” Hannes Klöpper

Managing Director, Co-Founder, Iversity

Criticisms

According to the vision of Iversity, access to education can both vastly improve people’s lives and bring about real changes to communities as a whole. This is the prime reason why Iversity makes its courses free to everyone.

This is also why its offerings are constantly expanding and cover a range of subjects that include medicine, computer science, economics, physics, law, design, and philosophy.

However, criticisms also are growing. Mainly, there is a growing criticism that, though MOOCs were meant to make education available to everyone, now it is limited to alreadyprivileged students.

Klopper puts his version thus: “Obviously, it is easier to follow a university-level course when you’ve studied in a university before, but there’s no point in playing off the better educated against all others.

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Potentially, MOOCs can be an answer to a number of issues that the higher education sector faces today. The number of students worldwide, currently over 160 million, is expected to double within the next 25 years. India alone would need 2,400 new universities to keep up with this growth in demand.

According to Klopper, the universities are looking for solutions to cope with this, and digital services are an obvious possibility for them to keep up. Iversity can make a significant contribution by giving access to everyone who is interested in higher education.

Plans

“Our ultimate objective is to the combine the advantages of online learning, the fact that you can take courses from instructors across the world no matter where you are (and the implications for accessibility, cost, flexibility and choice) with the hallmarks of traditional formal education (quality standards, widespread recognition). Hence we are working on examination formats that enable the MOOC students to obtain university credits and certificates in MOOCs that are widely recognised in the existing system of higher education.”

However, a question from the proponents of Iversity seems to echo soundly in the much-hanged scenario of the higher education sector today: “With MOOCs, education becomes accessible to everyone, anywhere on the globe. We believe in the transformative power of online education. So do you?”

IvErsity.org Launched in: October 15, 2013, with 24 MOOCs and over 100,000 users Founder: Jonas Liepmann Management: 1. Hannes Klöpper, Managing Director, Co-Founder 2. Julia Bader, Chief Operations Officer 3.

Gerald Hiller, Chief Product Officer Goals for 2014: 1 million users and over 100 courses EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

focus- Euro Tech Marine Academy

Seafarer’s safe

voyage starts here

Euro Tech Marine Academy, Kochi, Kerala, is the largest maritime educational institution in South India with the specialised course of B Tech in Marine Engineering. Euro Tech helps shape first-rate marine engineers who have great opportunities and scope for growth in view of the coastline location of Kochi

T

The behaviour of the sea is unpredictable: at times, it is calm, and, at other times, it turns violent.

Despite this, it serves as the major source of human wealth. As two-thirds of the Earth’s surface is covered by seas and oceans, they open up a wide range of financial opportunities to humankind.

Naturally, the question arises: How can we explore and exploit the immense opportunities oceans offer?

It is here that the relevance and scope of a marine institute comes to the fore. Few institutions can provide better facilities in the field than Euro Tech.

The decade-old, nationally renowned Euro Tech is South India’s first marine institute. It has placed many of its previous batches in shipping companies all over the world. The ISO 9001:2008-certified marine academy is approved by the Government of India’s DirectorateGeneral of Shipping and is affiliated to Indian Maritime University. It is the largest maritime educational institution in the country offering world-class training facilities to aspiring seafarers.

The courses at Euro Tech have been designed to suit industrial needs and are based on the provisions of STCW 95 of the International Maritime Organisation as well as the Merchant Shipping (STCW for seafarers) Rules 1998 and META Manual of the Directorate-General of Shipping. Its academic excellence has won it the ‘Very Good’ certification

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

of the International Credit Rating Agency.

Courses, facilities Euro Tech’s courses cover the whole spectrum of marine education, including navigation, operations, mechanical and electrical engineering, communications and catering. Its location at Kochi, the Queen of the Arabian Sea, is an additional boon to mariners.

The main campus of the academy is situated at Kizhakkambalam, near Kochi, and is spread over a picturesque area of nature-blessed 7.5 acres of land. With a fully residential campus for conducting the entire range of pre-sea and postsea courses, Euro Tech has facilities including hostel, seamanship lab, parade ground, faculty rooms, catering, outdoor games like football, volleyball and cricket and also indoor games. The campus, which ensures safety for students, also has the most modern and the safest pieces of marine equipment.

Babu Joseph, Executive Director of Euro Tech, tells Education Insider: “Our focus is on turning Euro Tech into a centre of education in the maritime field and providing a wholesome learning environment. We will improve our system continually to enhance the career opportunities of our students. This focus has helped us bag the RINA-ICRA certification.”

A three-year Diploma in Nautical Science and B Tech in Marine Engineering are the specialised courses offered at the institute. The B Tech is a rare course in the maritime

Babu Joseph Executive Director

Our focus is on turning Euro Tech into a centre of education in the maritime field and providing a wholesome learning environment. We will improve our system continually to enhance the career opportunities of our students sector, and Euro Tech is the leading institution offering it with unique features.

A number of short-term residential and non-residential marine courses are also offered to future mariners. A full-fledged team of faculty headed by Vinod Naveen, Principal, is divided into the Department of Nautical Faculty, Engineering Faculty, Medical Faculty, etc., for efficient academic performance.

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campus Voice

A Question of Dharma The Indian legal system, which has the Constitution of India as its fountainhead, is one of the oldest legal systems in the entire history of the world. The Indian judicial system stresses that “it is better that 1,000 guilty persons go free than that one innocent person be convicted.” Since there are a number of cases where it seem difficult to identify what is right and what is wrong, our question to the Law students was this: “Will you argue and win cases of criminals?”

As we approached the students of JSS Law College, Mysore, with this question, they were eager to participate in the discussion and express their views.

Following are the excerpts from their responses: by ei bureau

A

t a time when the words ‘lawyer’ and ‘liar’ are satirised to be synonymous, one is forced to read between the lines to find the reality within the sarcasm. So what would I do if a coldblooded criminal walks in seeking my protection from punishment? My professional ethics would say: ‘Take up the case if it looks like a lucrative deal.’ But, my personal ethics would and should say: ‘It is society that needs saving, not him.’

At this juncture, I believe that we must stick to our basic instinct of being human and act humanely in the interest of a better society and not just an individual. Non-punishment of criminals is punishment to society, disrespect to the victims and poses a serious question on the credibility of the state in protecting its people. Let the lawyers be the harbingers and engineers of a better society where crime never pays.

– Raghav

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believe that no person should be denied legal aid irrespective of the crime committed. Regarding the Delhi gang-rape case or any other heinous crimes described as the rarest of rare cases, and which fetch the highest punishment of death, I would represent the criminal. This is primarily because I am against death penalty and strongly believe that our prisons should act as places of reformation, just as hospitals do to sick people. Across the world, over 80 countries have put a moratorium on death penalty and this is the way forward. Law can only curtail crimes but not stop them; it is up to us to decide if we can stop crimes.

–Moses Raj

T

his is not the first time I’ve been asked this question.

I think that advocacy is not in the talent to sue, but in being humane. It should be borne in mind that the accused is considered ‘innocent’ until proven guilty. I shall defend the accused so that he/she gets a chance to be heard.

Divya

T

he right approach is based on the principle that individuals have the right to make their own choices.

According to me, I won’t make happy a criminal who has indulged in a serious criminal activity. As Aristotle and Plato had said, right decisions should be made for the benefit of society.

–Lizz Mariya Abraham

W

hen you are turning down a criminal, you are taking away his hope of a future to lead a reformed life and live with his dear ones. He might be a hardened criminal, but he is still human. I think the person must be given a chance to reform. I would take up the criminal’s case and plead for him so that he may repent and learn to lead a life free of crime.

– Arthi Fernandes

E

veryone deserves justice. A criminal should be given an opportunity to be heard and to get fair judgment. I don’t believe in the notion of ‘born criminal.’ I think that mostly circumstances make a person criminal or otherwise.

– Ebin Thomas

L

aw is an endeavour which demands courage and spirit. The written laws of men evolve out of necessity, and hence may be imperfect; but the unwritten laws of the divine have evolved out of morality and are eternal. Men of honour should stand by the divine code, and so advocating for a criminal would amount to blasphemy.

A

s a lawyer but more as a woman, in a society where a woman is raped every 20 minutes, I believe in standing up for what is right.

The Nirbhaya case sent chills down my spine, but what hit me the hardest and almost killed my faith in humanity was the fact that as she lay there, naked and bleeding, and nobody thought they should stop. Change will only happen when we, as a society, recognise rape as a crime, not just a mistake. Rape isn’t something you discuss over the evening coffee.

–Mythri Prabhakara

– Pradeep

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

73

event

Education Insider in Nepal The Nepal edition of Education Insider magazine was launched in Kathmandu on May 2, 2014 by Purusottam Paudel, Minister of Youth & Sports, Nepal

74

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

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LOUDSPEAKER

Our institutes of higher learning must take up issues relevant to their social and economic context for in-depth research.They should concentrate on developing technologies that increase the efficiency of resource extraction.

Pranab Mukherjee President of India

The industries and challenges of the 21st century, such as climate change, renewable energy, medicine and healthcare, water and environmental management, developing sustainable cities – all require innovators and workers from the arena of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Nancy Powell, Former US Ambassador to India

To promote science in India, young and talented people have to be encouraged by good teachers because science is about ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Real science is done in small labs by crazy individuals.

C N R RAO, Indian Scientist

People blame the situation on lack of resources. That could have been true 20 years back, but India now has sufficient money, infrastructure and other resources to fuel research.

Dr Rajesh S Gokhale, Director, CSIR-IGIB

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I firmly believe that education should be a fundamental right of any society and the opportunity to participate in education and gain vital life skills should be provided to all.

Lord Swraj Paul, NRI industrialist

EDUCATION INSIDER I June 2014

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