MU to resume written test for PhD degree aspirants soon

GAYA: Magadh University is to resume the practice of holding written test for PhD degree aspirants. The practice was discarded a few years ago in view of University Grants Commission (UGC) regulation 2009. In 2016, the UGC amended the guidelines, detailing eligibility, duration and relaxation and other criteria. The MU academic council, at its meeting held on Friday, adopted the UGC regulation that stipulates conditions for award of PhD degrees. MU’s officiating VC Prof D P Tiwari presided over the academic council meet.

MU’s PRO Prof Sidhnath Prasad said the process for conducting the test and holding classes on research methodology will begin soon. “The result of the test, to be known as RET (research eligibility test), will be valid for one year. The RET shall be for qualifying purpose only. Relaxation of 5% in qualifying marks shall be given to SC/ST and persons with disability. The RET syllabus will consist of 50% of research methodology and 50% subject specific,” he said.

As per the Academic Council decision, multiple-choice objective questions with no negative marking will be asked in the RET.
Certain categories of PhD degree aspirants have been exempted from the RET. However, they will have to appear at the interview and viva voce along with the RET qualifiers. In order to qualify, a degree aspirant will have to secure a minimum of 50% in the test.

Those exempted from the written test include NET qualifiers, recipients of All India Fellowship, employees of any other university or institution or college or government department or public sector undertaking or Research and Development (R & D) organization or private industry, who is sponsored as a full-time candidate by the said organization, with at least two years of experience in the relevant area, and who is relieved on study leave for a period of not less than two years for pursuing PhD programme in a department of the university.

Foreign nationals, who are recipient of fellowship by Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and sponsored by their government along with self-financing foreign nationals admitted through the embassies or high commission of their country or admitted under a MoU with due clearance from the Indian Missions abroad would also be exempted from written test.

Source: The Times of India dated July 28, 2019

Unfilled seats: AICTE won’t accredit new colleges for 2yrs

Chennai:

Engineering admission has dropped to 50%-55% in the last four years and due to the huge vacancies in colleges, the All India Council for Technical Education will not accredit new engineering and pharma colleges for the next two years, AICTE chairman Anil D Sahasrabudhe said on Sunday.

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“Colleges with less admissions cannot survive as they are not able to pay salaries and maintain the infrastructure,” he said, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology’s 28^th convocation.

When asked about vacancies, Sahasrabudhe said, “In the last four years, engineering admissions have dropped to 50%- 55% and 2.5 lakh seats have been cut. So, there are huge vacancies in engineering colleges”. Such colleges are reducing intake or shutting down, he added.

The council is mulling a common entrance test for engineering, twice a year, and the better of the two scores will be considered for admission. “But many states wanted time to make their syllabi on par with CBSE first,” he said.

In the convocation, Union secretary for ministry of earth sciences M N Rajeevan, Mars Orbiter Mission project director S Arunan, Isro’s human space flight programme director S Unnikrishnan Nair and senior Isro scientist R Umamaheswaran received honorary doctorates. Degrees were given to 3,029 graduates.

Source: The Times of India (Chennai) dated July 29, 2019

230 Colleges Fill Less Than 30% Seats After Counselling

Eleven government and two private colleges filled all their seats while 16 private colleges could not get a single student this year after four rounds of online counselling conducted by the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) committee. And 54% seats in 479 colleges remain vacant.

Like previous years, 230 colleges filled less than 30% of seats. Of 1,67,101 seats available for counselling, 76,364 were filled.

“More than 200 colleges could not fill 30% of seats in the past four years. If the trend continues, the colleges could lose 50% of seats,” said career consultant Jayaprakash Gandhi. If colleges have less than 30% admissions for five consecutive years, AICTE cuts seats by 50%.

Computer science and civil engineering emerged as most and least preferred streams while mechanical engineering saw a huge drop in demand, with only 36% of seats filled. Colleges in Chennai and Coimbatore regions got more students. As many as 1,519 students from previous rounds participated in the fourth round due to improper choice filling.

In a curious case, 30,702 seats were filled in the fourth and final round (cut-off 114.75 to 77.5), registering the maximum enrolment in four rounds.

Experts said the changes in post-matric scholarship to SC students increased the allotments in fourth round. “Now, only students admitted through counselling can claim reimbursement. So students who joined colleges under management quota have shifted to government quota,” the principal of a city college said.

“But more than 85% of the students in the fourth round have got their first choices. Private colleges may have filled the choices on behalf of the students,” Jayaprakash Gandhi said.

“Due to poor results and tough question papers, the students preferred autonomous colleges to affiliated colleges,” a principal from Trichy said.

TNEA began supplementary counselling for students who did not apply for the counselling and have cleared instant exams on Sunday and will wrap it on July 30.

To read the full article, please visit: The Times of India (Chennai) dated 29 July, 2019

AICTE revamps student redressal regulations to deal with more plaints

In view of increasing complaints from students over withholding of certificates by technical institutions, demanding excess fee, failure to provide amenities etc.,All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) issued revised draft (redressal of grievance of students) regulations, 2019.

The fresh regulations will supersede those issued in 2012 and mandates technical institutions to publish prospectus, establish student grievance redressal committee and appoint an ombudsman who will be a retired district judge or a retired vice-chancellor/professor with 10 years of experience.

Giving greater emphasis to the prospectus, the AICTE has notified that all technical institutions will not only have to mention the list of courses and seat intake but also tuition fee and refund details.

In the prospectus, all institutions will have to mandatorily mention each component of the fee, deposits and other charges payable by the student seeking admission. “The percentage of tuition fee and other charges refundable to a student admitted to such an institution in case such student withdraws from such institution before or after completion of course or programme of study and the time within and the manner in which such refund shall be made to that student,” read the draft.

Technical institutions also have to establish a student grievance redressal committee that will be headed by principal of the college as the chairman apart from an ombudsman. Following the notification, all technical institutions have to launch an online portal where any aggrieved student may submit an application seeking redressal of grievance in the next three months. The draft, which was published on AICTE’s official website, is open for suggestions till August 20, 2019.

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/aicte-revamps-student-redressal-regulations-to-deal-with-more-plaints/articleshow/70424559.cms (Accessed on July 29, 2019)

TCS iON launches Skill Hub to provide industry-relevant digital content

Platform will bring credibility and transparency to skills assessment, says firm's global head

TCS iON, a strategic unit of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), today launched the Skill Hub, a digital platform providing standardized, industry-relevant and digital content at the Automotive Skill Development Council (ASDC) Annual Conclave 2019, in Delhi.

The ‘Skill Hub’ hosted on TCS iON’s Digital Learning platform, is a standardized, anytime-anywhere-any device skilling, training, certification and job listing platform. The automotive sector being the first to on-board this hub, will enable ASDC to skill, reskill and upskill candidates at speed and scale.

“It (Skill Hub) is an important milestone for the country and we look forward to having both academia and industry leverage this digital platform and make skilling mainstream,” said Venguswamy Ramaswamy, Global Head, TCS iON.

Skilling can be paid for through government sponsorship programmes, industry sponsorship or even individual candidates. The quality digital content will focus on industry-relevant subjects, aligned with Qualification Packs (QP) and National Occupation Standards (NOS). The ‘Phygital’ (digital solutions integrated with physical assets) delivery model will ensure fair and inclusive access to the platform.Physical assessments will be performed across 257 TCS locations identified specially for the Digital Hub.

“The Digital Hub was built over the past 18 months and a separate vertical within TCS iON, consisting of a large employee base, focuses on skill training and assessment modules,” Ramaswamy added. The company is now in talks with stakeholders across tourism, hospitality, banking and financial services to provide similar skilling services on the platform.

ASDC supports the Government’s Skill India program and schemes like Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDUGKY) that seek to enhance the skills of young aspirants to make them more relevant and qualified for employment in the automotive industry.

“This platform will also help to bring additional credibility to programs like PMKVY as it will allow the assessment experts to observe the practical part of the tests in real time on camera,” he said.

TCS iON will also bring ASDC’s training partner ecosystem onto a single platform and will help the Council manage affiliations, enhance quality of delivery, and improve transparency. The ‘Skill Hub’ will host learning content across Sales, Services, and Manufacturing domains in the Automotive sector, as well as focus on multi-lingual learning content, aligned to Industry 4.0 principles.Almost 80% of the skilling requirements in the automotive domain are around services, sales and road Transportation in roles like automotive service technician, sales consultants, showroom hostess/ hosts and vehicle drivers among others.

Source: https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/tcs-ion-launches-versatile-digital-skills-hub-for-automotive-sector-119072401422_1.html (Accessed on July 25, 2019)

India Innovation Challenge Design Contest to be broad-based to reach remote corners of the country

NEW DELHI, JULY 24: India Innovation Challenge Design Contest (IICDC), a national design contest for engineering students should be accessible to students even in remote corners of the country. To ensure that Texas Instruments India (TI India), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the statutory body and a national-level council for technical education in India, Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) have come together. The motive is to help strengthen the innovation ecosystem, enhance skills and drive a start-up culture amongst engineering students.

The announcement was made at the finals of IICDC 2018, coinciding with the announcement of this year’s top 10 winning teams.

Congratulating the IICDC 2018 winners, Sanjay Srivastava, Director, TI India University Program said, “IICDC’s vision is to give students an opportunity to be innovators and entrepreneurs. Several ideas focus on agriculture – a segment widely deprived of technology advances. Interestingly, more than 90% of participation comes from Tier II and Tier III towns. That’s the kind of grassroots innovation we want to drive through IICDC.”

The 10 finalists will get an opportunity to take their start-up idea from the lab to the market, supported by a fund from DST of INR 4.94 Crore, incubation at NSRCEL, the innovation and entrepreneurship hub at IIM Bangalore, and technical mentorship from TI engineers along with access to TI tools and technology. To-date, IICDC has incubated 20 start-ups.

SRM Institute of Science and Technology from Tamil Nadu won the Chairman Award for Technical Innovation on ‘Inkless Printing Technology’. A. P. Shah Institute of Technology from Maharashtra was the first runners up for their innovation ‘Solar Energy Harvesting for Wireless Sensor Node’ and Sri Manakula Vinayagar Engineering College from Puducherry was adjudged second runners up awardon their innovation ‘Mustard Seed Processor Machine’.

Elaborating on the partnership with IICDC, Prof. Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, AICTE, said, “Our message to the student community is simple - no matter which college you study in or which pin code you reside in, if you have a powerful idea and a drive to make a difference, IICDC will give you an opportunity to achieve your goal.”

The last three editions of IICDC saw students file over 150 patents, and the numbers are increasing every year. Dr. Anita Gupta, Associate Head, DST, said, “We continue to partner with IICDC because it is a unique, powerful platform to drive student-led, tech-focused innovation. Our seed funding to the winning teams aims to bring the best of these ideas to life.”

Professor Venkatesh Panchapagesan, Chair, NSRCEL at IIMB, “At NSRCEL, IIMB’s innovation and entrepreneurial centre, we have successfully incubated around 50 students to help shape their entrepreneurial ideas into start-ups”.

By forging partnerships with multiple stakeholders with far-reaching influence in technical education, expertise in business and management, industry knowhow, IICDC aims to foster an innovation and entrepreneurial culture amongst engineering students in India and to empower them to launch successful companies with a clear purpose to make the world a better place.

Source: 

https://news.careers360.com/india-innovation-challenge-design-contest-be-broad-based-reach-remote-corners-of-country (Accessed on July 25, 2019)

AICTE decision to stop low employment potential disciplines evokes mixed response

 A decision of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to not allow new conventional disciplines with low employment potential from the academic year 2020-21 had evoked mixed response. While officials of the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) of Chhattisgarh Government were of the view that the decision would clean the ‘garbage’ of private engineering colleges, Chhattisgarh Swami Vivekananda Technical University (CSVTU), Bhilai, said the colleges are independent to choose their disciplines. CSVTU Vice-Chancellor Dr M K Verma made it clear that the colleges are in a better position to judge as to which disciplines should be taught to their students.

 

“The private engineering colleges work on ground level and conduct independent survey to know the market trends before introducing any branches in their respective colleges. CSVTU grants No Objection Certificate (NOC) to the disciplines the colleges apply for. However, the NOC is given on the basis of laboratory and faculty arrangements,” said Dr Verma. Dr Verma further said that the technical university AICTE was yet to issue circulars of its decision.

 

Dr Verma, however, said that the engineering colleges would have to follow the instructions of AICTE provided the decision is made mandatory for the colleges. On the other hand, a DTE official, who did not want to be named, said that the decision of AICTE, if comes into effect, would help in closing the disciplines failing to attract students in the private engineering colleges. The official said that it is very early to say anything unless the department receives any official letter from the AICTE.

 

The official said that still nearly 10,000 employment potential disciplines evokes mixed reponse engineering seats of private colleges lying vacant even after the completion the third phase PET counselling. Only spot admission remains to go, he said. It is to be mentioned, the AICTE said to have decided to permit only emerging fields such as Artificial Intelligence and Block Chain, Internet of Things (IoT), Robotics, Quantum Computing, Data Sciences, Cyber Security, and 3D Printing and Design. In a bid to bridge the gap between industry requirements and courses imparted at engineering institutes, the AICTE has initiated several steps, including this one.

Source: https://www.thehitavada.com/Encyc/2019/7/24/AICTE-decision-to-stop-low-employment-potential-disciplines-evokes-mixed-reponse.html (Accessed on July 25, 2019)