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  • India will soon have own Ivy League universities, says Sibal

    CHENNAI: Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal said Indian will soon have ‘navratna’ universities on the lines of the famous Ivy League. They would be given ample funds, freedom to accept funds from outside and also freedom from the shackles of the government, he said at the 98th Indian Science Congress.

    “We are working on the concept of having navratna universities or an Indian Ivy League. We intend to nurture these select universities, like the public sector navratnas, by generous financial support, freedom in accessing external funding and total autonomy so as to free them from the shackles of government control,” he said speaking on the topic.

    The eight Ivy League institutions are Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University.

    “With regard to our existing navratnas — the IITs and IIMs — we are according full powers to their boards to create posts within the approved norms, top up the salaries of the directors and faculty from the funds generated by them, open centres in India and abroad, amend rules within the framework of their Memorandums of Association and Rules, acquire and dispose property and manage funds generated on their own,” he said.

    Seeing a silver lining in the 12% increase in research papers from India, as against the 4% global growth, Sibal called for an international consortia for research.

    Source : TOI

  • Cut-off increased to improve tech standards.

    From this year, just qualifying in Eamcet will no longer ensure a seat in engineering colleges too.

    Much to the 700-odd Engineering college’s chagrin, the state government has decided to make it mandatory for students to secure at least 50 per cent marks in Intermediate in Maths, Physics and Chemistry to be eligible for admission to engineering colleges.

    Students from scheduled castes and scheduled tribes should get at least 40 per cent.
    The new norm may prove disastrous for Engineering colleges as nearly 80,000 students who qualified in Eamcet last year did not secure 50 per cent marks in Inter.

    But from next year, those who do no secure 50 per
    cent marks will not be able to pursue Engineering courses resulting in thousands of seats remaining vacant.

    The requirement of 50 per cent in Intermediate was applicable only to Eamcet medical stream students in accordance with the direc
    tions of the Medical Council of India two years ago.

    The new norm, that is meant to improve standards in professional education, will be incorporated in the Eamcet notification set to be issued in the first week of February.

    This follows the decision of the All India Council for Technical Education to increase the qualifying marks from 35 per cent to 50 per cent in 10+2 exams to improve the standards in Engineering. All India Council for Technical Education has decided to increase the qualifying marks from 35 per cent to 50 per cent in 10+2 exams to improve the standards in Engineering.

    Till date, only pass marks (35 per cent) in Intermediate was enough for a student to
    take admission in BE, B.Tech courses apart from securing 25 per cent marks in Eamcet.

    For students from scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, even a “zero” in Eamcet would fetch them a seat For students from scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, even a “zero” in Eamcet would fetch them a seat in BE/B.Tech courses if they
    just managed to pass Intermediate.

    The current standards are so bad that less than 20 per cent students could pass their First Year BE over the last two years in nearly 600 colleges across the state.

    This year, another 100 colleges came up taking the total to 700, the highest number in the country.

    The state has 2.8 lakh
    engineering seats of which 95,000 seats remained vacant this year. If the 50 per cent marks norms comes it effect, the officials expect nearly 1.5 lakh seats to remain vacant next year forcing nearly 200 colleges to shut down.

    Fearing worst times ahead, the managements of engineering colleges have decided to fight against the 50 per
    cent marks norms by launching agitation programmes. They are demanding that the government write to the AICTE for relaxing the 50 per cent norm.

    However, the new norm will came in handy for the government which is trying to reduce its financial burden on account of the fee reimbursement scheme.

    Source:     DC

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