Dhoti, suits, sari replace colonial dress at NU convocation

TNN | Jan 18, 2019, 10.20 AM IST

NAGPUR: Jodhpuri suits, dhoti or chudidar for men and white sari along with scarves for women would replace the traditional academic attire of dashboard hats and colourful gowns when the Nagpur University holds its 106th convocation ceremony at Suresh Bhat Auditorium on Saturday. The NU would be fourth in the state to do so.
Beside change in dress code, the NU would also be witnessing the presence of chancellor in this convocation after nearly a decade. Former governor SC Jamir was the last chancellor to attend NU’s 96th convocation on July 25, 2009, as per university records.

Though three ceremonies were held here under his tenure, governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao would be making his first appearance at the NU convocation.

A former VC said the governor, who is also the chancellor, should ideally attend the senate meetings too but university affairs are not on their priority list. “Nagpur has virtually become a power centre. That may have impacted the governor’s decision this time,” the ex-VC said.

NU watchers have blamed earlier VCs for the absence of chancellor during the last nine convocations. Union minister Nitin Gadkari is being credited for Rao’s decision to attend the ceremony. Recently, both had shared the dais during the convocation of Mahatma Phule Agriculture University at Rahuri. It was the same function where Gadkari had fainted for which he had blamed the traditional robes.

Talking about shunned the traditional robes, vice chancellor SP Kane said there was no decision to continue with the gowns and caps after the 100th convocation.

Pro-VC Pramod Yeole said the colonial gowns and caps were introduced for first time to mark the special occasion of the 100th convocation. “Till 99th ceremony, academic procession has been donning traditional Jodhpuri suits only,” he said.

City’s Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT) and Ramtek-based Kavikulguru Kalidas Sanskrit University are the other institutions to have dropped the attire from their convocations last year. On January 11, Pune University conducted the ceremony in ethnic attire along with Puneri pagdi.

The NU has finalized scarves having different colours as per the four faculties. The deans and students would don these scarves as per their respective faculty. The academic costume of Jodhpuri suits is not applicable to governor, chief guest Shiv Nadar, guest of honour Gadkari.

Kane said in the past students have come on stage in their traditional attire to receive medals and NU has never insisted on a particular dress.

MHRD issues orders for revision of allowances of teachers, equivalent academic...

Press Information Bureau 

Government of India

Ministry of Human Resource Development

28-January-2019 20:06 IST

MHRD issues orders for revision of allowances of teachers, equivalent academic cadre, Registrars, Finance Officers and Controller of Examinations in the Universities and Colleges as per the Recommendations of Seventh Central Pay Commission

The much awaited orders on revision of allowances and special allowances for teachers and equivalent academic cadre, Registrars, Finance Officers and Controller of Examinations in Central Universities and Colleges there under have been issued by the Ministry of Human Resource Development. This also includes centrally funded Deemed to be Universities.The orders come into force with immediate effect.

The revised special allowance per month for Vice Chancellor, Pro-Vice Chancellor, Principal in PG College and Principal in UG College are Rs. 11,250/-, Rs. 9,000/-, Rs. 6,750/- & Rs. 4,500/- respectively.

This is likely to benefit 30000 teaching and equivalent staff in Central Universities and 5500 in Deemed to be Universities.

This will serve as a bench mark for 7 lakh teachers in State Universities.

*****
NB/AKJ/AK

7 nursing colleges to lose RGUHS affiliation over certificate scam

TNN | Jan 25, 2019, 07:55 IST




BENGALURU: Seven nursing colleges in the state will be disaffiliated from Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences(RGUHS) from 2019-20 due to their alleged involvement in the certificate scam.

“The disaffiliated colleges are Bethel Medical Institute of Nursing Sciences, Hosmat College of Nursing, Pan Asia College of Nursing, Bethel College of Physiotherapy, Hosmat College of Physiotherapy, Hosmat Hospital and Educational Institution and Gayathridevi College of Nursing, all located in Bengaluru. These institutions are run by a single management and are facing allegations of involvement in the certificate scam. The disaffiliation will remain in place till the colleges come clean,” said Dr S Sacchidanand, vice-chancellor, RGUHS.

The move will reduce nursing seats by about 350 in 2019-20. “These seven institutions will be disaffiliated soon and a notice will be sent to them. We will issue a public notice shortly to bring about awareness among students not to seek admission in these colleges,” said Dr Sacchidanand.

RGHUS said the colleges had been told not to admit students during 2018-19 but they went ahead and enrolled 350 students. “We will see if there are any provisions to accommodate over 1,000 students currently on the rolls of these institutions in other colleges,” said another senior university official.

Sunny D, chairman, Bethel Medical Mission (BMM), which runs the seven institutions, said the university has not sent them any notice. “The varsity has to call for verification before taking up the disaffiliation. The case is being investigated by the CID,” said Sunny. He denied any affiliation with Gayathridevi Nursing College, though as per the records, it’s run by BMM.

UGC Increases Guest Faculty Salary; Details Here

University Grants Commission (UGC) in a letter to the registrars of all universities said the Honorarium for Guest Faculty be enhanced to Rs. 1500 per lecture subject to a maximum of Rs. 50,000 per month.

Education | NDTV Education Team | Updated: January 28, 2019 20:11 IST

The Honorarium has been enhanced to Rs1,500 per lecture subject to a maximum of Rs. 50,000 per month.

NEW DELHI:

University Grants Commission (UGC) in a letter to the registrars of all universities said the Honorarium for Guest Faculty be enhanced to Rs1,500 per lecture subject to a maximum of Rs. 50,000 per month. The UGC, higher education regulator, said the Commission in its 537th meeting held on December 10, 2018 considered the issue of enhancement of the rates of Honorarium of Guest Faculty in universities and colleges consequent upon the implementation of the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission.

Prior to this the per lecture Honorarium was Rs. 1000 and maximum in a month was Rs. 25,000.

According to the UGC, the Guest Faculty be appointed only against sanctioned post.

"However, for the universities where the sanctioned posts are not adequate as per the teaching working load, the number of Guest Faculty to be appointed can be up to 20% over and above the sanctioned posts," the notification added.

It also said the qualification for Guest Faculty has to be the same as those prescribed for the regular Assistant Professors of Universities/Colleges in UGC Regulations.

"The Selection procedure for appointing Guest Faculty shall be the same as those of regularly appointed Assistant Professors," it added.

The Commission also said Guest Faculty will not be treated like regular teachers for the purpose of voting rights or for becoming the members of the various statutory bodies of the university.

"The superannuated teachers may also be considered for engagement as Guest Faculty subject to a maximum age limit of 70 years," it said.

The Guest Faculty will not be given the benefit of allowances, pension, gratuity and leave etc. as admissible to the regular teachers, it said.

"These guidelines will come into force with effect from the date of issue of this letter," said the letter which was written on January 28, 2019.

"We are happy with the increase in total pay in a month though our demand was 65,000 per month for a teacher. But, the per lecture Honorarium should have been been more," said an office bearer from a teacher organisation.

TN class XII question pattern changed

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

28.01.2019
In a last minute decision, the Tamil Nadu government announced changes in question patterns for the upcoming class XII state board exam.

Fill in the blanks, assertion-reason, match the following and similar questions will replace all the Multiple-choice questions (MCQs) this year in Part -A (one-mark questions).

Although there was no mention of such changes when the model question papers were released by the State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT) earlier this month.

The class XII examination will be conducted from March 1, 2019, and the studnets will follow the new pattern. Students are apprehensive that the new question pattern may have adverse effect on the results.

Marks per subject from 200 to 100 and the exam duration by 30 minutes have already been reduced by the government.

Is Computational Thinking a skill of future
As industries are looking for professionals with soft skills, computational thinking will emerge as the new-age skill

c-Sheetal.Banchariya@timesgroup.com

28.01.2019

Computational thinking (CT) is a problem-solving process that involves steps like formulating a problem, finding a solution and elucidating in a way that humans or machines can understand the solution. Characterisation of computational thinking is the ‘3 As’ iterative process based on three stages– 1. Abstraction deals with problem formulation, which means observing an event and formulating the problem statement, 2. Automation creates an algorithmic solution and 3. Analysing deals with solution execution and evaluation.

COMPUTATIONAL THINKING IN EDUCATION

The most important function of education is to prepare our students for a future, about which we know a little. “The ways in which the upcoming generations work, interact, and communicate with technology will continue to evolve at a rapid pace. Young children will have to be equipped with computational thinking and technology-driven perspectives that will drive many tools and services of tomorrow,” said Ratnesh Jha, managing director - South Asia, Cambridge University Press. The students have to be equipped to live and lead in a world where humans and machines will coexist.

“Students should be educated about CT as it is an enabler that will equip them with higher order thinking skills to adapt to problem-solving approach in any aspect of life,” said Maneesh Prateek, dean, School of Computer Science, UPES.

COMPUTATIONAL THINKING V/S CODING

Coding is the expression which helps deliver the solution which is understandable and executable by a machine, while CT is a problem-solving process wherein the solution is designed to make humans and machines understand and execute it. “Coding is a post-process of CT. It is the intellectual ability to lay down commands and making the computer process information to perform a function. Computational thinking helps in breaking down the task and know how to execute the solution,” said Arun Albert, head, Training and Professional Development, OP Jindal Global University.

PROFESSIONAL RELEVANCE

“Computing is a fundamental part of daily life commerce in the modern economy. This is an era where machines, digital technology and innovation are working with humans to enhance capabilities,” added Jha.

In the contemporary times, computational thinking touches all aspects and functions of a business setup. Its need has been identified and is becoming ever crucial as a skill at the workplace where almost everything is driven by data – be it analysing human behaviour, changes in the financial market, health sector hygiene.

“As big data is a crucial part of people’s lives,statistics need to be added more prominently, in education and jobs. Stronger integration of statistics will require a cadre of professionals equipped with fluent computational skills,” SV Subramanian, professor of Population Health and Geography at Harvard University.


Industries that require CT as the key skill for their workforce

Healthcare Informatics Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Graphics and Gaming Business Analytics and Optimization Banking Financial Services and Insurance Oil & Gas Informatics Big Data Analytics Telecom Informatics Robotic Process Automation

Crises of skilled teachers across institutes
India is yet to have a policy in place to deal with expansion of higher education institutes in India

c-Jagriti.Kumari@timesgroup.com 28.01.2019

India is yet to come up with education-friendly policies to deal with shortage of skilled teachers in schools and universities. There is no dearth of talent, but due to absence of strict evaluation process and training, we are not able to churn out skilled teachers.

“Sudden expansion of educational institutes in India has led to shortage of experienced and skilled teachers,” said Subhash Bhalla, professor, University of Aizu, Japan. The Indian-origin professor who has studied in IIT Delhi, has been involved with teaching the University of Aizu in Japan for the past few decades.

“Several higher education institutes are struggling to have full-time experienced teachers. They are dependent on temporary teachers to somehow manage with minimum requirements,” said Bhalla, on the sidelines of Confluence 2019 organised by Amity University.

Bhalla appreciated government’s move to invite Indianorigin professors working in foreign universities to return to teach in India. “Retirement age of the professors has also been increased and some of the retired professors are being called back to teach in the universities. However, such temporary measures will bring about impactful changes,” he added.

Like Japan, where all the universities follow a uniform educational pattern, India too must have a centralised system for the schools and universities to have strict guidelines on the courses and teaching methods.

Instead of eyeing the PhD holders and professors from abroad, the government should focus on nurturing local talent, and create skilled and experienced teachers.

Bhalla has been involved with research in big data analytics (BDA) and electronic health records standard, helping in creating a uniform standard in medical science and healthcare. This will create life time medical records, sharing information across hospitals and laboratories, through archival services. These huge collections of big data will also allow mass scale (population data) for medical research and studies.

“Research and compilation of medical data has been carried out across the globe. In India, C-DAC has been actively looking into standards for healthcare. These standards will make medical data sharable and help its transfer and storage,” he added.

These standardised records make data to make it language neutral that helps in sharing it among rural primary health centres. His research will be useful globally to deal with different terms and medical standards world-wide.

Japanese government, says Bhalla, is encouraging its universities to collaborate with India. Increasing globalisation has encouraged Japanese researchers to work in English.

The University of Aizu in association with few universities in India such as DU, IIIT Hyderabad, University of Hyderabad, NIT Delhi, IIT-Delhi, has started an annual conference on BDA in 2012. Several conferences held in Indian cities helped the researchers from both the countries to network and collaborate.


Subhash Bhalla

Sudden expansion of educational institut