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Reform affiliation system
Students opting for online testing
Campus Notes
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Reform affiliation system THE system of colleges’ affiliation to a university was adopted in India on the pattern of the University of London in 1857. Though the British did not find it viable and abandoned it sometime in 1858, we still continue to cling on to it even after more than 150 years now. Eminent educationist V.C. Kulandaiswamy, former Vice-Chancellor of Anna University, Madurai Kamaraj University and Indira Gandhi National Open University, describes the affiliation system in higher education as a “curse”. He says, “There is no salvation for higher education unless you free, at least, the large number of deserving institutions from this anachronistic and fossilised bondage.” The affiliation system, as the experts say, can be effective only for a small number of affiliating colleges, but when it comes to managing hundred of colleges by a single university, it stifles the quality and the very purpose of a university. Today, as we have more than 20,000 colleges with about 400 universities, there are universities in the country which have to manage as many as 300 colleges. The phenomenal increase in the number of affiliating colleges and a corresponding lesser increase in the number of universities have put an enormous workload on the universities in terms of performing various affiliation functions, reducing them just as “examination conducting bodies”. The background paper prepared by the University Grants Commission (UGC) to formulate the action plan on reforms of affiliation system reflects that “about 90 per cent of the undrergraduate students, 70 per cent of the postgraduate students and 80 per cent of the faculty members are from the affiliated colleges only which pose an issue of quality impact on manpower generated through these institutions”. Against this scenario, reforming the present affiliation system is high on the agenda of the UGC and a nine-member expert committee, headed by former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Madras, S. P. Thyagarajan, has been formed to formulate the action plan on “Reforms of Affiliation System”. It has been written to the Education Secretaries of all the states to provide suggestions as to how the system of affiliation can be streamlined, restructured or altogether scrapped to be replaced by a new system. The National Knowledge Commission (NKC), meanwhile, has underlined the need for 1,500 new universities in the country. It recommends for providing autonomy to the colleges either on individual basis or cluster basis. The NKC has also proposed the establishment of a Central Board of Undergraduate Education along with the State Boards of Undergraduate Education on the pattern of school education boards to perform related affiliation functions. Besides this, the NKC has also recommended that some of the existing colleges can be remodeled as community colleges while new colleges should also be established as community colleges to be affiliated to the central or state boards. The Duraisami and Sudhansu Bhusan Committee, set up by the UGC, has suggested that there should not be more than 20,000 students per university and as per this critarion, we need to have about another 735 universities in next four years in order to increase the gross enrolment rate from the present 10 per cent to 15 per cent. There are other proposals also like upgrading more and more relatively better colleges to “autonomous colleges” or “degree-awarding colleges” or “deemed-to-be-universites”. The idea of starting the community colleges seems to be good as these colleges can empower underprivileged sections of society by contesting, among other things, their elimination and exclusion from the higher education system. Today, we already have more than 150 community colleges running successfully across 17 states in the country. Based on the findings of a study carried out in 2003, the Madras Centre for Research and Development of Community Education (MCRDCE), advocates that the model of the community college system could be replicated all over the country. The study puts that “the key words of the community college system are access, flexibility in curriculum and teaching methodology, cost effectiveness and equal opportunity in collaboration with industrial, commercial and service sectors of the local area and responding to the social needs and issues of the local community”. Whether the proposed boards for undergraduate education would be able to deliver the goods, is doubtful. It is because the experience with school education boards, particularly in some states, has not been very encouraging so far. In many states, the school boards deny transparency that lead to corrupt practices. They have a general lack of personal commitment towards students’ problems and have largely failed in their pursuit to win people’s trust and confidence. The proposed boards for undergraduate education are likely to be no different either. Nonetheless, the UGC is rigorously studying the suitability of each of the proposed alternative models and some other models prevalent in countries like the UK, Australia, Canada, Philippines and Finland. A final decision would be arrived at only after detailed discussions with all stakeholders. In a situation, where the issues like having a good work culture and an in-built system of rewards based on performance remain unaddressed, finding a suitable alternative model to the present system of colleges’ affiliation to a university would not be a small achievement. However, the answer lies only in the future.
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Students opting for online testing RECENTLY, there has been a remarkable updating in tools for the online testing in competitive examination for entrance in different streams. In fact, online testing seems to have become an inseparable part of students worksheet while preparing for any examination, besides classes. The difference now is the improvement in level of checking details for increasing the pace of attempting questions and identifying the weak areas. TCYonline.com and Extramarks.com are just a couple of sites offering question papers for increasing the competency level in solving papers set to a time clock. If the number of students opting for online testing is any indication, then TCYonline.com, one of the pioneers in online testing, today has 2.75 lakh registered users as compared to only 40,000, earlier this year. A student can choose any test from the portal and can challenge any other student or a group of students. These students compete real time and get to know who stands where. Students from all parts of the country are competing against each other daily. Since every student’s speed, assimilation and preparation level is different from any other student, these new testing tools give students the complete cruise-control of exam preparation. The online testing has reached high standards, particularly for those preparing for the CAT and other elite examination, including GRE and GMAT. Tests are also available for MBA, engineering medical, UPSC and CBSE. The benefits for the student include: saving time by attempting only relevant questions, easy access to content of different authors, access to rich repository of content and self-driven tool. These new testing tools can help boost the modern students’ exam preparation. Now, they can fine-tune their bench-marking by customising length, number of questions, types of questions, number of sections, difficulty levels, negative markings, all leading to better performance. According to TCYonline.com CEO Kamal Wadhera, customisation is key to preparing for majority of the entrance examination. The online script allows subject-wise examination fixed to a time clock. It also has provision of comparative analysis with other students who attempted the same exam. The comparisons can be made section-wise and also allows preparation at many other microscopic levels, including timing. Elaborating on the ‘Test Generator’, he said, “Its concept is akin to an Olympic athlete who after practising in mud and sand, fine-tunes on various aspects, daily raising his difficulty level and makes a gold podium finish one day.” This is one of the major salient features of the web-portal. Thousands of free analytics are available on the site for the benefit of students. With the help of these analytics, students can better benchmark themselves against the best in the country. Ultimately, they come to know where they stand before they appear for any major competitive or entrance exam.
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Campus Notes The Agricultural Meteorology Department of the university has been declared the best centre for the multi-faceted services being rendered in weather forecasts. Director of Research, Dr S. S. Pahuja, said the Department of Meteorology had bagged the top spot amongst 28 such departments established at state agricultural universities all over India. Complementing the university agricultural meteorologists, Dr Pahuja urged them to continue working on weather forecasts for farmers with added zeal. Dr Pahuja appealed to the farmers and all those involved in the development of agriculture, animal husbandry and rural development to take into account the scientific climatic predictions issued by HAU.
Entomology course
A three-week training course on recent approaches in storage and household entomology was held on the campus recently. The course was organised by the Centre of Advanced Study (CAS) and the Department of Entomology of the university. Scientists from different agricultural universities and research institutes of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) attended the course. Dr S. S. Pahuja gave away certificates to the participants. Speaking on the occasion, he emphasised the need for saving food grains from pests and diseases to meet the increasing food requirement of the country. He said insects and pests were responsible for damaging 8 to 10 per cent of food grains every year in the country. As a result, the country was suffering a loss of nearly Rs 2,000 crore each year. In view of magnitude of the problem, he called upon farm scientists to come forward and show the farmers how to minimise losses. He also stressed on the use of safer insecticides and other methods of control of insects to avoid health risks. Head of Entomology Department-cum-Director, CAS, Dr H. R. Rohilla, disclosed that 22 such trainings had been conducted to sharpen knowledge and skills of farm scientists. Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak
Deans appointed
Dr R. P. Hooda, Vice-Chancellor, MDU, has appointed Deans of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science and Social Sciences. While Prof Arun Nanda, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, has been appointed Dean of the department with immediate effect for a period of three years, Prof K. S. Sangwan, Department of Sociology, will be the Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, with effect from December 20, 2008, for a period of three years. —
Contributed by Raman Mohan and Bijendra Ahlawat |
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