 |
|
| EDUCATION TRIBUNE |
|
Beyond ‘foreign’ label Students develop device to read sign language Campus
Notes
|
|
|
Beyond ‘foreign’ label Now, only those Indian institutions which have been accorded the highest grade by the NAAC or NBA can partner a foreign university
THE latest move of the University Grants Commission (UGC) to make its approvals mandatory for all collaborations between foreign universities and Indian educational institutions would put a curb on the brand image race which private universities have been indulging in. This trend has been on the rise ever since private universities have mushroomed in the country. In a bid to attract more students, foreign collaborations appear to have become the latest tag line of private educational institutions, which also figure prominently in their brochures. This trend appears to have only added to the confusion among students while adding little value to their degrees. This was amply illustrated by the fact that several universities who had entered into such arrangements had either discontinued such collaborations after a year or two or had failed to find sufficient takers for such courses. While terming such collaborations as a mere image-building exercise, Pradeep Sharma, a senior academician, says, “They fail to serve any practical purpose as the Indian universities follow semester systems, while foreign universities run on credit-cum-point basis, which requires regular grading of students. With no option to synchronise the syllabus of the two universities, the students fail to bridge the gap and end up investing more time in a course.” He says such courses merely help those students who wish to settle abroad, that too to a limited extent, as against the popular claim of the universities that they enhance students’ employability. With hardly any institutional transformation to synchronise the syllabus and other academic requirements, such collaborations only add the ‘foreign’ tag to Indian institutions, offering little in terms of job assurance. “Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumulates in the form of inert facts”. This quote of Henry Adam aptly portrays the plight of knowledge gained through such collaborations. The UGC’s rider to allow only such universities which have received the highest accreditation grade from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) to be eligible for a tie-up with a foreign institution will help curb activities of private unrecognised universities that lure students with the prospect of a foreign degree without studying abroad. Further, Indian institutions, which have been given the highest grade by the NAAC or NBA, would be allowed to partner such collaborations. Each institution would have to ensure that they are approved by the UGC to be eligible for such tie-ups and the existing ones would have to seek the UGC’s approval within six months, failing which the UGC could withdraw their grant or recognition. Only those foreign institutions that figure among the top 500 in global QS ranking or Times Higher Education World University Rankings can enter into collaboration. These mandates will save exploitation of the vulnerable students who in a bid to enhance their employability skills opt for such courses. It is worth mentioning that scores of unapproved Indian educational institutions have been widely publicising their foreign collaborations at the time of admissions barely to enrol more students. Such universities would have to seek UGC approvals now. The manner in which students were being duped by fake universities is amply manifested in the figures released by the Association of Indian Universities which stated that of the 60 foreign education providers, who have programme collaboration with local institutions, only 25 local institutions were affiliated to Indian universities or approved by regulatory bodies. Only 32 of the 49 foreign institutions operating under twinning arrangements have approval or affiliation, with the total foreign education institutions having increased from 144 in 2000 to 631 in 2010. The maximum number of such universities were from the UK (158), followed by Canada (80) and the US (44). Though the Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operations) Bill 2010 has been pending before Parliament for the past two years, this UGC directive will help save the innocent students from investing their time and resources in courses which offer little for their future. This is especially so as cases of students being duped by such institutes is on the rise in the country.
|
||
|
Students develop device to read sign language
A group of students have developed a prototype device that reads sign language and translates its motions into words that are capable of being heard. Often, the communication barriers exist between those who can hear and those who cannot. Even though sign language has helped bridge such gaps, many people are still not fluent in its motions and hand shapes. Now that a group of University of Houston students has developed this prototype, the hearing impaired may soon have an easier time communicating with those who do not understand sign language. The students in UH’s engineering technology and industrial design programmes teamed up to develop the concept and prototype for ‘MyVoice’, a device that reads sign language and translates its motions into audible words. ‘MyVoice’ recently earned first place among student projects at the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE)-Gulf Southwest Annual Conference. The concept of ‘MyVoice’ focuses on a handheld tool with a built-in microphone, speaker, soundboard, video camera and monitor. It is placed on a hard surface, where it reads a user’s sign language motions. Once ‘MyVoice’ processes the movements, it then translates sign language into space through an electronic voice. Likewise, it would capture a person’s voice and can translate words into sign language, which is displayed on its monitor. The industrial designers researched the application of ‘MyVoice’ by reaching out to the deaf community to understand the challenges linked with others not understanding sign language. “The biggest difficulty was sampling together a databases of images of the sign languages. It involved 200-300 images per sign,” Jeffrey Seto, an engineering technology student, said. “The team was ecstatic when the prototype came together.” Right from its conceptual stage, ‘MyVoice’ evolved into a prototype that could translate a single phrase “A good job, Cougars.”
— ANI
|
||
|
Campus
Notes Emphasis on environmental
science studies
KEEPING in view the incidence of cancer and degradation of environment, the Central University of Punjab (CUP) in its fresh admission notice has laid emphasis on courses related to these problems. As per the admission notification, the university is offering a four-semester postgraduate programme and a six-semester Ph.D programme apart from a nine-semester integrated M.Sc-Ph.D programme in environment science and technology. Although the university has designed the syllabus for a wider base, the teaching and research projects pertaining to the course also address the environmental issues being faced in the state, more specifically in the Malwa belt that has become notorious for the increasing number of cancer cases. Dr Jai Rup Singh, Vice-Chancellor, said: “The university is concerned about the environmental issues being faced in the region, and our research work takes these issues into consideration.” Professor Ashok Kumar Dhawan of the Department of Environment Science and Technology, said, “The courses are aimed at a wider base, yet a major part of our focus in these courses is on the environmental issues being faced by the state, specifically the Malwa belt. “The teaching process, research projects and activities at the CUP reflect our focus on the health issues being faced in the Malwa region. This region has been registering an increasing number of cancer cases, presence of uranium in the soil, excessive use of pesticides and its health consequences,” he added. Construction delayed
The construction of the main campus of the university in Ghudda village, near Bathinda, is expected to be delayed. The university is presently functioning from a transit campus located on on the Bathinda-Mansa road. It is learnt that the firm awarded the contract for the construction of the main campus on 500 acres of land has demanded a price higher than that what it had quoted at the time of bidding for the contract.”The process of selecting the construction firm to be granted the project was quite a transparent one. Out of the total number of 84 plans, which had been submitted by various architects, three were shortlisted. The university had then put up voting boxes for the public to come and vote for one of the three plans," said a source at the university. The main campus was to be constructed in a phased manner. "The plan is to build the university in three phases to be completed by the years 2013, 2017 and 2022. Experts of all the centres are preparing their proposals that would include all the architectural and infrastructural requirements of these centres. The main campus will be built keeping in view all these," added the source. The land acquired by the university has been mired in controversies since last year. When the district administration had given the university the possession of the 484 acres of land, the land was videographed. However, after the couple of months, some farmers disturbed the entire land distribution by uprooting the pillars erected to demarcate the land. Owing to this, the construction of the boundary wall of the university was delayed. The university also acquired 16 acres of land to lay a 300-foot wide road. These 16 acres were earlier with the Irrigation Department and registered as a discarded water channel. Later, the land was given to the Forest Department. Varsity fails to recruit faculty
The staff-crunched university has been putting repeated advertisements to fill the vacant teaching and non-teaching posts. However, lack of connectivity and the area being in the backwaters of Punjab is posing a hurdle in getting the faculty from outside the state. In an advertisement dated February 9, 2012, the university had invited applications for the post of assistant professor in the centres of biosciences, environmental science and technology and other subjects. In an earlier advertisement, the CUP had announced that it was establishing 68 centres under 12 schools and would follow an open (rolling) application system for the recruitment of faculty. Platform for interaction
CUP has been providing a platform for interaction of its students and the faculty with scholars and intellectuals of high repute. As part of its series of seminars and lectures, the university has invited speakers from various national and international universities to deliver lectures on a variety of topics. To have a wider audience and interaction base, many of these seminars and lectures are open to general public as well. Over the last few months, the university has invited renowned scientist Prof Yash Pal to deliver a lecture on the future of education; Dr Sumel Singh to discuss about research methodology and Dr T.C. Goyal to focus on work ethics. On the occasion of its second foundation day, the university invited Prof G.P. Talwar, former director of the National Institute of Immunology, to talk to the students and faculty members. Eminent personalities who have been invited by the university for seminars and lectures include Prof Gurjeet Singh, Vice-Chancellor, Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Patiala; Dr Kulvinder Singh Saini, director, Biotech, Ranbaxy Research laboratories; Dr Pritam Singh from Oxford Brookes University; renowned Hindi critic and analyst Prof Ramesh Kuntal Megh; Dr Gurwattan from the University of Wisconsin; Punjabi writers Navtej Bharati and Ajmer Rhode; and economist Sucha Singh Gill. — Contributed by Nikhila Pant Dhawan
|
