CAMPUS
Admissions over, a new chapter is going to begin
Gaurav Choudhury

Delhi University campus wears a busy look.

All appears set for the beginning of the new academic year in Delhi University (DU) on July 15. The rather cumbersome process of admissions being over, students are looking forward to a new beginning in their academic life as it marks the transition from school to college.

For freshers, the atmosphere presents a whole new experience – away from the regimentation from schools and to the more carefree ambience in colleges.

While some students had the fortune of getting admitted in the college and course of their choice, others had to choose between either of the two. The UGC’s reported categorisation that DU no longer appeared among the major centres of excellence of the country, did not act as a deterrent as thousands of students thronged the campus as admission forms were made available. Braving sizzling temperatures and energy sapping humidity, students from all parts of the country converged onto the campus to collect and submit forms with the hope of securing admission in one of the preferred colleges. That more than 15 lakh admission forms were sold by the DU authorities, is itself an indication of the fact that DU continues to remain the most sought after campus in the country.

“I am looking forward to the college days. No uniform, and pursuing a course of particular interest to me”, said Jaswinder, an admission-seeker.

For most, the journey to campus from their native air marks the beginning of a new phase in their lives, as they would be taking the first tentative steps away from the protective cocoon of their parents.

With limited hostel seats available in the campus, for outstation students, scouting for a suitable accommodation is another ordeal that they would have to go through.

“I have been looking for houses on a shared accommodation basis for the last few days. Some of them are good, but expensive. While others are dingy to say the least”, said Daniel, a student from Nagaland.

M Tech at IIT

Public sector energy major, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a two-year full time M Tech programme at IIT, Delhi.

This is the second MoU between the two organisations. As per the first MoU, 75 NTPC executives are already M Tech from IIT, Delhi and the last batch of 25 is scheduled to come out of the institute by the end of this year. The revised MoU stipulates a four semester two-year programme against the current three-semester programme.

As per the MoU, a batch of 100 executives of NTPC is to be sponsored for a two-year full-time M.Tech. programme at IIT, Delhi.

As an innovative HR practice, NTPC started this programme of learning for NTPC executives at IIT, Delhi in power generation technology. The course curriculum was specially designed, keeping in view the requirement of power generation and changing technologies.

Prof R .S. Sirohi, Director, IIT, complimented the efforts of NTPC in bringing forth the industry-academic interface between the two leading organisations of the country. Director (HR) of NTPC, Mr K. K. Sinha appreciated the IIT’s contribution in conducting the programme and said that this programme has certainly enhanced the knowledge and added value in the mindset of participants to meet the growing challenges of the power sector.

Bio-informatics

To meet the growing demand of the professionally trained personnel in bio-informatics, Bioinformatics Institute of India (BII) has introduced one-year diploma programmes in three different disciplines – Cheminformatics, Bioinformatics, and Biomedical Informatics.

“Bio-informatics is the new global wave. Companies all over the world are resorting to this field to find new avenues and research outputs to help replace scarce natural resources. The ultimate goal of bio-informatics is to support the principles of biological sciences and to create a global market opportunity”, said the Director of BII, Mr R. K Mehrotra. BII was set up in 2001 as a non-profit making society with bioinformatics as its area of focus and is promoted by a pool of professionals drawn from various disciplines.

The institute is also planning to set up its own research and development center.

New Course in ITES

Information Technology solution provider, Akiko Sherman Infotech, has introduced a course in Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES), focussing mainly on call center, customer support, marketing and sales industry.

Called the Akiko Callnet, the programme has computer foundation, applications development using .NET technologies, system integration, web development, project management methodologies, network solutions, enterprise resource planning, enterprise customer relationship management etc.

The company has tie-ups with global market leaders such as IBM, Cisco systems, TrainNow, and Wax Services.

Of ragging blues and worn-out nerves
Tarun Gill

New Delhi, July 10
As only five days are left for the 2002-2003 academic session to begin, tension has mounted among the newly admitted students of Delhi University. They are paranoid about the first day of their college.

Though DU has already issued guidelines to all colleges of DU on banning ragging and taking appropriate action against it, that has not been enough to allay the apprehensions of the fresh students, as they feel that ragging cannot be stopped and can lead to negative repercussions.

"Last year, there were many students who tried to commit suicide. Some of them were harassed no end, as they were confronted with ruthless seniors in their respective colleges and were asked to do things which affected them emotionally'', said Mridula Manchanda, a worried and newly admitted student of Hindu College.

Maximum ragging cases have been reported in the hostels of various colleges as mostly the ragging starts only after the lectures end.

"I think hostellers get the real taste of what ragging is all about. And it is also the revenge factor, which plays in the minds of seniors as they like to do to others what their seniors did to them the previous year'', said Parul Suri, a hosteller of Miranda House.

On the contrary, it has also been felt by a number of students who secured admission last year in their desired college that ragging is healthy as long as it doesn't affect the futcha (fresher) psychologically.

"I really regret that I didn't attend the first few days of college as I was quite nervous to attend because of ragging. But now I have realised that ragging is surely fun and I should have been there as now I feel quite left out in college for the simple reason that I don't know anybody'', said Pratap Chand of Hansraj College.

MDU teachers oppose UGC move
Our Correspondent

Rohtak, July 10
The Maharshi Dayanand University Teachers’ Association (MDUTA) has called upon the teaching community to oppose the move to impose the ‘national syllabus’ by the University Grants Commission (UGC), ignoring the Academic Councils of different universities.

A decision to oppose the UGC move was taken at a recent meeting of the executive committee of the association. Dr Vazir Nehra and Mr Himmat Singh Ratnoo, president and general secretary of the association, respectively, today said the UGC recently sent several ‘model curricula’ to the Registrars of all the universities in the country asking them to forward the same directly to the Deans and Heads of the departments concerned for their imposition. Besides, they said the UGC had demanded, under the threat of ‘unpleasant action’, that the process of revision of curricula based on its ‘model curricula’ be completed in an extremely compressed timeframe of about three months.

YOUNG VOICE
‘Minimum cut-off list of our college is too high’

Rahul Pandit, a student of Sri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), who is waiting for his B. Com result, is at the same time looking for future prospects.