New IITs are Facing Trouble to Get Attention from Recruiters

This placement season, many of the new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), are facing a stiff competition in getting enough attention from recruiters. They are playing hard to have their students get picked for a well-settled career.

Most institutes are letting the recruiters take their as much time as they need to select the desired students, despite having little space, insufficient resources and low scope of negotiations to make.

Though this ongoing third edition witnessed better placement scenario than previous ones, yet young IITs are struggling to attract firms to offer job prospects to them.

A placement officer from a newer IIT told that those companies who earlier have already come for placement but did not select any student have not looked back this season. All the while, the students who rejected companies offers in the earlier batch, refused to register again. Besides, the gloomy economy can also add up to the bleak job offer factors.

Faculty of IIT Patna told about the companies taking tests of students and most of them not turning up for the second interview round.

Placement in IIT-Jodhpur commenced on December 1 in sync with others, observing 5 companies - Morgan Stanley, Cognizant, Cisco, Samsung and Oracle offering jobs at their Indian offices. However, these many recruiters are still insufficient and students from mechanical engineering department still need to be picked. To accommodate recruiters the IIT-Jodhpur had to rent 3 blocks of the Jodhpur University.

Up till now Cognizant has selected 7 students from IIT-Jodhpur which makes it the largest recruiter and Morgan Stanley offered the highest salary of Rs 13 lakh per annum.

IIT-Gandhinagar with 44 M.Tech students in addition to 120 final year graduates is expecting 21 registered companies to arrive on its campus for placements, most of which were IT firms. Of the 21, 19 companies have visited and made 39 offers. The maximum students were picked by E-clerx i.e. 12 students.

No slowdown at placements, IIT-K students bag $210,000 pay package

No slowdown at placements, IIT-K students bag $210,000 pay package

Engineering graduates from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have been getting extremely lucrative job offers from MNCs as well as Indian companies despite the poor state of the economy. The number of companies visiting IIT campuses has gone up this year and several graduates have landed jobs with pay packages of several lakh rupees.

The highest pay package is as high as $210,000 per annum, which has been offered to three students of IIT-Kanpur by Oracle US, confirmed sources in the placement team.

Earlier, there were reports that two of them had declined the offer given by the Oracle US and instead took the Job at Google, but sources confirm that none of the students declined any such offer.

  

The highest domestic package at IIT-Kanpur is Rs 40 lakh per annum, which has been offered to three Computer Science graduates, according to sources. However, they declined to divulge any information about the company's name.

Meanwhile, amidst the good news a few students have been left disappointed as they were eyeing Facebook. However, the social networking firm is not visiting the campuses this year, placement co-ordinators said. Facebook had offered lucrative packages to students in the last few years.

Though, a student of IIT-Bombay managed to get a pre-placements offer (PPO) from Facebook.

Flipkart has picked 36 students while EXL Services has offered jobs to 34 students. At least 250 IIT-K students had accepted the job offers till now.

Google USA, Orcale USA, Linkedin USA, InMobi, EXL Services, Flipkart, Mitsubishi Japan and Sony Japan are some of the companies amongst others which are participating in the placement drive at IIT-Kanpur.

Over 80 companies have visited IIT-Kanpur till day 5th of the placements and a total of 250 domestic and international companies will participate while in IIT-Bombay 230 companies will visit the college.

The number of startups participating in the placement drive has also increased. "Many startups have requested to participate in the placement drive and students are also willing to join them. The packages they are offering are competitive and even some start-ups are paying higher than many big companies," said IIT-Bombay Assistant Placement officer SK Mehta.

To meet the demand of companies and with the large number of participants, IIT-Bombay college is conducting the interview at a separate 10 storey building for the first time. "We are using 10 storey building for conducting placement drive. More than 170 rooms are being used for the interviews," said Mehta. The placement interview generally goes on till 2 am in the initial days.

In four days, 123 domestic and international companies have participated and made 495 job offers. Samsung has picked 42 students, Goldman Sachs 16 students, Microsoft offered jobs to 9 students, ITC to 7 students, Microsoft Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Conductor to 18 students, US-based Epic to 18 students.

First phase of placements at IITs have started on December 1 and will continue till December last second week. The number of companies visiting the campuses is between 200 and 250 in the top IITs.

Education companies: long road to recovery

Shares of education services companies Career Point Ltd, Educomp Solutions Ltd and Everonn Education Ltd are pale shadows of their former selves. While the Career Point stock halved, the latter gave up three-fourths of their value in the past one year.

Unbridled expansion in their heyday and a sudden change in the business environment have hit the companies hard. Educomp Solutions and EveronnEducation are losing money. Profits at Career Point fell sharply, as its bread-and-butter tutorial business was hit by changes in the engineering entrance examinations.

Still, the stocks continue to see lots of action. All three breached their upper circuit limits at least once in the past week and rallied over 10% each. The spurt in the share prices is perplexing as fundamentally no significant development happened during the week.

That said, the companies are moving in the right direction to set their houses in order. Beleaguered Everonn Education has received the approval of the Madras high court to restructure its business. In line with its new promoters’ core expertise in school management, the company has decided to focus on K12 schools (kindergarten to Class 12) and technology-based education services. To reduce losses, Everonn will slowly exit the higher education and capital intensive businesses, the company’s managing director A. Srinivasan told The Times of India. With debt restructuring in process, interest costs are coming down.

Educomp Solutions has also applied for debt restructuring. The company is curbing capital intensive businesses, optimizing the existing school capacities, increasing the focus on collections and it has outsourced the logistical and hardware responsibilities to another firm. Career Point, on the other hand, is ramping up the formal education business, which is more stable in nature. The company expects the contribution of the formal education business to overall revenue to reach 50% in four years, from less than a quarter now.

Investor interest continues to remain poor in most of the education stocks. The sharp fall in share prices has battered investor confidence. As Daljeet S. Kohli, head of research at IndiaNivesh Securities Pvt. Ltd, points out, for investor interest to revive two things have to happen. One is consistency. The operational performance of education companies has been volatile. Enrolments, schools and classroom additions are prone to sudden spikes and slumps. Innovative and intelligent planning of courses can reduce the impact of seasonality on revenues.

The second requirement is pruning debt. Despite being in restructuring mode for some time, companies (except Career Point) are not able to bring debt levels to sustainable levels. Sure, they are refocusing and taking steps to improve profitability. But with no signs of stability emerging, investors would do well to remain cautious about the stocks despite their low valuations.

Crore-plus packages back at IIT-M but Google not offering the highest

After a gap of three years, crore-plus salaries are once again back at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M). Two B.Tech (final year-computer science engineering) students at the premier institute got offers of $210,000 (Rs 1.31 crore) each for international roles at a US-based company. 

The dollar package has risen 40 percent from $150,000, while domestic offer this year increased by nearly 70 percent to Rs 48.6 lakh a year against Rs 28.8 lakh last year, according to Lt Col (Retd.) Jayakumar, Deputy Registrar (Students and Placement), IIT-M. 

While Google offered packages of Rs 92 lakh to three students, a report in The Times of India said Oracle topped the list with the crore-plus packages. AFP Samsung Electronics, Epic, Microsoft India R&D, Oracle, LinkedIn, Deutsche Bank, ITC, and Google were some of the companies that visited the campus. 

About 100 students got placed in 25 multinational companies on day one of this year’s placement season which began Sunday. Last year, 22 companies recruited 95 students on Day One. As many as 1,366 students had registered for placement this year whereas it was 1,282 last year. According to a report in The Times of India Microsoft and Google are likely to unveil compensation packages of around $110,000 (Rs 68 lakh) to shortlisted candidates at IIT-Bombay. Google has offered $120,000 (Rs 74.8 lakh) at IIT-Guwahati. 

Google US also offered the highest pay of around Rs 93 lakh at IIT Kharagpur. Across IITs, the top offers have come in from the likes of Schlumberger, Mitsubishi, Apple and Oracle, and Indian start-ups such as Zomato.

Studying online opens up a new world of opportunity

Distance learning is gaining in respect and popularity as a way to achieve an MBA, wherever you are in the world.

"We are very proud to be running a high-quality MBA in cyberspace," announced Professor Julius Weinberg, vice-chancellor of Kingston University, earlier this year, as the university launched its first distance learning Master of Business Administration degree.

The university is one of the UK's most respected providers of MBAs and has already spread its wings as far as Moscow, delivering MBA courses in the Russian capital. But in venturing into cyberspace, offering prestigious UK degrees to students based thousands of miles away, it is joining a sizeable and ever-growing club. Cyberspace, increasingly, is where the MBA of the 21st century is being forged.

There are more than 20 UK universities and business schools offering MBAs and similar qualifications off campus, attracting students from all over the world. Most of the students will need to visit the UK at some point, but they are spared the hefty costs of a full-time residential course and, thanks to flexible teaching methods and modular courses, can combine part-time study with full-time employment.

Kingston's new distance learning MBA, beginning in January 2014, is fairly typical of what the UK has to offer. The cost of the course, spread out over three years, is £16,000, compared with £18,560 for a full-time MBA, a saving of £2,560; and after a two-week induction in Kingston, students can continue their studies online, wherever they are, be it a bedroom, a café or an aeroplane.

Learning on the hoof may not compete emotionally with the old university ideal of long lazy days on campus, arguing about Keynes and Marx, but it is an option more and more people are choosing – or being forced to choose in straitened economic times.

"The way the global job market is changing has led to much more pressurised working lives," says Professor Jean-Noel Ezingeard, dean of the Kingston Business School. "It is increasingly hard for people to take time off work to study – hence the attraction of an MBA delivered by a leading business school which incorporates the flexibility to study at home, in the office or while travelling."

The new course has attracted interest from over 70 countries, with students from Russia, the Americas and the Middle East leading the pack. The distance learning model, which can be traced back to the 19th century, when London University pioneered the concept, has never been more popular. Almost a third of all MBA enrolments in the UK are now for distance learning courses, according to a survey last year by AMBA, the Association of MBAs.

As a stepping stone to a fatter pay cheque, the distance learning MBA still lags a little behind the residential MBA. The average salary of a graduate after completing a distance learning MBA is around £80,106, that of a graduate of a full-time MBA £85,865.

But that gap is closing fast, and the differential in earnings needs to be offset against the significantly higher cost of residential courses. The £2,560 which distance learners at Kingston will save is dwarfed by the £10,000-odd which they would save at the Manchester Business School or the London School of Business and Finance.

Students enrolling for distance learning MBAs are typically a few years older than those opting for the conventional MBA. At the Open University, where the MBA course costs £14,425, the average age of students on the course is 37. They come from 126 countries and can take between 30 and 84 weeks to complete the course, according to their personal circumstances. Flexibility – and the more flexibility the better – remains the guiding principle of distance learning.

Once rather esoteric, the distance learning MBA has now become such a familiar feature of higher education in the UK that those shopping around for courses are spoiled for choice. Almost all institutions offering such MBAs are accredited with AMBA, AACSB (the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) or EQUIS (the European Quality Improvement System), or sometimes all three, creating an alphabet soup in which it is easy to flounder.

The closest thing to a league table is the annual QS Distance Online MBA Rankings, which takes into account employability, student quality, diversity, faculty and teaching, class experience and accreditation.

The distance learning MBA offered by the Warwick Business School emerged as the top-ranked such course in the UK in 2012, with Manchester Business School, Durham Business School and Imperial College London also scoring highly.

The most important thing for students looking to enrol for a distance learning MBA is to find a course tailored to their needs, with modules compatible with their choice of career and a pattern of study suited to their personal circumstances.

IIT-M launches Ph.D. scholarship programme

A Ph.D. scholarship programme was launched at the Indian Institute of Technology – Madras, recently to provide the next generation of researchers in India and Melbourne world-class academic supervision and support.

The Melbourne-India Postgraduate Programme (MIPP) will link the University of Melbourne with leading research institutes in India – Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore (IISC), Indian Institute of Technology – Kanpur (IITK) and Indian Institute of Technology – Madras (IITM).

The $3 million programme, a joint initiative of the four institutions would provide 16 Ph.D. scholarships and associated support for research exchanges for the next three years. The programme will commence in 2014 and will be open to Ph. D. students enrolled at the University Of Melbourne, to be co-supervised by staff at IITK, IITM or IISC. Students enrolled in one of the three Indian institutions will have access to co-supervision with Melbourne academics.

Prof. Glyn Davis, vice-chancellor, Melbourne University, said the new programme was a value addition to Melbourne’s extensive scholarship offerings.

Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT-Madras, said, “IIT-Madras looks forward to very productive collaboration between faculties of both the institutions with a vibrant student exchange programme at all levels, particularly the research scholars.”

Prof. R. Nagarajan, Dean, International and Alumni Relations, IIT-Madras, said, “IIT-Madras has embarked on a systematic programme of research collaboration with leading universities across the globe. We envision a four-stage process, starting with faculty interaction, leading to research scholar exchanges and joint supervision of Ph.Ds, culminating over time in joint doctorate programs.”

How IT education companies are fighting slowdown

Education technology companies are looking to sell their services directly to students as they seek alternative avenues to push their ware at a time when their traditional customer base — schools are defaulting on payments and adding to their debt burden. "What we are looking at is, how we can interact directly with the end-user. 

In this case, the primary beneficiary in the whole process is mainly the student. We have about 4,000 schools currently and if we are looking at even a 1,000 kids in each school, we could reach about 4 million kids," said Chetan Mahajan, business head at HCL Learning. HCL Learning, which began three years ago, is further ahead on the path of directly targeting schools as compared to its peers. 

Last month, the company launched MyEduWorld, which has course and learning material for school children. Traditionally, companies like Educomp, NIIT, Everonn and HCL Learning sold a combination of hardware, software and learning material to schools on multi-year contracts, but as schools defaulted on payments and the market slowdown impacted the demand for education products, service providers have been struggling. Educomp has cut about 3,500 jobs and Everonn is restructuring its business, looking to exit the hardware-supplying business entirely. 

Educomp, which has struggled with its schools business, is in the process of launching products for individual students. "We are focusing on launching student-centric products. We will be launching Uniclass — a low-cost product that enables content access for individual learner. 

It is the key focus for us and going forward we will be enhancing our product range targeting individual learners," said Shantanu Prakash, chairman and MD, Educomp. As a business model, selling directly to students has till now proved itself as a profitable one. 

Meritnation, an e-learning website backed by Naukri.com's owner Info Edge, earned Rs 9.8 crore as revenue from operation but posted a loss of Rs 21.7 crore for the financial year-ended March 2013. The company spent Rs 9.5 crore, about as much as its revenue, on advertising and promotions.

 "What is happening here is in a sense category creation. This is an untested category. We won't spend big money on advertising because that is a huge expense, we would rather target students through schools for now," HCL Learning's Mahajan said. HCL Learning has sales of about Rs 100 crore.Other education technology companies are taking a wait-andwatch approach. 

"We are studying the retail market and at an appropriate time we will have solutions on iPad and mobile phones as well, which are under development right now. If we find the market is conducive, we will take a call at that moment," said Hemant Sethi, president of school learning solutions at NIIT. 
But despite the problems, the schools business, which is the mainstay of the education business, is not going away. "There are instances where schools have defaulted or delayed payments beyond reasonable time frames. 

However, alarge majority of schools do pay in a timely fashion and it still makes a lot of sense for us to do business with schools," Educomp's Prakash said. Industry experts think that sooner than later the companies will have to look at alternate sales channels, if growth in traditional channels doesn't pick up.

Pleasant surprise for IITs ahead of placement season

For the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), this placement season may be much beyond their expectations. IITs say, given the economic scenario, they expected placements to be a muted affair, but the response from companies has been quite good. 

There is more. Placement cells have recorded an increase of 10-20% in average salary levels. The highest salary offered has seen an increase of around 20-90 per cent as compared to last year. Final placements on IIT campuses begin on December 1.

"Given the slowdown, we wondered if the placements would be as decent as last year but a good number of companies have confirmed participation allaying our fears," said a placement official from IIT Bombay.

A US-based software major has offered the highest salary (so far) of Rs 1.30 crore per annum, to an IIT Bombay student. However, an institute official said this cannot be confirmed till placements begin as the final offer has not been made yet. Last year Samsung (Korea) offered the highest salary at Rs 80 lakh per annum. 

IIT Bombay will see 1,600 students sitting for placements this year and expects around 250-270 companies to participate."Some US companies have doubled the salaries this year against what was offered last year," the placement official added. 

IIT Bombay said this year there is a lot of interest from software companies. Microsoft, Oracle, LinkedIn, Facebook, Goldman Sachs, Shell and  Samsung are  a few companies which have confirmed participation so far. 

Even IIT Kanpur and Kharagpur (IIT-KGP) are expecting salaries to be better than last year.  The institutes said IT giants like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo will be visiting the campus during placements next month. 

"There is misleading speculation that none of the US companies are coming to IITs for placements. This is not true. Some of these giants have taken care of their requirements through pre-placement offers (PPOs) which is why they are not coming. However, major IT, consulting, finance and core engineering companies like ITC, Microsoft, Google and Yahoo have confirmed their participation in the placements at IIT-KGP this year," said Sudhir Barai, head - training and placement at IIT-KGP.

For IIT KGP, feedback from recruiters has been "very good". "The number of companies participating at KGP has increased from 180 last year to 220 this year.  The feedback from recruiters have been very good and salaries will be higher than last year," said Barai. The batch size at IIT KGP this year is over 2000 students.

Seconding Barai is Vimal Kumar, chairman - training and placement at IIT Kanpur who said that global firms like Google, Microsoft and Amazon will be visiting its campus.  

"Some companies have dropped out after confirming but it is not alarming. This happens every year. However, salaries will be higher or at least like last year," said Kumar. IIT Kanpur will roughly see 200 firms participating in the placements process for a batch size of over 1000 students.  Other firms likely to participate at IIT Kanpur placements include Oracle, Mitsubishi, Diamond Consulting, Crédit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs, among others.

IIT Madras could not be reached for comments. 

HRD sets up panel to screen graft plaints

Faced with regular instances of allegation of corruption and other misdemeanors against the heads of central educational institutions like IITs, IIMs, NITs and central universities, the HRD ministry has set up a committee for initial scrutiny of the complaints against them and other senior functionaries.

The ministry has argued that whenever the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) gets a complaint it directs the ministry to conduct an investigation and give the report usually within 12 weeks. The ministry said its vigilance wing also receive complaints from other sources as well against officials, including certain vice-chancellors of the universities and chairmen of the NITs/IIMs/IITs. It said, "In the absence of any special mechanism in place to look into the allegations investigation is assigned to ministry officials. Some of the heads of the institutions, including vice-chancellors against whom such complaints are lodged and investigation is ordered by the CVC, are renowned academics and a fact finding enquiry against them by an officer of the ministry who are not of sufficient higher level often embarrasses not only the person investigated against but also the officer conducting such an inquiry."

The ministry said it has also been found that many complaints are found to emanate not on merits of the allegations but out of inter-personal academic rivalries.The new committee will conduct a preliminary scrutiny of such complaints and also consider the response on the allegations leveled in the complaints to decide whether a full-fledged inquiry is called for. The panel will consist of people who are still active in the university system and have sufficient experience.In recent times, former director of IIT, Kharagpur and some of its senior professors and director IIT, Patna have been investigated on several charges. There are allegations of corruption against vice-chancellor of the Mahatma Gandhi International Hindu University, Wardha, as well as various other central government educational institutions.

No-show by US companies at campus placements, techies worried

American presence at India's campus placements this year will be conspicuous by its absence. Apart from Facebook that isn't visiting any of the IITs, most US companies that do not have operations in India have not registered for placements at the country's tech schools. There's no trace yet of Twitter, which paid big bucks in the last recruitment season. Slot Zero, the promising opening day of campus placements on December 1, has probably never looked less American. 

While most students and faculty members were tight-lipped about the no-show of American companies, several job aspirants said the US visa issue last year was a great concern and many American companies that hire in large numbers—and with big pay packets—had decided to stay away from Indian engineering college campuses now. Last year, the annual quota of 65,000 H1-B work visas were snapped up by job-immigrants even before graduating techies had their first degree in hand, forcing many to take an unpaid vacation to work at the US companies' India offices or fly to another country for a year. 

Smart IITians who fear a similar repeat occurrence this time around are filling up forms and making alternative profile plans, both local and international. 

"There are more Japanese firms coming to IIT-Bombay than companies with operations solely in the USA," said Avijit Chaterjee, chairman of IIT-Bombay's placement cell. Japanese firms like Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Uhuru Software and Sony Japan have made their way to the top slots. 
Apart from that, the bad economy has seen little attrition; most companies said they have fewer vacancies to fill. 

IIT-Madras placement advisor Babu Viswanathan said getting a US visa was a big problem last year but it is too early to say if there will be a "noticeable drop" in students who will be offered a profile in the US this year too. "Also," he cautioned, "companies can have a change of mind and may decide to come anytime during the placement process." 

Sources at IIT-Delhi said, "Two large IT companies with operations in the US are not coming; that is our biggest loss. But there are about five new international companies coming for the first time, including some Japanese ones." 


Comparing notes over dim sum, graduating students at IIT-Kanpur underwent a semester-long language course. Students picked up the Japanese language and a few finer details of Japanese culture so that they are better prepared for interviews. By January, this college will release a placement brochure in Japanese, apart from one in English. 


The placement team in Kanpur has forecast that technology, politics and economic factors will alter the geographical distribution of companies coming on their campus and a multi-lingual placement brochure— with students' profiles in German, French, Japanese and English—will be released from next year. 
Among the American companies that have promised to come this year are gaming company Pocket Gems, Epic Systems, Rocket Fuel and Tower Research. Then there are US firms like Microsoft, Google, Oracle, Schlumberger that have registered; however, they will pick fewer candidates, many for their India offices. "These companies have a good relation with the campuses and they may come and pick a student or two," said a student on the placement committee. 


There was a time when computer science students were high currency; they were plucked by companies that offered them dollar dreams and flew them out no sooner they graduated. This year, with not many greenbacks arriving, candidates from other branches are feeling the heat too. "If CS students are all not going to get absorbed by IT firms, consulting and finance companies are going to fall over each other to bag them. That is going to affect candidates from other branches that are not so popular," said a student. 
Clearly, many things are working to alter the placement landscape. Recruitment season on Indian campuses, said an optimist placement member, is going to get a more global flavour. 

IIT-JEE 2014: Examination fees

Candidates appearing for IIT-JEE 2014 can check the examination fees here.

The fee can be remitted by Debit/Credit Card. Through e-Challan generated after successful submission of online application form. The fee through e-Challan may be deposited in any branch of Syndicate Bank, Canara Bank and ICICI Bank.

	Offline Exam	Online Exam
Paper	Center in India
OBC or General	PwD or ST or SC	OBC or General	PwD or ST or SC
Either JEE Main Paper 1 or JEE Main Paper 2	500 (Girls) 1000 (Boys)	500 (Girls) 500 (Boys)	300 (Girls) 600 (Boys)	300 (Girls) 300 (Boys)
Both JEE Main Paper 1 and Paper 2	900 (Girls) 1800 (Boys)	900 (Girls) 900 (Boys)	700 (Girls) 1400 (Boys)	700 (Girls) 700 (Boys)

Online Application has to be submitted through JEE (Main)-2014 website. The aspiring candidate should furnish all the details and upload scanned image of his/her photograph and signature while filling up the ‘On-line’ application.

Candidates are required to take a print out of the computer generated acknowledgement slip.

After successful submission of data and payment of fees and keep the same in the safe custody for any future reference.

MHRD does not have fund to establish IIT, IIM in Seemandhra during 12th Plan

Establishment of national level higher education institutions such as Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) or Central University in Seemandhra will be a tough task.

Reportedly, the budgetary allocations being made to the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) every year as part of the ongoing XII Five-Year-Plan (2012-17) will not be sufficient for the purpose.

The current allocations are not adequate to meet the budgetary needs of existing institutions, which are exploring various options such as increase in fees, and cut in scholarships, said a MHRD official.

Officials estimate that nearly Rs 8,500 crore would be required to set up these institutes in Seemandhra, and the XII Plan allocations will have to be increased manifold. More than funds, it’s the amount of time that would take to set up these institutions.

As per official estimates, it requires Rs 1,850 crore to set up an IIT, Rs 1,500 crore for NIT, Rs 900 crore for IIM, Rs 1,080 crore for IISER, Rs 3,000 crore for three Central universities and Rs 75 crore for an IIIT in Seemandhra. All this adds up to Rs 8,405 crore.

As against this, the Centre allotted Rs 16,120 crore for higher education in the 2013-14 budget. Out of the Rs 16,120 crore earmarked for higher education this year, Rs 2,220 crore will go to the existing IITs, Rs 331 crore for IIMs and Rs 5,147 crore to the University Grants Commission (UGC), 

Can virtual classrooms beat face-to-face interaction?

For most students, university is a time for making friends, discovering a new city and making the most of the facilities on campus. But when you are studying online, your living room is your lecture hall and an online chat room is the equivalent of the student bar.

Can a computer screen make up for human interaction, and how can distance learning students avoid isolation?

If you are choosing to study online, chances are you have other commitments – work, children or other caring responsibilities – and you may be studying for purely academic reasons. The benefits of flexible study can outweigh the downside of not meeting people in real life.

But being part of an online community when studying at a distance is important, says Richard Reece, associate vice-president for teaching, learning and students at the University of Manchester.

He says: "Academically, support from other learners is as important on campus as it is off campus. We encourage students who are on campus to form peer-assisted study schemes. We do the same for distance learning students as well."

Online forums, Facebook groups and email lists with the contact details for other students can help online learners connect with their peers and ask questions about their studies.

Reece says: "It really benefits the learners if they have a sense of community rather than feeling like an isolated person tapping away at a computer."

Instead of tutorials or lectures, support from lecturers comes through online forums, email exchanges, phone conversations and Skype.

Tony Priest is course director for the foundation degree in drug and alcohol counselling at the University of Leicester and says his course uses "e-tutors" to support students.

He says: "Each e-tutor has a certain number of students who they follow through their comments on the discussion boards and answer their questions. They'll also contact them if they don't appear for a while and ask if they have problems and how they can help."

It might seem a little impersonal not meeting your tutor in real life, but distance learning students can sometimes have even more support than campus students, says Reece.

He says: "I would say that there are some things that you do need face-to-face interaction for, but our distance learning students do have significant access to teaching staff. In a number of cases they get even greater amounts of contact than students who are on campus and come in for a few scheduled lectures but not much more."

Amy Woodgate, project coordinator of distance education initiative and Moocs at the University of Edinburgh, agrees.

She says: "People tend to think that online learning is very detached and less of a community. It has a remote aspect so people think it is remote. But actually with online earning, students have something in common so build up good relationships."

Distance learning students can use online forums as a chance to meet their peers socially, but it can be difficult to replicate real life interactions.

"One of the biggest challenges for distance learning students is engagement with other peers," says Steve Mills, student president for education welfare at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen.

He says: "A big part of the student experience is meeting new people, making friends, joining societies and having social events, but distance learning students don't get to experience that, so it is very academic for them."

Some distance learning courses do include an element of time on campus, and making the most of these moments to meet other students is important.

Forums and social networks are there to help connect students with their peers, but it is important to know that as a distance learning student you still have access to university support too.

"The principal that we try to work on is that the support should be the same for distance learning students as it is for campus students," says Reece. "most of our students are studying abroad though, so obviously they can't just walk into our office and ask for help. But our services are available online and on the phone too."

Students' unions work on behalf of distance learning students too, and getting involved with your union could really help improve your life as an online student.

Mills says: "Our student helpline is there for online students, and we also deal with problems from distance learning students via Facebook and Twitter. And importantly, distance learning students have access to student counsellors via Skype."

You might not be able to walk into a counsellor's office as an online student, but the support is still there, and making the most of it can make all the difference to your experience of online learning.

Original article: http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/nov/13/human-interaction-distance-learning

Kuvempu University correspondence courses only in Karnataka

Kuvempu University has decided to restrict its distance education programmes only to students within the state.

The decision was taken by Kuvempu University Directorate of Distance Education (KUDDE) after receiving directions from University Grants Commission (UGC) which asked all universities offering programmes to restrict them to the territorial jurisdiction of their states. 

“No fresh admissions will be offered to students outside the state to any course offered by KUDDE from the current academic year,” V-C S A Bari said.

Bari told Express the KUDDE will abide by the direction and is also committed to protecting the interests of students.

The varsity started its distance programmes in 2002-03. The varsity offered graduate and PG courses not only in social science subjects but also science subjects. However, these courses were recognised only from 2008. Since then, thousands of students pursuing various courses, including MSc, MBA, MHRM besides graduation and diploma courses. 

KUDDE director M Venkateshwaralu told Express: “Ours is a major university that was catering the needs of thousands of students. We had centres not only in the state but also outside, including Delhi.”

In a letter to the university, the UGC directed that no university, whether central, state, private or deemed can offer its programmes through franchising arrangement with private coaching institutions even for the purpose of conducting courses through distance mode.

It directed them to follow UGC’s policy of on territorial jurisdiction, study centres and non-franchising of study centres for offering programmes through distance mode.

HCL Launches Online Education Platform, Learn On Cloud

HCL Learning, the education and talent development division of HCL Infosystems, has launched a new (beta) version of its cloud-based learning initiative, called ‘Learn On Cloud‘ which offers various personalized learning courses in the IT segment to students.

Features: According to the company, these courses will offer virtual labs, assessments, discussion forums, webinars and the ability to ask queries to a mentor. When we checked the portal, we observed that the site currently offers courses in Java programming language, Android application development, and digital integrated circuit designing with plans to offer courses in web designing and English learning courses in the future. The platform is powered by education solution provider IPintentio, which offers a web-based IC (Integrated Chip) design platform.



These courses provide learning material in various modules and users can opt for either an animated or a non-animated presentation depending on their broadband speed. Users can also toggle these presentation modes during the presentation. Going forward, the company says that it will also provide relevant job listings and services like certification on the portal.

Pricing: The portal currently offers both free and paid courses. Users can sign up for these free courses by providing necessary details like name, contact details, college name, and location, while they can purchase the paid courses from the HCL store. Users can pay for this course through various online payment modes like credit card, debit card, net banking and offline payment modes like cheque, demand drafts and direct bank transfers.

Other Players: Sparsha Learning Technologies has a similar platform which allows professors to create and deliver activity based learning content to their students. This platform also features simulated virtual labs to provide a physical hands on experience to students and allows students to generate reports and screenshots of the results. Sparsha works on a subscription based model with pricing starting at $2 per month per lab and is currently available on the Windows platform.

The company had received an angel round of funding from Blume Ventures and TempusCapital in September 2011 and was working on an online assessment platform for IEEE in June 2012. Sparsha had claimed to have sold 12000 licenses till June 2012 and had plans to launch 40 courses in the next four years, open up its authoring platform to professors, diversify to more platforms and introduce its tablet offerings in the future.

Other education businesses include Educomp Solutions Ltd, Pearson, EdServ SoftSystems among others. Earlier in the month, Technium Labs which operates the digital learning platform LurnQ had raised and undisclosed amount of funding from Seedfund, while the eLearning Company LIQVID hadraised $3 Million From SBI Holdings subsidiary.

IIT-Delhi to set up research academy in Mauritius; expansion in Sonepat and Jhajjar

Expansion and improving its global image are twin goals Indian Institute of Technology Delhi is currently focused on. Thirty-eighth amongst 300 institutions in Asia with its electrical and mechanical engineering departments topping the QS World University Rankings, the institution has constituted a four-member committee to work towards improving its global position.

IIT is also setting up a research academy in Mauritius by the end of the current academic year. With land having been allocated for its two extension campuses in Sonepat and Jhajjar, it's also planning a number of centres and executive programmes there.

Speaking about expansion plans and setting its first footprint abroad, IIT Delhi director R K Shevgaonkar said it has formalized setting up an IIT Delhi Research Academy in collaboration with the Mauritius government.

Back home, IIT is planning a number of centres including one on cyber security. "We are coming up with a cyber systems and information assurance centre in collaboration with University of Nebraska. We are also coming up with a policy research centre, partially funded by the department of science and technology," he said.

The IIT is having its 44th convocation on Saturday in which President Pranab Mukherjee will be the chief guest. He will inaugurate an innovation exhibition before conferring the alumni awards. This year, the institute will confer degrees to 1,793 students.