Education Briefs

Ajit K. Oberoi

The latest Pune University accreditation is an addition to affiliations with Sikkim Manipal University, Educational Institute of American Hotel and Lodging Association, USA and Middlesex University, London, for various study programmes. "We are thrilled that Dina is now affiliated with Pune University which will satisfy students desiring Pune University certification. Our mission is to provide the best education and professional, job-oriented technical training relevant to industry on a par with global standards, and thus mould individuals into effective, self-motivated professionals of the future," says Ajit K.Oberoi, managing and founder director of Dina Institute.

Spread over 18,000 sq ft the institute currently has an enrollment of 400 students taught by a faculty of 21. Expansion plans include acquisition of another two and half acres in the city.

The Vivekanand Institute of Hotel and Tourism Management (VIHTM), Rajkot (Gujarat), the only institution in Saurashtra offering a bachelor’s degree programme in hotel and tourism management (of Saurashtra University) has signed a slew of collaboration agreements with offshore education providers. Among them: the Highgate Academy for Professional Development, London; TTM Service Company Ltd (UK) which will accept VIHTM graduates under its international work experience programme; Cambridge University (UK) with whom VIHTM will offer the former’s Business English learning programme.

"We have drawn up an ambitious expansion plan for this institute because of increasing pressure from students in the Saurashtra region for high quality professional and life skills education. In the coming academic year we expect our enrollment to double from 200 currently. We are determined to put this neglected region on the higher education map of India," says Ramesh Mohanami managing director of VIHTM.

A one-day national workshop on ‘Library Information Services for Quality Higher Education’ was jointly organised by the National Accreditation & Assessment Council of India (NAAC) and M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Management (MSRIM), Bangalore on May 21 on the MSRIM campus in Bangalore. Speaking on the occasion Prof. V.S. Prasad, director of NAAC highlighted the importance of well administered libraries stating that for continuous learners a librarian is a best friend.

In the presidential address Prof. L.M. Patnaik of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore added that unlike in the past when information sources were scarce, with the advent of internet, the present is characterised by information abundance. "In this changed scenario, the role of the librarian in directing users to the appropriate information source to help conserve time and energy is of critical importance," observed Patnaik.

The workshop consisted of five sessions including one earmarked for discussion and feedback. Anil Gowda of MSRIM presented a paper on ‘Accreditation and Certification: An Overview of NAAC, NBA and ISO Processes’. Explaining his PDCA (plan, do, check, and act upon) model for quality he said that identifying potential problems is the first step towards quality improvement in library information services. Likewise in his paper on ‘ISO Certification and Academic Libraries’, Dr. Harish Chandra, chief librarian of IIT-Madras emphasised that libraries should be user-focused.

The workshop was well attended. More than 60 senior library professionals from all over the country and the academic staff of MSRIM and NAAC participated.

Kidzee, a division of Zee Television network’s education group — Zee Interactive Learning Systems (ZILS) — inaugurated five new pre-school centres in Bangalore on June 21. This takes the total number of Kidzee centres in the garden city to 15. Kidzee centres are also operational in Belgaum and Udupi.

"The concept of associating education with play is the requirement of the day. At a tender age kids cannot be bound to books. The Kidzee pre-school curriculum includes multiple activities to encourage and expand every child’s hidden potential. The learning environment of our centres has been designed to nurture a growing sense of aesthetics and to inspire better performance from young minds, with special attention given to safety and hygiene," says A.K. Khetan, chief executive of ZILS.

According to Khetan, Kidzee learning initiatives are getting a warm response from all states in South India. Centres have been established in Salem (Tamil Nadu) and Pondicherry — one each; three in Hyderabad and one each in Kodad and Hanamkonda (Andhra Pradesh). More centres are being planned for this academic year. The network prides itself for having established more than 250 centres in India and abroad. This number is budgeted to double this fiscal year.

Recently ZILS has also introduced a one-year diploma programme christened the International Early Childhood Teachers Education Course. It is designed to meet the shortage of trained professionals in this segment.

Agere Systems India, the Indian subsidiary of the $2 billion (Rs. 9,000 crore) Agere Systems Inc, USA launched its Project Swayam — "a long-term, high involvement corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative to make a difference and to contribute to the broader social environment" — on June 16. On the occasion its employees donated fully loaded school bags to over 1,400 government school children in six rural schools in the vicinity of Bangalore’s ITPL (Information Technology Park Ltd). Each school bag contained an adequate stock of notebooks, writing materials and related items.

"Project Swayam marks a clear step forward for the CSR initiative of Agere Systems India which started last year in a small way involving 136 students from two schools. Now we are aiding 1,400 students in six schools. We would like to grow this initiative to include areas like mid-day meals, basic infrastructure or provision of amenities in school premises," said Dr. Madhusudhan V. Atre vice president of Agere Systems India.