Lessons for first year students in 10 popular subjects will be uploaded on the website www.du.ac.in. "We've enhanced value to the text by adding pictures, addressing common misconceptions and providing questions," says Professor AK Bakshi, director, Institute of Life Long Learning (ILLL). "The idea is to encourage analytical thinking."

Net Gains

• DU is the first university to supplement classroom teaching with e-learning
  
• Video Snippest flash animation, simulation of experiments and graphs will be part of online syllabi

To make syllabi interesting, apart from text, online content will include live examples (java applets for simulation of experiment), flash animation, video snippets and links to related web pages.

A chapter on storytelling for BA students, for instance, talks about the language and vocabulary used by Salman Rushdie in Haroon and the Sea of Stories. "Besides the text, I've put in pictures of the author with links to his biographies and an interview on YouTube," says Sukrita Kumar, reader in English at Zakir Hussain College, on deputation with ILLL.

Mathematical problems are accompanied by illustrations from everyday life. "The paper on Mathematical Awareness is for non-math students. So we've peppered it with a history of famous mathematicians and the subject's applications in nature and life," says Geeta Venkataraman of St. Stephen's.

Besides being uploaded on the site, the content will also be distributed in the printed format.

The FM station will run a five-week certified training programme in radio jockeying in association with Access Atlantech Edutainment (I) Ltd, which runs the SAE College.

Big 92.7 FM vice president (human resources) Lancelot Cutinha stated: “With the economy on a high trajectory growth, the industry at large has never experienced such a mismatch between supply and demand for talent as exists today.

“This scenario calls for someone to go beyond conventional measures and some out-of-box thinking to address the issue. This is one of our ways leading to the development of the radio category.”

The channel will have its own in-house management programming associates as visiting faculty.

The Institute offers three courses: Bachelor of Science in Physical Education, Health Education and Sports; Bachelor of Physical Education; and Master of Physical Education. While there are 70 seats for the B.Sc. programme, there are 50 and 25 seats for the B.P.Ed. and M.P.Ed. courses respectively.

"The B.Sc. course can be done after Class XII, while only those candidates who have completed their graduation can apply for the other two. The B.P.Ed. is a one-year teacher training course for school teachers and the M.P.Ed. a two-year degree course for college teachers," said Principal D. K. Kansal.

The last date for applying for the B.Sc. course is June 9, and for the other two programmes June 21.

The entrance examination for the B.Sc. programme has been fixed for June 10 and for B.P.Ed. and M.P.Ed. June 23. Thereafter candidates will have to clear a physical fitness test, playing ability test and interviews to make it to the first list of selected candidates that will be displayed in the first week of July.

The details are available on www.igipess.com

The combined test for candidates seeking admission to B.Tech./ B.Arch. of Aligarh Muslim University will be held this Saturday.

The results are available on the UGC website www.ugc.ac.in , it said on Wednesday. The test, conducted for award of junior research fellowships and eligibility for lectureship, was held on December 30.

Said Gurpreet Singh Tuteja, deputy dean of students welfare, ``The radio will start relaying a special one-hour programme on DU under-graduate admissions from next week onwards. It's a follow-up on the Open Days that will take place in colleges from May 24.'' The open days, which are basically a way for aspiring students to get to know about the courses and colleges they are interested in, will be a week-long programme.

Starting from Khalsa College on the North Campus on May 24, the next Open Day is on May 26 in DDU College, followed by Keshavpuram College the next day. For students in east Delhi, counselling will happen in Shyam Lal Anand College in Shahdara and Vivekananda College in Vivek Vihar on May 30 and 31, respectively. There will also be a special two-day Open Day in the SP Jain Centre on May 28 and 29.

While the timing for the Open Days is yet to be decided, a tentative schedule is from 10am to 1pm, with a provision to extend the session till 3pm if the number of students is large. The sessions, which will start with a 30-minute presentation on the courses available, last year's cut-offs and eligibility criteria, will be followed by one-on-one interactions with 17 student volunteers and five faculty members. There will also be a special section for disabled students.

Added Tuteja, ``We are also planning to have a special programme for SC/ST students, which may start an hour earlier from the regular session on the Open Day. Since their queries are different, a need was felt for a separate module.''

In two separate petitions filed in the Supreme Court, a group of Christian and Muslim minority schools contended that the high court's order and subsequent notifications issued by the Delhi government violated their fundamental rights under Article 30(1) of the Constitution. According to Article 30(1), "All minorities, whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice."

The petitions filed through advocates Romy Chacko and Ambar Qamaruddin also contended that the orders issued by the high court and the Delhi government went against their fundamental right "to practise any profession, or to carry on any occupation, trade or business" guaranteed under Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution.

The portal, noidausedbooksngoods.com, was launched on the occasion of World Book Day recently The portal has been launched to make books available to the needy students.

Noida and Greater Noida have emerged as educational hubs and have scores of professional institutes. Now Gautam Buddha University too is starting here.

There are scores of students who come to study here and spend huge amounts on their college and hostel fees.

More affected are students who come from not-so-rich families. And these students often spend nights at Old books can be effectively put to use. the library or have to visit far off Darya Ganj in search for second-hand books. This portal would come handy for such students.

The site will provide telephone numbers of passed out students and the status of the books to be given along with its cost.

Address of nearby libraries and book vendors will also be listed on the site. "Books these days have become very costly particularly those of MBA and such professional courses, and not every student can afford them. Many students are solely dependent on libraries," says Dr R. K. Gupta, Reader in Department of Commerce and Business Management at the college.

"Those who pass out often have no use of the books. They usually sell the books to junk dealers at meagre amounts even as the poor students are hunting for books. This portal would work as an interface between the two groups of students, and will benefit both," he says.

"Moreover, new students are otherwise also interested in buying old books from seniors since the used books often have important notes scribbled along the margins. The students also underline the essential matter that can be very beneficial to newcomers," he says.

The Open Day sessions will counsel students and their parents about the choice of courses in different colleges and the eligibility criteria for admission to various undergraduate programmes.

According to the tentative schedule, the first “Open Day” would be at S.G.T.B. Khalsa College on May 24 and 25.

These sessions will also be held at Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College on May 26, Keshav Mahavidyalaya on May 27, S. P. Jain Centre on the South Campus on May 28 and 29, Sham Lal College on May 30 and Vivekanand College on May 31.

“We have changed some venues this year. Some colleges like Khalsa, Sham Lal and Vivekanand are the new additions for open day sessions this year. The Central Board of Secondary Education results for Class XII are likely to be declared after May 20. We have thought of starting the counselling sessions from May 24, so that by the time we start selling the admission forms, the students have made up their mind about what course they want to study,” said Deputy Dean Students’ Welfare Gurpreet Singh Tuteja on Monday.

The Equal Opportunities Cell (EOC) of Delhi University set up for the welfare of students belonging to categories of Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and disabled persons is exploring new areas to make the University more accessible to physically challenged students.

• Sign boards informing facilities being put up in the campus

• University procuring tactile tiles to guide the visually impaired

• Low-floor bus with a ramp to be brought on the campus

“The most important thing is access, barrier-free access to everyone. In the next one year, we want to reconstruct the paths in the University to make them straight so that they are friendly to the visually and orthopaedically impaired persons. There are some facilities for disabled students that have come up in the last one-and-a-half years, but not all are aware of it. We want major sign boards on the campus telling people about various such features,” said R. K. Agnihotri, EOC coordinator.

Just as the Delhi metro stations in the Capital are fitted with tactile tiles, the University too will procure them to guide the visually impaired persons as they walk.

The students, who avail this facility, need not pay the interest till they complete their studies. The interest will be borne by the Central Government.

The Human Resources Development Ministry has said that this scheme will be introduced from the academic year to begin in the month of July this year. In order to pay the interest to the Banks on the loan of the students, the Central Government has come forward to earmark a grant of Rs. 4000 crore.

The Union Finance Ministry has approved the proposal of paying interest on educational loans. The Central Government will pay the interest on the loan of the student till six months after completion of studies. The student will have to clear only the loan amount.

For the education loan the banks at present are collecting an interest of 15% to 18%. The Central Government has already had talks with the banks and Financial Organisations. It is also stated that the Centre will not give any guarantee for the loans but will only take the responsibility of paying the interest.

The first such centre dedicated to encouraging undergraduate research in sciences, DS Kothari Center for Research and Innovation in Science Education would revive students' interest in the sciences and encourage students to get into research at a younger age.

Although on a small scale, the centre shares its goal with Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE), a scheme announced by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram in this year's Budget.

"All such schemes will enthuse young people to embrace a career in sciences and bring about a sense of competition," said Kapil Sibal, Union Minister of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences.

Sibal said that disturbing data about students opting out of sciences had emerged all over the world. "In India we still have students taking up sciences but we need more such initiatives because our problems are more acute," Sibal said.

The DS Kothari centre will give undergraduate students a taste of research activities early in life, help them publish papers and encourage them to study further.

"Not enough students are coming into basic sciences and we are concerned about the flight of talent from science courses," said Pratibha Jolly, principal of Miranda House.

Undergraduates from any DU college can apply to work at the DS Kothari centre. "We will encourage students to take up small research projects during summer vacation so that they explore their potential," said Jolly .

"Many students are undecided on what to do after a BSc and an opportunity to get involved in research will help them come to a conclusion," she added.

Set up with an initial budget of Rs 3.3 crore, the centre will also focus on retention of talent and improving the quality of undergraduate science education. It will also look into professional development opportunities for science teachers.

According to the Central Board of Secondary Education, this year 1.6 lakh students appeared for the All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT), a 25 per cent decrease from last year. In Delhi, only 26,336 sat for the test as against almost 40,000 in 2007.

Semester examinations
The direction, passed by a Bench comprising Chief Justice M.K. Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Khanna in March, came while disposing of a petition by a lecturer and a reader of the University who had alleged that it was sending students for semester examinations even when they had zero per cent attendance.

The High Court had also directed the University to file an action taken report within two weeks.

In its action taken report, the University told the Court that students who failed to meet the 70 per cent attendance requirements had been detained from taking the semester end examination of May 2007 and the same was the case with the December 2007 examination.

The Court was further told out of a total of 289 students, 269 fulfilled the attendance criteria. The remaining 20 were detained from appearing in the examination.

The High Court had also asked the University to consider setting up a grievance redress committee that should look into the issues of attendance requirements and similar matters, which the University readily accepted.

T. N. Arora, Reader at the School of Law and Legal Studies, and Ravindra Pratap, lecturer, had filed the petition before the High Court alleging that the University was flouting the rules set by Bar Council of India, particularly the attendance rule.

Law school
The petitioners had alleged that since the establishment of the law school in 2001 the University had been violating the standards.

A whopping 140 PhDs in engineering disciplines were awarded by IIT Delhi last year, the most ever in the institute's history. The reason is the changing nature of private-sector operations in India in recent years, say experts.

"Research in engineering is in, and career prospects of PhDs are changing," said M. Balakrishnan, Dean, Post Graduate Studies and Research, IIT Delhi. "Industrial research and development is becoming big in India. Today, the private sector employs PhDs in all disciplines - automobiles, energy, environment, materials."

The returns, in monetary terms, are attractive as well.

"A PhD in any engineering discipline is today paid between Rs 8 lakh and Rs 16 lakh per annum," said Balakrishnan. "Companies such as Yahoo and Google, which work with new technologies, pay the highest," he said.

Last year, a record number of 140 students received their PhD degree in various engineering disciplines from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi. It was the largest number in the institute's history. And with a huge demand of research scholars from the industry, the numbers are all set to rise.

The committee said a hike was necessary for IITs to cope with the rising cost of education and running the Institutes, a view also shared by the ministry.

Sources said the new fees structure would be effective from the new academic session. The new fee structure would be applicable to all IITs, including the three new one being set up in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan.

The last fee hike in IITs was effected in 1998 and since the cost of education on account of infrastructure and faculties has gone up, the ministry accepted the fee hike proposal, they said.

CBSE will be inviting schools to volunteer for starting this course in class XI this year. As an experiment, however, the course will start only in 100 schools across the country in the first go. ``The course will be optional and will be marked in the Board exams of class XII. We are starting with only 100 schools because teachers opting to teach the subject will have to be given training in the subject,'' said Jyotsana Tiwari, reader in NCERT's Department of Education, who designed the course in Heritage Crafts.

The arts and aesthetics wing of NCERT has also developed a curriculum on graphic designing which may also be introduced as another optional subject from this session. ``We wanted to give students a good choice of subjects in the higher classes. The course in Heritage Crafts would not necessarily make craftsmen out of students. But it will let art enthusiasts corelate with their tradition,'' said Tiwari.