EDUCATION NEWS – JULY AND AUGUST 2009

Monday, July 13th 2009
21 K vie for MBA seats in Karnataka
Over 21,000 students will vie for 6,800 MBA seats in Karnataka this time. The Post Graduate Common Entrance Test (PGCET) was conducted by the Visvesvaraya Technological University(VTU)on Sunday the 12th of July. Around 26,000 students appeared for the PGCET which was held in 34 centers across the state. Candidates who appeared for the MBA course this time found the Maths section to be slightly difficult. 

Friday, July 24th 2009
Australia to take positive steps to ensure safety for Indian students
In its efforts to ensure the safety of Indian students who go to Australia for further studies, the island continent has initiated a move to provide a guide to such students along with their visas. The new booklet 'Guide to studying and living in Australia' aims at ensuring that every student leaving India for Australia has up-to-date information on the life and society there that helps them to mingle and gel with the new culture. The government has also decided to hold a two-day International Student Roundtable in Canberra on September 14 to hear directly from students about their views. The issues raised at the roundtable would then be considered at the inaugural ministerial council on tertiary education in November. 

Monday, July 27th 2009
IISc to have a campus in Chitradurga
The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has received an official approval to start its branch in Challakere in Chitradurga district, Karnataka. The district administration has granted nearly 2,000 acres at Kudapur village in order to develop a research campus. Information regarding the total investment involved in the project is not confirmed but according to reports in the media an initial investment of Rs.2000 crore would be needed.

Monday, August 03rd 2009
On line CAT 2009 to cost IIMs $40 million
The revised CAT 2009 which will be a computer based test will cost the Indian Institutes of Management(IIMs) a staggering $40 million dollars to administer. Leading tech enabled testing and assessment services provider "Prometric" has bagged the CAT contract. Over the years the number of CAT takers have increased by a great extent. Cat 2008 had 2.5 lakh aspirants appearing for it. The pattern of the CAT would not change except for the manner in which it will be administered. The CAT advertisement is expected to be out by the end of August 2009.

Friday, August 07th 2009
CAT 09 to begin from November 28th 
The Common Admission Test (CAT) 2009 by the Indian Institutes of Management(IIMs) will begin from November 28th 2009 as per the CAT website. The CAT which is all set to be a computer based test starting this year will be conducted during a ten day window period between November 28th and December 7th . The test would be administered in two sessions(morning/afternoon). Candidates have the choice for the date and venue from a list of 30 cities across the country. The IIMs have also made it clear that starting this year bulky CAT admission bulletins will not be sold. The CAT advertisement will appear in some of the leading dailies on August 30th 2009. In order to apply candidates have to avail of scratch vouchers from the designated bank branches. Using these vouchers they can register on line. The sale of vouchers would begin from September 9th and ends on October 1st , 2009. The on line registration will also begin from September 9th.

Wednesday, August 12th 2009
HBS curriculum to incorporate SEWA model
A model of micro finance in agriculture by the Self-Employed Women's Association(SEWA) will now be a part of the curriculum for the first year students at the Harvard Business School(HBS). The SEWA model will be a part of the curriculum starting next academic year. Presently a research team from HBS is working with SEWA to study various aspects of weather insurance products for Indian farmers.

Tuesday, August 25th 2009
IISc at the number one spot
The Indian Institute of Science(IISc), Bangalore has bagged the number one spot in the country. It has been named as the number one engineering /technology institute among the top 67 science institutes including the IITs. IIT Kanpur is at second place followed by IIT Bombay, Kharagpur, Delhi at third, fourth and fifth respectively. The rankings have been published in the "Current Science". The rankings were carried out by scholars Gangan Prathap and BM Gupta of the National Institute of Science Communication and Information resources and National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies, New Delhi. The rankings were based on publications, citations and research record available between 1999 and 2008.

Friday, August 28th 2009
Seven new IIMs get green signal from the government
The seven new Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) which was proposed earlier has finally got a go ahead from the government. The seven new IIMs will start next year with 140 students for the PG course in its first phase. The intake will then be increased to 560 students in the phase two. In Phase one four IIMs in Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Haryana would be set up in 2009-10. In the phase two IIMs would be set up in Jammu &Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan. The students for the 2010-11 academic session would be admitted through the CAT 2010. In a positive development the centre has decided to provide full interest subsidy on education loans that have been taken by poorer students in order to pursue professional and technical courses. The parental income limit for such loans has been fixed at Rs 4.5 Lakh per annum in order to get the benefit.