>PGDM colleges deplore AICTE cap on fee

>Colleges in the state of Andhra Pradesh offering PG Diploma in Management (PGDM) courses have decided to approach the Supreme Court against the AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) move to put a cap on the fee. According to the new AICTE rules introduced earlier this month, colleges which run autonomous PGDM courses will now have to slash their course fee from a whopping Rs. 100,000 to Rs. 30,000 per annum.

The AICTE had also decided to cancel the autonomy of these colleges preventing them from deciding their own curriculum and fee structure. The colleges will have to get affiliated to state universities, which will monitor all administrative and academic matters of the colleges.

The managements stated that the fee reduction by 70 per cent would be a squeeze on their resources and running the colleges would become difficult. “The colleges have been offering good quality education. The students are even provided with laptops and are exposed to the syllabus which is not inferior to that of IIMs (Indian Institutes of Management). The AICTE’s decision to cancel their autonomy will upset the educational system being followed by these colleges,” said T. Srinivas Acharya, Principal, Vishwa Vishwani Institute of Systems and Management. There are 30 such institutions in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

College managements said that they would be left with no option but to shut down if the fee cap was implemented by the government. “We will not be able to provide all the good facilities being now provided to the students if the fee structure is controlled. From internship to full-fledged laboratories, the colleges have been providing students with the best facilities,” said a college representative.

The colleges said that they had brought the issue to the notice of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and were awaiting a response. “HRD minister Kapil Sibal has promised to find a solution to the problem. We will, however, approach court if the matter is not settled by the government,” said a representative.

Source: The Times of India, February 15, 2011

>XLRI students in high demand during campus placement

>Close on the heels of a record-breaking summer internship process, Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur (widely known as XLRI), the premier B-school of the eastern region, has scaled new heights. The campus recruitment process of 2011 witnessed for the first time 240 students getting placed in less than four days. A total of 109 firms confirmed their participation and rolled out 317 offers. This year XLRI witnessed the highest number of offers made on campus with an increased batch size of 240 students being offered the widest possible range of profiles from across the sectors. The class of 2011 has successfully made their entry into coveted positions across the corporate world. There was a 19.25 per cent jump in pre-placement offers from last year with students being offered attractive jobs for excellent performance during summer internships.

The lateral placements at XLRI have been an impressive prelude to the campus recruitment process, with a rich mix of offers equally spread across various domains for middle and senior level management roles. The number of lateral offers doubled over last year with an average salary figure of Rs. 16,50,000. The placement process attracted 109 companies giving a total of 317 offers, to a batch of 120 business management and 120 personnel management and industrial relations (HR) students.

The average domestic package was around Rs. 15,80,000, a rise of close to 12 per cent over last year’s figure. The figure for the domestic salary of Rs. 14,70,000 echoes the focus on quality of job offers made at XLRI as a part of the placement season 2010. The highest domestic package was Rs. 23,00,000 per annum and according to sources it was offered by a consultancy firm.

XLRI’s position as a destination for premier finance roles stays, with 25 per cent of the total offers coming from the financial sector. ICICI Bank was the largest recruiter and had 21 offers. Marketing has drawn renewed interest from the students and was the most sought after profile with 25 per cent accepting offers. XLRI strengthened its relationship with consulting prima donnas with 25 per cent of the students entering the campus recruitment programme with top notch consulting firms involved in the process.

“This year saw an increase of 100 per cent in the batch of PMIR, but this was more than matched by the renewed interest of the recruiters for HR professionals” said Prof. Rajiv Misra, Chairperson, Placement Committee. Novartis AG offered its prestigious HR leadership development role at Basel, Switzerland, exclusively to XLRI, making the highest international offer of $120,000.

Source: The Times of India, February 15, 2011

>Max plans med education institute, may invest up to Rs. 10 billion

>Max Healthcare is likely to invest up to Rs. 1,000 crore (Rs. 10 billion) over the next three years to set up a medical education institute at Greater Noida. “We expect the investment on total infrastructure to be in the range of Rs. 700 crore to Rs. 1,000 crore. The institute will include a medical college, a nursing college and a college for allied health services,” Max Healthcare CEO and Managing Director Pervez Ahmed told PTI. While the nursing and allied healthcare colleges will become functional this year, it will take nearly three years to start the medical college, he added.

As per the company’s plans, the medical college will have 50 seats to start off with, which will eventually go up to 150. The nursing college will have 100 seats and the allied healthcare institution will have 300 seats for various certificate and diploma courses. The company will fund the project through a combination of debt and equity, Ahmed said.

Apart from the institute at Greater Noida, the company also plans to set up another three nursing colleges over the next three years. “We have plans to start three nursing colleges at Dehradun, Noida and one in Punjab. For the Dehradun one, we have already identified the location,” Ahmed said.

The company will commission four new hospitals this year taking its in-patient bed capacity to 2,000 beds from 800 at present. It expects the total bed strength to go up to 5,000 in the next five years. “The majority of the addition would be through mergers and acquisitions. There are a few players with whom we are having discussions,” Ahmed said, without disclosing details. Max Healthcare expects its four hospitals at Mohali, Bhatinda, Delhi and Dehradun to become operational this year.

Source: The Economic Times (Online Edition), February 14, 2011

>MNCs lining up at B-schools with 20% higher salaries, more offers

>India’s top business schools anticipate that 2011 will be the best year yet for campus placements as recruiters beat a path to their doors in search of the cream of management graduates. Prospective employers are expected on B-school campuses in larger numbers, hiring many more students and paying a lot more than in the past, a pointer to the improving economic health of Western economies, particularly financial firms and banks.

At IIM-Ahmedabad, the mainstay recruiters — investment banks and consulting firms — kicked off the placements season on Saturday. Their hiring is up and they are offering salaries that are up to a fifth higher than last year, those involved in the process say. Placements at IIM-Bangalore will begin on March 5, to be followed by IIM-Calcuttta and Lucknow.

The confidence is a remarkable turnaround, for just two years ago even IIM-A was forced to extend its placements window and struggled to pair all its students with employers. Campus recruitments at the IIMs and other top B-schools are closely watched because they are a barometer of corporate confidence. In good years, like 2008, which was the best for placements so far, hiring and salaries rise. But in bad years, like 2009, many recruiters shy away from campuses.

“Multinationals are expanding. They spent two years putting their own house in order post slowdown. Now there is more work for management consultants as regulators are pushing for stronger risk management mechanisms,” says Atul Khosla, the India head of Oliver Wyman. His management consulting firm plans to hire 15 graduates from the IIMs and Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business, twice the number last year. The Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey have already bettered their last year’s record of employing eight candidates each. BCG was the top recruiter, hiring 11 IIM-A graduates; McKinsey made 10 offers. These include the pre-placement offers to students after a two-month internship.

“I believe that 2011 will be the best placement season for IIMs,” says T. Muralidharan, an IIM-A alumnus and the Chairman of TMT Group, a provider of HR-related services for 20 years. Information technology companies, which are offering higher-value services to clients in the US and Europe, will play a crucial role in raising the average level of pay, he adds. “Even if you take into account the increasing inflation levels, year on year I am sure average salaries will be 30-40% higher than 2008 levels.”

In 2010, the average domestic salary at IIM-A was Rs. 14,94,000 while at IIM-C it was Rs. 15,32,000. While management institutes are usually loath to reveal the salaries that are offered to students, this season onwards, IIM-A will disclose the highest, average and lowest salaries at the end of the placement process. It has also decided not to calculate non-guaranteed part of the student’s salary including fringe benefits and variable pay while calculating the salary packages.

As a reflection of the improving global situation, there have been a greater number of international offers this year at IIM-A. Investment banks, present at the campus in larger numbers, are making offers for roles in Singapore and London, in addition to Mumbai. IIM-A placed 283 students last year, while IIM-B and IIM-C placed 268 and 278 students, respectively. This year, the batch size at IIM-A has grown to 314 students for the flagship post-graduate programme in management while there are 36 students studying agribusiness management.

IIM-B is the numbers of recruiters at its campus to increase from 100 last year to 130-140, says Sapna Agarwal, the head of career development services at the institute. “This is partly because the batch size has gone up from 267 last year to 348. Also, more companies have started showing interest in campus placements.”

IIM-Lucknow, which is starting final placement in early March, expects better participation from consulting, finance and FMCG firms, says Apoorva Gupta, a member of the placement committee. The first lot of around 25 employers at IIM-A included international investment banks, consulting firms, and private equity and venture capital firms. Those such as Bain & Company, Booz & Company, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan made 100 job offers on the first day. IIM-A saw around 80 pre-placement offers this year compared to 60 last year.

Sanjit Paul Singh, Director at Gurgaon-based HR firm S&S Associates says global consulting companies and investment banks are recruiting more because they are expanding their businesses in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) nations and the US. “Earlier, they used to hire talent from India to offer products like debt trading or derivatives to their clients based in the US and Europe. Now, they want local people to offer their products to local markets.” Wyman’s Khosla too says multinationals are bullish on India and Brazil. His firm is expanding in Latin America and drawing up sizeable growth plans for Southeast Asia and China. “I can say our global hiring may be 20% higher this year,” says Khosla, who also handles a part of Wyman’s global hiring.

Source: The Economic Times, February 14, 2011

>Clock starts ticking for UGC

>The wait has begun for the quiet burial of the country’s apex higher education regulator. In a clear signal of the winding down of the 54-year-old behemoth, the government plans to avoid appointing a full-fledged chairman to the University Grants Commission (UGC) after economist Sukhdeo Thorat, officials concede. The proposed National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) will subsume many of the roles of the UGC and other regulators, including the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

“But the end of the UGC is more than just the creation of a new regulator. It epitomises the end of an era when the government micro-managed higher education. We now want to act as a facilitator,” a senior government official said. While the NCHER will set standards in higher education, the new regulator will relinquish direct control of many other functions of the UGC, including funding universities and testing candidates for teaching jobs.

The NCHER will act against institutions on complaints under a self-disclosure regime that human resource development minister Kapil Sibal is pushing. But the change in philosophy of the Centre isn’t the only reason behind the decision to wind down the UGC and AICTE. The recommendations of the National Knowledge Commission (NKC)and the Yash Pal Committee — both set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh — to replace these institutions with a single overarching regulator came amid a corruption cloud over Indian higher education. AICTE chairman R.A. Yadav was suspended and is set to be prosecuted by the CBI.

Thorat, who ended his tenure at the UGC earlier this week, has faced repeated corruption allegations though he has rejected all charges. IAS officer Raju Sharma was repatriated from his post as UGC Secretary after he locked horns with Thorat, accusing him of corruption in a Rs. 230-crore e-governance project and in the award of recognition to deemed universities. Final nail in the UGC’s coffin possibly came from differences that emerged between the regulator and the Ministry of HRD over the mess in deemed universities — for which the Centre blames UGC.

The minutes of a meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on HRD on a proposed law to punish colleges that cheat or mislead students state that Thorat told the panel the UGC was not consulted by the Centre. Thorat has subsequently changed his stance, and said he had clarified to the panel that the UGC had been consulted. The damage, however, has been done.

Source: Hindustan Times, February 11, 2011

>AICTE organizes conferences on vocational training

>To develop the contours of a vocational educational qualification frame work, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is organizing a series of sector specific round table conferences to discuss the present scenario of soft and technical skills of the existing workforce in the age group of twenty to twenty five and contemporary requirement of industry. In this series, a round table on Media & Entertainment Industry was held in New Delhi under the Chairmanship of Human Resource Development (HRD) and Communication & Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal.

The workshop was attended by 126 representatives of the Media & Entertainment Industry. After extensive discussions, it was decided to constitute a committee to prepare the draft curriculum for vocational education for this sector. The committee includes AICTE Chairman S.S. Mantha, Exchange for Media CEO Anurag Batra and members from different sectors of the media. Five sub-committees have also been constituted to prepare the draft curriculum for different sectors such as TV, advertising, theatre, print, support sector for the media.

“Two big concerns of employers today are finding good workers and training them. India has a large population base of 1.14 billion with demographic shift in favor of working age group (15-59 years). While the overall population is projected to grow at 1.4% over the next five years the working age is expected to grow at 2.15%. For this majority group, access to secondary education and vocational education and training (VET) is very crucial,” an official press release said. The release further added that, “There is a need to increase VET responsiveness to changing labor market demands, increasing the effectiveness of VET outcomes in improving the match between education and training demand and supply. Effective skill based technical education for employment is the key enabler for innovation.”

There is a felt need for vocational education on account of water tight educational entry and exit levels, increasing drop outs, social non acceptance to vocational education as an alternate to higher education, loss of productive youth, mismatch between qualifications and industry needs and need to provide seamless integration between vocational education and regular higher education for enhancement in gross enrolment ratio (GER).

Formal VE in India is implemented at senior secondary school level, and funded by the Ministry of HRD. Total enrolment in VE courses of these schools is roughly 6,00,000 at present. Some of the potential vocational education receptors are automobile sector, IT, ITES and telecom sector, media and entertainment sector hospitality and tourism sector, construction and infrastructure sector, financial services, retail services, banking and insurance sector. AICTE also intends to organize future round table conferences in the construction sectors as well as banking & finance.

Source: http://www.indiaedunews.net, February 11, 2011

>Top scores in CAT, but not good enough for IIMs

>Deepesh Dhoundiyal’s gamble in leaving a secure job in an insecure economy to study for the Common Admission Test (CAT) appeared to have paid off mid-January when his test score placed him among the top 1,000 candidates. Less than a month later, the Delhi-based engineer is distraught, sitting at home preparing for job interviews, his dream of studying at the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) shattered despite a 99.49 percentile CAT score.

About 9,000 students with CAT scores below his will, however, be appearing for the second stage of IIM admissions. A draft of pre-exam criteria that the IIMs either changed or never disclosed till after the CAT results were announced, as HT reported on Wednesday, have denied 24-year-old Dhoundiyal and others like him seats.

“I would never have quit my job if I knew that the IIMs would set eligibility criteria that my past academic records do not allow me to meet irrespective of my CAT score. Why couldn’t the IIMs announce these criteria earlier,” asked Dhoundiyal, who worked in Ahmedabad at a top oil and petroleum firm.

These students — with CAT 2010 scores of over 99 percentile but denied calls for the second stage of IIM admissions because of unspecified or changed pre-exam criteria — are forming a group and plan to approach the Supreme Court to seek a stay on the second stage of IIM admissions.

The eligibility was listed — and is still listed on the official CAT website — as 50% in the bachelor’s degree. But the IIMs in Rohtak, Trichy and Shillong announced higher bachelor’s degree marks as eligibility criteria to be considered, after the CAT results were announced. These higher criteria varied from 65% in IIMs in Rohtak and Trichy to 87% in IIM Shillong.

The other IIMs are calculating eligibility for the second stage of admissions using weightages given to class X, class XII and bachelor’s degree scores also announced after the declaration of CAT results. Top IIM officials are accepting that the students may have a “legitimate argument,” but are insisting that there had been no discrimination.

Source: Hindustan Times, February 10, 2011

>Management schools seek rules rollback

>Some privately owned management schools have have strongly protested the technical education regulator’s new rules that forbid them to conduct entrance examinations and give state governments control over the fees they charge. The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in a 28 December notification has empowered state governments to conduct entrance examinations and also constitute committees to determine fees and curriculum.

“This is absurd,” said V.K. Gupta, Director of Management Development Institute (MDI) in Gurgaon, Haryana. “This guideline will dilute the quality of students during admission. It will reduce our autonomy in areas such as faculty selection, curricula and teaching methods. “If the notification is enforced, we (MDI) have to get registered with the Haryana government. They will hold entrance, decide my course and fees,” Gupta said. “I am looking to compete at the global level not at the state level.”

The Education Promotion Society of India, an association for private education providers, may move the Supreme Court if the notification is not withdrawn, secretary-general Manohar Chellani said. “Any policy action requires some rationale. The AICTE notification has no such thing,” said Bakul Dholakia, former Director at Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad. “This will destroy the national character of management education in the country,” Dholakia, who now heads the Adani Institute of Infrastructure Management in Ahmedabad, said.

AICTE, overseen by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), defended its move. “We are not curbing anybody’s autonomy,” Chairman S.S. Mantha said. “What we have done is in the public interest.” H. Chaturvedi, Director of Greater Noida-based Birla Institute of Management Technology, said representatives from several private management schools have met HRD minister Kapil Sibal on 31 January to demand a rollback of the latest guidelines. “We will wait for 10 days before deciding on a legal move,” said MDI’s Gupta.

At least 91% among 215 management institutes surveyed have opposed the notification, according to a report by education website MBAUniverse. There are at least 3,700 management schools in the country, of which at least 80% are privately operated, government data show.

“Postgraduate diploma in management education has been enjoying autonomy since 1993 to create a pool of professionals who can fulfil the demands of industry,” said Chellani. “But this guideline is against this autonomy.” The AICTE notification looks “hasty” and the ministry should establish a task force of academicians to suggest an alternative, said educationist Pritam Singh.

Source: Mint, February 8, 2011

>UK visa curbs will hit Indian MBA students

>Britain’s move to abolish the visa that allows Indian and other non-EU students to take up employment in the UK for two years after the completion of their courses is likely to reduce the number of Indians coming here for MBA degrees, an industry body has said. The London-based Association of MBAs, which accredits business management courses in 70 countries, including the UK, said the proposed move was of ‘significant concern’, and would restrict enrolment of international students from India and elsewhere.

In a speech last week, immigration minister Damian Green said that non-EU students could not be allowed unfettered access to the UK labour market amidst growing unemployment in Britain. He said: “The post study work route was intended to form a bridge between study and skilled work, allowing all international graduates to remain for two years after graduation… To allow unfettered access to the jobs market for two years to anyone with a student visa from abroad is putting an unnecessary extra strain on our own graduates”.

Noting that India and China are two of the UK’s biggest markets for international students, the association said in its response to the consultation on the student visa review that the UK must do all it can to remain competitive in the highly skilled business education sector. “Turning students away by restricting their access to post-study employment puts their reputations at stake and threatens future viability,” it said.

The association said that MBA courses have high fees, and does not attract the type of migrants which the David Cameron government was seeking to deter from entering and abusing the student visa system. Moreover, MBA international students bring “a high level of income for UK universities at a time when they are struggling for funding”, the association said. In British universities, MBA tuition fees range from 10,000 pounds to 50,000 pounds per year.

The Association of MBAs surveyed 47 accredited business schools in the UK in early January 2011. Of the 34 who responded, 97 per cent said that they believe continued restrictions on student visas are likely to impact their enrolment numbers in the future. Of these, 56 per cent said that the impact was highly likely. “This supports deep concerns voiced in focus groups among business schools that prospective students will look elsewhere to competitor countries including Canada, the United States and Australia”, it said.

The association added: “The focus on student immigration and the blanket restriction of visas across the entire student population poses significant risks to UK’s ability to remain competitive in global education and business. We urge the government to recognise that there are different categories of international students”.

Green’s proposed restrictive measures on the student visa system has already raised a welter of protest from the education sector. Professor Edward Acton, Vice-Chancellor of the University of East Anglia, and a spokesman for Universities UK, said the Government’s plans amounted to a ‘hostile act’. Professor David Wark, of Imperial College London, also warned against plans to weaken the link between study and work. “If we get an opportunity to pick the cream of the crop, we shouldn’t pass that up,” he added. Professor Steve Smith, President of Universities UK, said the Government’s plans could cause ‘unintended damage’ to the university sector and Britain’s international reputation.

Source: The Economic Times (Online Edition), February 7, 2011

>International MBA Programmes by Jaro Education

>Indian students nowadays prefer to have two to three years of work experience before opting for an MBA programme. The work experience, it is believed, makes it easier to learn management concepts and helps students to relate theory to management practices. However, there are aspirants who want to pursue an MBA, while working full-time. With this in mind, Jaro Education, based in Mumbai, in collaboration with the United Business Institute (UBI), Belgium, a European business school, has introduced International MBA and Executive International MBA programmes to suit the various requirements of students, working professionals and others.

The International MBA programme is designed to equip candidates with knowledge of domestic as well as international management areas. Also, it aims to offer insight into an international business culture and environment.
As part of the programme, senior industry experts share their industry experiences. During guest lectures, students not only acquire business knowledge from CEOs, VPs/GMs, but also get an opportunity to interact with executives from different industries and functions.

As far as accreditations are concerned, UBI and Jaro Education are accredited by the European Association for International Education (EAIE), United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) and Accreditation Services for Certifying Bodies Europe Ltd (ASCB)-Europe.

One of the strengths of the international MBA programme offered by Jaro Education is that the International Master in Business Administration degree awarded by United Business Institutes, Belgium, Europe is recognised worldwide. The fee (Rs. 45,000) for the one-year International MBA programme is inclusive of online lectures with installments or bank loan facility. An extra fee of Rs. 12,000 is charged for weekend classes. The online lectures and examination offer flexible options to students. Also, the programme includes international subjects commonly taught in the US, UK and Australia. For a thorough understanding of management concepts, Personal Contact Programmes (PCP) lectures are provided on weekends for students who are enrolled for the lectures. Before exams, students can clarify their doubts online with the faculty members. For more, log on to http://www.jaro.in/.

Source: http://www.ndtv.com, February 7, 2011