Archive for April 12th, 2011
>India takes a leaf from HBR, moots IIM Business Review
>
The country would soon have a desi (local) ver sion of the iconic business management magazine, the Harvard Business Review (HBR). While the initiative has come from the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), the magazine would be brought out jointly by the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and will most likely be called IIM Business Review. The first such publication is expected to be out by the end of the year.
The magazine would be a quarterly and comprise research papers and case studies from across the IIM system. The journal will be for general publication and draw in the best papers from all the IIMs. Though it is intended to be self-funded, the ministry is planning to kick-start it by offering a start-up grant, which could be around Rs. 10 million. The Harvard Business Review looks at all facets of management education like innovation, leadership, change management, business performance, strategy and research.
Apart from mooting an annual IIM World Research Conference, the Ajit Balakrishnan Committee report on faculty and research in IIMs too has suggested the production of such a journal, the management of which should be handled by different IIMs in rotation. “Though some background work has started on the journal, it will not be easy to bring it out as its structure and content are yet to be decided and it needs intellectual and good quality work. Moreover, all the old IIMs have their own journals, so to bring out another one will need simultaneous work on both of them,” said an IIM director.
In fact, the IIM review committee headed by R.C. Bhargava, Chairman of Maruti Suzuki, said that the IIMs have come in for criticism because they lag behind leading global business schools in publishing papers in internationally peer-reviewed management journals. The committee’s report had stated that the quality and quantity of research papers from the IIMs were not commensurate with their status and did not enable the IIMs to become thought leaders. “The system does not encourage, or provide incentives to the faculty, to give greater attention to research and publishing papers,” the report had said.
Even the rankings done by international business journals include the percentage of faculty with PhDs, opinion of recruiters and the extent of faculty research published in international peer-reviewed management journals, due to which till some years back the IIMs, India’s top B-schools, didn’t figure in such rankings.
Balakrishnan, the Chairman of IIM Calcutta, had also suggested arranging two three week-long interactions with successful practising managers who have innovated management. Besides launching the magazine, the IIM Council is also considering a proposal for a fellowship programme in management and making research less dependent on external scholarship. This is because the expense of funding doctoral programmes is substantial, with the cost for each four-year doctoral student in the IIMs coming at approximately Rs. 3 million in revenue expenses, apart from the capital investment required on providing on-campus housing and library facilities. The report has also suggested that IIM faculty should serve on company boards and policy-making committees of industry associations like CII and Assocham, among others.
Source: Financial Express, April 12, 2011
>Education loan norms to be reworked to cut bad debt
>
Millions of students seeking bank loans for higher studies and professional courses may soon get more time to repay after finding a job, but those who don’t have sufficient academic credentials and are getting admission through other means such as donation and “quotas” may find it tough to get money from banks. Concerned over a rise in default rates in loans given to students, Indian banks are re-working the existing norms to give such advances.
The committee, which is expected to submit its report by the end of this month, is planning to make some sort of security mandatory for loans given to those students who are securing admissions not by merit, but through recommendations or hefty donations. The committee is also expected to plug the loopholes in the loan sanctioning process. Often banks are compelled to give loans to students under pressure from politicians and people of influence in rural and semi-urban pockets even when they are not fully convinced about the credentials of the students, according a member of the Bhasin panel. “A student typically pays more money when the ad- mission is not through merit alone and in such cases banks might ask for some security,” the member said. He did not want to be named as the panel is yet to finalize its report.
Bankers blame the practice in many private colleges, particularly in south India, to “auction” seats to students who are not otherwise eligible for admission, for the rising non-performing assets (NPAs) in their education loan portfolios. Such students often fail to find a job on completion of their course and hence cannot repay bank loans, leading to defaults. According to the latest Reserve Bank data, Indian banks’ education loans outstanding rose to Rs. 43,801 crore (Rs. 438.01 billion) as on February-end, up 19.93%, from Rs. 36,522 crore (Rs. 365.22 billion) in the same period last year. Around 1-3% of such loans are NPAs, with the actual percentage varying from bank to bank. The committee is likely to extend the repayment period of education loans from five-seven years now to up to 10 years to facilitate repayment and reduce the probability of default, the member quoted above said.
Typically, banks lend to students at 10-11% for a tenure of five-seven years. Under the current norms, banks cannot accept any security for loans up to Rs. 400,000. For loans between Rs. 400,000 and Rs. 750,000, they can ask for personal guarantees from any working individual. For loans of even higher amount, collateral is necessary. Loans to students have grown by a healthy 20% in the last few years. State Bank of India has the largest share of education loans: Rs. 11,000 crore (Rs. 110 billion), or around 25% of the outstanding portfolio of the industry. Once the guidelines are finalized, IBA will notify the new norms. K.R. Kamath, Chairman & Managing Director of Punjab National Bank (PNB), said his bank has not seen any alarming rate of NPAs from its education loan portfolio. “Funding education should be a top priority of Indian banks as access to proper education is the only way for the middle class population to come up in society,” Kamath said.
Education loans contribute 1.5% of PNB’s total loan book of Rs. 2.21 trillion in December. Ashvini Patil, Senior Manager (Banking Division) at rating agency Credit Analysis and Research Ltd., said majority of the NPAs in education loans happen for loans below Rs. 400,000, where no collateral is required. “Some of the banks are facing problem of NPAs emanating from education loans as students fail to repay. This happens primarily in the less than Rs. 400,000 category, where no collateral is required,” Patil said. But since education loans do not form a huge portion of banks’ overall loan portfolio, as a percentage of total NPAs they don’t pose a major threat, he added.
Source: Mint, April 12, 2011
>New visa arrangement will help UK attract brightest students
>
The new arrangement for visas to UK will help that country continue to attract the brightest and best students, while ensuring that only bonafide and suitably qualified students enter it, a top official of the British High Commission said today in Bangalore.
“The UK and every UK education provider is reputable. The UK is committed to minimising abuse of the student route by those whose primary motivation is not to study, but to work”, British Deputy High Commissioner Richard Hyde told reporters. He said the changes announced would protect the interests of high quality Indian students but are ‘bad news’ for students, institutions and unscrupulous agents who have tried to abuse the student visa route. UK’s largest visa operation worldwide is in India, where about half a million applications were processed in 2010, he said.
Hyde said the Business Express Programme for accredited company members and Fast Track service for previous travellers are examples of how UKBA continues to work with key partners to make the visa service quicker, more efficient and effective. Applicants are advised not to submit forged documentation or false information with visa applications. Those who do risk a 10-year ban on all visa applications to UK. Applicants do not need an agent to make a UK visa application as all information is available on websites free of charge, he said.
Source: The Economic Times (Online Edition), April 12, 2011
>Four Indian students win Gates Scholarship at Cambridge
>
Four Indian students are among 60 from 29 countries who have been awarded the prestigious Gates Scholarship for postgraduate studies at the Cambridge University. Describing them as the “world’s most brilliant students,” the university said they were selected from among the several thousands who applied for the scholarship set up in 2000. Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, it enables academically gifted postgraduates with a strong interest in social leadership and responsibility to study at Cambridge.
Professor Robert Lethbridge, Provost (CEO) of the Gates Cambridge Trust, said: “This is an outstanding group of young men and women with a wide range of backgrounds, interests and career trajectories; what binds them together is a desire to ‘give back’ by using their education and leadership to tackle global problems and improve the lives of others. We are sure they will make significant contributions in the future.”
Sukrit Silas from Delhi will study for a Ph.D. in Pathology as would Bangalore-born Divya Venkatesh. Raghu Mahajan from Chandigarh will do Part 3 of the Mathematical Tripos and hopes to go on to do a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics while Anand Shrivastava, a product of IIT Madras, will study for an M.Phil. in Economics.
Source: The Hindu, April 12, 2011
>Breather for 44 deemed universities facing derecognition
>
The 44 deemed universities facing derecognition due to deficiencies in their infrastructure have received a fresh lease of life since a new committee will conduct a probe and report to the government in six weeks. The Supreme Court will receive the report from the government a month later. Since the new academic year will start by then, the universities under cloud will continue functioning without hitch till then.
The Centre had earlier clarified the 200,000 students enrolled in these universities at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels would not suffer on account of the failure of the universities. Colleges affiliated to these universities would continue to impart education. It is estimated that 2,124 students are doing research in M.Phil. and Ph.D. programmes and 74,808 students are pursuing distance education programmes. If the universities lose their recognition, the students would be absorbed in other recognised universities, according to government assurance.
Last year, 132 deemed universities were derecognised following reports of various deficiencies. Later the number was reduced to 44 and status quo was ordered in regard to them. Since then, they were functioning under court orders. As the universities protested and alleged they were not heard before taking the drastic action, the court appointed Prof. P N Tandon Committee to go into the deficiencies. The panel pointed out several shortcomings. For instance, it found families rather than professional academicians controlling the institutions in several universities.
In an order passed in January this year, these 44 universities were asked to rectify the inadequacies like proper buildings, laboratories and other facilities required for professional colleges. However, the bench headed by Justice Dalveer Bhandari today put the earlier committee apparently in cold storage and decided to wait for the report of the new committee. Each university would be given an individual hearing drawing attention to the deficiencies and they would be asked to explain their stand. More or less, the same procedure was adopted by the earlier committee also. However, the court decided to have afresh appraisal to take a definitive decision about the fate of these universities.
Source: Business Standard, April 12, 2011
>IIM-A’s sixth batch of PGPX the largest ever
>
The sixth batch of the one-year Post Graduate Programme in Management for Executives (PGPX) at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) was welcomed to the institute at a function on Monday. The number of students has significantly increased this year, making it the largest PGPX batch ever.
The batch is dominated by students from the Information Technology (IT) sector. Chairperson of PGPX Satish Deodhar said, “We have received students from diverse backgrounds. The batch has students from different industries like financial services, telecom, manufacturing, healthcare and public sector. Though, the maximum number of students in the batch is from IT.”
The number of students, which was 86 in the fifth batch (2010-11), has gone up to 101 this year (2011-12) for the sixth batch. Talking about the significant increase in the batch size this year, a member of the admission committee of PGPX said, “This year, after PGPX was ranked the best in Asia, a large number of students have joined the programme.”
The profile of the new batch of PGPX has also improved over the previous years. While the average GMAT score of the batch last year was 712, the score has increased to 714 this time. The average international work experience has also increased from four years and four months of the previous batch to four years and six months. About 40 students have come from abroad to join the programme. The welcome event was inaugurated by Dean, IIM-A BH Jajoo, and apart from the programme participants, faculty members and parents of the participants also attended the event.
Source: The Times of India, April 12, 2011
>MBA-CET result ‘shock’: Only 13 candidates cross 150-mark
>
In a huge slide in performance levels, management aspirants who took the Common Entrance Test (CET) in February to join B-schools in the state were shocked to see their results declared on Monday evening. Last year, close to 600 students scored over 150 out of 200, a score that brought them close to their dream of getting into top management colleges; this year merely 13 candidates in Maharashtra crossed the 150-mark. The top score is 172; it was 179 last year.
Officials at the state’s Directorate of Technical Education, which holds the MBA-CET, said, “The paper was a lot tougher than last year. In 2009, close to 200 candidates scored over 150.” In all, 92,166 students registered for the MBA-CET; 89,620 of them took the test. Like most management tests, this exam was also dominated by men: 68,040 males and 28,780 female candidates appeared for the test.
Information from the DTE revealed that 76 candidates scored over 140, 285 crossed 130, 907 got more than 120 and 2,162 bagged more than 110. The largest contingent of students – 43,736 – has scored between 50 and 100. “A little more than 2,800 students have been declared unqualified, as they scored less than 30,” said DTE officials.
The remaining candidates will move up to step two and participate in group discussion and personal interview. “With such scores, the college cut-offs will fall dramatically. If students have over 130, they have a good chance of making it to a top college in Mumbai,” said a faculty of Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS). According to the DTE, 72,025 candidates are from within the state; the remaining others-17,595-were outstation students. Maharashtra has 366 B-schools with a total student intake of 34,995.
Source: The Times of India, April 12, 2011
Higher Education News and Views 