The Hindu : New Delhi News : Campus Jottings

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 24, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Campus Jottings

Festive mood continues

With most Delhi University students continuing to be in the festive mood, putting their best foot forward these days are the theatre groups of various colleges. From a heart-rending performance by the students and alumni of Lady Shri Ram College to a Korean dance-drama at Daultat Ram College and a rather different digital performance by Gargi College students that will come up later this week, on display are some of Delhi University's best talents.

This past Monday saw Delhi University kick off a Korean Week on the campus with a play, "Hyeongbujung", and traditional Korean dances done by students of Korean language in the Department of East Asian Studies. The weeklong celebration will also see a photo exhibition and a Korean film screening being held along with a Korean food festival.

And while the performance of the Indian students left even the Koreans in the audience stumped, getting the language and diction right was not an easy process. A two-month-long rehearsal went into the play, with the students being trained by dance-drama directors Park Pil-ok, Park Suk-hee and Youn Jung-suk who had come especially from Korea for the show.

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Delhi University's Faculty of Management Studies (FMS) will be organising an International Conference on "Human Capital Formation in the 21st Century: Is a New Paradigm Needed?" from December 1.

To be held at the University convention centre, sharing the stage at the conference will be distinguished personalities in the field of politics, business and academics from India and abroad.

To be inaugurated by Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, the conference will feature paper presentations, panel discussions, keynotes and a special plenary session "Decision-Makers' Round Table" along with cultural programmes and dinners in the evening.

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The Bioinformatics Institute of India (BII) has now ventured into online learning with the launch "BII Online". An enhanced system of providing e-learning via internet, the institute will now offer all its specialised courses in Biomedical Sciences.

The website will have additional features such as live virtual classroom demo, custom solutions, learning methodologies, custom solutions, learning methodologies and online store.

"The goal of BII Online is to be a leader in the development and providing quality online programs using the latest distance learning technology. The Institutes online programs were developed to serve a constituency of students with life constraints preventing them from attending campus-based classes. These e-learning programs provide maximum flexibility without compromising learning outcomes or academic rigor," says Puneet Mehrotra, director of Bioinformatics Institute of India.

To be delivered through Internet via the Learning Management System, other common software programmes are also used to enhance the delivery of course materials.

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Yet another institute to offer a foreign collaborated degree now will be NIIT, which has forged an academic alliance with UK's Open University to offer B.Sc. (Honours) Computing and its Practice through its education centres in six countries.

To be introduced initially in Bangladesh, Botswana, Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria and Vietnam, the degree programme will build on the study that students have completed with NIIT.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, the Vice-Chancellor of the Open University, UK, Prof. Brenda Gourley said, "The alliance gives us an opportunity to address the growing need for trained IT professionals from many more countries. The unique combination of NIIT's global experience and delivery model with the OU's distinctive competencies in supported open learning worldwide gives the alliance great potential to make a difference in the world of higher education."

Students can provisionally enrol for the Open University's degree programme while seeking admission to a two-year programme at NIIT, with this being evaluated by the Open University to ensure its equivalence to 240 points of UK study.

Upon successful completion of the programme, students will be allowed entry to the `top-up' degree programme. Thus a student will be required to do only 120 credits over a 12-month period, to be awarded a B.Sc. (Honours.) degree in computing by the Open University.

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As part of the Public Action Forum that has seen over 100 debates and discussions being held on themes of national importance over the years, a lecture was delivered by Director-General of Home Guards, Kiran Bedi, at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) this past Friday.

Stressing the need for civil defence force in the country, Ms. Bedi pointed out the limitations of police. "Being a resource crunch force, it is difficult for police to tackle all the problems of the country. As India is spread across length and breadth, it is important to have civil defence force," she said, and invited youngsters above the age of 15 to join the force to protect the country.

-- Lakshmi B. Ghosh

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