The Hindu : New Delhi News : ‘Open varsities to play major role in higher education’

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Thursday, Jul 03, 2008
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New Delhi

‘Open varsities to play major role in higher education’

The Distance Education Council conducted a meeting of Vice-Chancellors of all State open universities and Directors of the Directorate of Distance Education of major dual mode university earlier this week at its headquarters at Indira Gandhi National Open University in New Delhi.

IGNOU Vice-Chancellor and Council chairman V. N. Rajasekharan Pilllai noted that during the 11th Five Year Plan period open and distance education is expected to contribute about 40 per cent of the total enrolment in the higher education.

He also applauded the efforts of the State open universities and dual mode universities in expanding the access to higher education to a large segment of society.

Prof. Pillai also informed the gathering that the Council at its meeting last year had decided to accord “post-facto approval” to the institutions offering programmes through distance mode since their inception. However, those institutions need to apply to the Council for the same.

Ahead of the new academic year, Jamia Millia Islamia is taking care to address the needs of the differently-abled among its students.

The university offers 3 per cent reservation to persons with physical disability. Candidates under this category are given relaxation up to 5 per cent in the qualifying examination. In 2007-08, a total of 173 students were admitted under this category .

A learning centre for the disabled was established at the Zakir Husain Library last year. Aimed primarily at supporting the visually challenged students and staff, the centre is a modern facility with state-of-the-art assistive technology. It has facilities for providing access to printed material, websites and digital media. Modern screen reading technology, screen magnification technology and optical recognition technology have been installed through software like JAWA. The software would help the visually challenged access printed books, journals and magazines by scanning the text and listening to it without any assistance.

Jamia had already constructed ramps in the campus to make it accessible to the differently-abled.

The Air Hostess Academy has announced admissions to its one-year diploma in Aviation and Hospitality Management and two-year diploma in Global Aviation and Hospitality Management. The minimum qualification for the candidates is Class XII.

Interested candidates have to register with their personal details and contact numbers. After the profiles of the candidates are short-listed, the selected students will be called for an entrance test.

Details can be obtained at www.airhostessacademy.com

J K Business School, Gurgaon, is organising an orientation programme for its new batch of students for the academic year 2008-09. The six-day programme will begin on July 12. It has been conceived with the objective of familiarising students with the institution.

Several representatives from the corporate world would address real life issues with the new students during the programme.

The inaugural address at the orientation programme will be delivered by IGNOU Vice-Chancellor V. N. Rajasekharan Pillai, while the session will be addressed by the Chairman of the School, Govind Hari Singhania, and Director-General Reena Ramachandran.

Devi Singh, Director of the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, inaugurated the fourth batch of Working Managers’ Programme at its Noida campus this past week.

WMP is a uniquely designed course for working executives, entrepreneurs and professionals who want to enhance their knowledge and skills in a formal setting while continuing to be engaged in their profession.

It was launched in 2005 along with the launch of the Noida campus of IIM Lucknow as a three-year programme for professionals having a minimum of three years’ work experience.

Parul Sharma

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