A load of crap from an idle brain

Almost a year ago, i wrote a post, End of the American dream? The bad news continues. With the Obama administration tightening the screws against the immigrants and the financial collapse of the American economy, it seems the jobs are drying up and so is the much needed funding for the education system.

“There is a drop both in the number and the quality of Ph.D. applications, more noticeably in the last two years.” says Anand Sivasubramaniam, professor of computer science and engineering, Pennsylvania State University (Penn State). “This year, of the more than 700 applications we received from prospective graduate students worldwide, the number of applications from top Indian institutes such as the IITs and IISc was in the single digit. Less than three years ago, this number was in the double digits,” he says. An article this February in The Chronicle of Higher Education reported a 50 percent decline in the number of new Indian graduate students this Autumn at the University of Georgia. The computer science department at California State University (Long Beach) saw a spate of prospective master’s students from India abandoning their application process midway.

“It’s the beginning of a trend, an indicator that something is happening and that Indian students are not coming here like they did in the past,” laments Dr. Nathan Bell, director of research at the Council.
You don’t have to look far to find the reasons for this. With the US economy in a shambles, there are severe budget cuts at state-funded universities. The prospects of obtaining a full waiver of tuition fees are slim. Dwindling grant money also means that local students stand a better chance of getting a research fellowship than foreign students. So, many Indian students end up working for free. Last semester, Atulya Prasad, a master’s and Ph.D. candidate in biomedical engineering at New York’s Stony Brook University, worked as a research assistant sans the stipend.

The situation doesn’t improve upon graduation. The growing political backlash against the loss of American jobs, and the rising anti-immigrant sentiment means that getting a work visa — let alone getting a job — is as tough as it can get. So much so that now, even the lure of a US-located son-in-law is starting to fade. “The classic America-educated son-in-law syndrome is almost nonexistent as students, especially from tier 2 schools, hardly get jobs in the US after they graduate,” says Satyavrata Samavedi, a Ph.D. candidate in tissue engineering at the Virginia Institute of Technology (Virginia Tech).

Full article here

Above picture courtesy: Associated Content

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The good news is that scientific research papers being filed from India are on the upswing.  The bad news is that countries like China, Korea etc have left India long behind in this race.  In fact, China has more than doubled its research output since 2004.  Read more on these reports at this Thomson Reuters website.

Often referred to as a “sleeping giant” in scientific literature, India seems to be waking out of its slumber, says a recent global research report on “Research and Collaboration in the new Geography of Science” by Thomson Reuters.

As per the report, Chemistry and Pharmacology are fast becoming the most “published” disciplines in India; USA remains its largest research partner even as South Korea is racing ahead of China to partner with India. And Japan’s University of Tokyo collaborates most frequently with Indian researchers.

If the current trajectory continues, the study estimates, India’s productivity would well be on par with that of most G-8 nations within eight years and could even overtake them between 2015-2020.

In a testament to its strength in information technology, computer science accounted for the highest increase in world publications from India between 1999-2003 and 2004-2008, increasing by more than 100%. When it comes to research, India’s strength lies in Chemistry and emerging sectors like pharmacology, microbiology and traditional agricultural sciences.

Between 1993-2003 and 2004-08:

• In Chemistry, India’s research output increased from 21,206 world publications to 33,504

• From a 2.8 per cent share of the world output in pharmacology and toxicology, India’s share is up to 4.25 per cent

• Output in engineering rose from 2.69 per cent to 3.57 per cent

• Microbiology saw publication output rise from 1.62 per cent to 2.79 per cent

Agricultural engineering, Tropical Medicine, Organic Chemistry and Dairy & Animal Science are areas of research where India is picking up well besides Crystallography and Textiles.

Read the full news here

Above picture source: 30yearchallenge

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A plan first mooted in 2005 is finally gaining shape.  A South Asian university planned by the 8 SAARC nations will throw open its doors for students from these countries by the month of August 2010. The university will be based in New Delhi. Currently the University is based out of the Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Click here to go to the university’s web page

To reverse brain drain, provide an academic opportunity in the subcontinent and promote a sense of South Asian community, a plan first mooted in 2005 is finally and quietly taking shape — in the form of the first truly international university being set up by eight nations.

Tax-free dollar salaries for an international faculty, a variety of multi-disciplinary courses focused on research, a multinational exam for admission, an academic environment free of directions from Commissions, and a think tank to ponder over the shared problems of the subcontinent — these will be the key features of the South Asian University (SAU) being set up by SAARC nations.

The university, headed by former JNU V-C Prof G K Chadha — once a student of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh — will start operating between August 2010 and January 2011, offering postgraduate courses in economics, computer applications and biotechnology. Faculty will be recruited largely from SAARC countries, but SAU has kept open options of looking beyond.

Full article here

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The mailtoday newspaper has gone further with another cartoon lampooning the Victorian police and the state of Indian students studying in Australia.

Read more in the paper about how the Australian police have systematically ignored the racist attacks on Indian students.  1447 people of Indian origin were either robbed or assaulted in the previous one year in Australia.  Yet the Aussie police refuse to acknowledge the targetted violence.

Its high time the parents in India realise that its not worth sending your kids to Australia to study some god forsaken courses for which there is no future anyway, but also that there is no future in contributing to increasing the Aussie education market.  Lest your kids come back in body bags.

Similar articles on Australia on this blog previously

More ramblings

Now Murali ends up with an egg on the face

Racism in Cricket? Read the damning Aussie report

Sreesanth’s Agression

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Some good news for the students and the city of Hyderabad.

In what could propel Hyderabad into a premier educational hub of the country, the AP government and Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, have informally agreed to set up a ‘seamless’ campus of IIM-A on the outskirts of Hyderabad.

“The decision to set up IIM-A campus in Hyderabad was taken at a meeting between the board of governors of the institute and state government officials in Ahmedabad recently. The top management institution has now set up a committee to work out further modalities,” state government sources told STOI. Dons in IIM-A confirmed the development to STOI.

The move is said to be highly symbiotic. The 110-acre IIM-A campus is virtually saturated and there is no scope of any further expansion. “The AP government has offered nearly 150 acres of land virtually free of cost or at a nominal amount of Rs one per acre as well as a grant of Rs 100 crore. The seamless campus at Hyderabad would be bigger than the Ahmedabad location and have ultra-modern facilities,” the official said.

According to sources, IIM-A can benefit immensely by having an extension in Hyderabad. “The PGDM — commonly called MBA-course is the brand-building one, but not revenue earning. The institute can generate money only through short-term executive courses and the IT, biotechnology and infrastructure hub that Hyderabad is would attract many to join up,” sources said.

According to sources, reputed faculty from abroad are keen to join the institute and would be motivated by the access that the Hyderabad international airport would provide for them. “IIM-A is the top management institution in the country and Hyderabad is the hub of the emerging economy. Both will tremendously benefit with the setting up of the seamless campus,” officials said.

The YSR Reddy government thought of the seamless IIM-A campus after the Centre made it clear that a new IIM cannot be granted for Hyderabad since it already has an IIT. “And there is no provision for an IIM for Andhra Pradesh in the 12th Five-Year Plan (2013-18) as well. A seamless IIM-A campus would be an extension of the one at Ahmedabad and not another new campus. This way, the Union HRD ministry will also have no objection as it need not give any financial assistance,” said sources.

According to the sources, the IIM-A board of governors were highly appreciative of the facilities that were being offered by the state government for the growth and expansion of the institution. “Their efforts in the last few years to grow including opening a campus in Mumbai came a cropper. Besides, former HRD minister Arjun Singh shot down all the expansion plans of the IIMs. Therefore, the offer from the AP government was welcomed with open arms by IIM-A authorities,” officials said.

Apart from the flagship PGDM course, the seamless campus in Hyderabad would offer a slew of new ones as well as optional courses that the student from Ahmedabad can enlist for a short-term, the sources said.

“In short, the seamless campus in Hyderabad can further cement the grip of IIM-A as the topmost management institute in the country,” the sources added.

The committee set up by the IIM-A authorities is expected to submit its proposals shortly to the board of governors after which the institute will seek a formal approval from the Union HRD ministry.

Above news source: TimesofIndia

Above pictures of campus source: IIM Ahmedabad

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BITS, XLRI, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Georgia Technological University, Harvard Business School and now Symbiosis. Yup, now Pune based Symbiosis Business Management Institute of India is opening their campus in Hyderabad.

Read here

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The Indian School of Business (ISB), has some new competition right in its backyard. The Harvard Business School (HBS), will kick off its first executive education programme in India early next year. The first-of-its-kind five-day programme on Building a Global Enterprise in India will cost Rs 1.8 lakh per participant.

This is perhaps the first time that HBS is kicking off academic programmes in the country after nurturing IIM Ahmedabad way back in 1961-67. The reputed B-school set up in Mumbai its India research centre in 2005 after it began developing India focused cases about a decade earlier.

The new programme, slated to be held in February 2008 at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre, a stone’s throw from the ISB campus, will replicate the world-renowned HBS learning experience. It will provide participants the opportunity to meet and discuss business issues with a diverse and dynamic group of C-suite peers from India and around the world.

ISB leverages its academic alliances with The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and the London Business School, which has contributed extensively in developing the executive programmes for it.

For more information on the course, click here .Read rest of the article here

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