IGNOU introduces on-demand examination system

New Delhi: Students at the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) will now have the freedom to choose the date and venue of their term-end examination with the introduction of 'On-Demand-Examinations'.

The examination system covers more than 12 courses and will be conducted once a week on Friday at the selected regional centres in Delhi, Chennai, Jammu, Hyderabad among others. Results will be declared within 60 days.

IGNOU launches Programme in watershed development

A new Programme on watershed management has been launched by the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), an official said.

The one-year diploma programme will commence Jan 1, 2011.

"The objectives of the programme are to develop human resource in watershed development and management, introducing the principles of watershed management approach and the value of working in watershed.

It is also aimed at mobilisation and capacity building of rural youth, landless women and developing skills for small scale irrigation and water supply structures for soil and water conservation strategies.

General candidates will have to shell out Rs.9,000 for the programme while the candidates from rural areas or urban BPL (Below Poverty Line) will have to cough up Rs.4,500. There is no restriction on age.

The medium of instruction for the programme is Hindi and English. Regional languages will be added at a later stage, the official added.

IIMs want more girls, non-engineering students

Kolkata: The Indian Institutes of Management are now looking to rope in more girl students and those with non-engineering background to get a more diversified variety on their rolls.

Directors of five IIMs from across the country Monday held a conference and felt the need to change the quantitative bias in the Common Admission Test (CAT) to draw in more students in their classrooms from diverse academic backgrounds.

Giving a wrap-up of the discussion, Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta director Sekhar Chowdhury said the issues would be dealt with seriously though it was not yet certain that the changes could take place from next year's CAT.

"In many cases, despite efforts to get in students from other backgrounds, the number of engineering students has increased. The blame is on our admission process. We need to change how we admit students and how CAT is organised," said IIM-Lucknow director Devi Singh.

Singh said though a large section of the faculty would not have been favourably disposed to the idea of having a greater diversity in students, "now the realisation has dawned on them and in the next few years we may see a change in the system".

IIM-Bangalore director Pankaj Chandra felt girl students found the CAT examination with its stress on mathematics a deterrent.

"That's the reason many girl students do not sit for the entrance test".

Statistics show that about 2 lakh students take the annual CAT examination for admission to 2,000 seats in the country's ten IIMs. Of them, the percentage of engineers gaining entry into the premier B-Schools is over 90 per cent, while the percentage of female students is only 10-15 percent taking all the IIMs together.

Chowdhury said while the world has a nearly 50:50 ratio of men and women, "why cannot we have a similar or more or less equal representation in the classroom? After all, the class should represent life."

He said on the contrary, private management institutes had a 40-45 percent girl students.

52 candidates admitted to IIT by mistake: Kapil Sibal

New Delhi: Clarifying the withdrawal of offer of admission to 52 candidates from IITs, the human resource development ministry Friday said that the offers were made "erroneously" to the candidates.

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said that according to the Joint Admission Board, 52 candidates in the general category were offered admission to IIT though they had not qualified in the test.

"Some candidates who wrote the JEE 2010 were erroneously offered admission. The inadvertent error in course allocation pertained to candidates who had not qualified in the architecture/design aptitude test, were offered admission," Sibal said quoting information from the Joint Admission Board.

"Their admission was later withdrawn and the places were filled by eligible candidates," he said. According to the ministry, 41 of the candidates were provided admission in the second list while the rest 11 could not be taken as "they had not filled a large number of choices even though they has been advised to do so during their counselling".

The minister also said that two of the candidates had gone to court. "The JEE system has introduced additional checks in their procedure so that such an error does not recur.