HED - College of The Year

INDIA EDITION

How is LSAC Helping Law Aspirants During COVID-19?

Kellye Testy, President & CEO, The Law School Admission Council

Distance Learning in the Time of Social Distancing Raghav Gupta, Managing Director, India and APAC, Coursera

COLLEGE OF THE YEAR 2020

Impact of COVID-19 on Higher Education Dr. DNS Kumar, Vice-Chancellor, Ansal University

Studying Medicine Abroad Gives Aspirants a New Perspective Towards Their Career Goals Dr Naresh Shetty, President of the International Program and Strategic Alliance, Ramaiah Group of Institutions

KOSHYS GROUP OF INSTITUTIONS

Innovating Education

JUNE 2020

During the Crisis

Dr Santhosh Koshy, Chairman

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Higher Education Digest June 2020

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Higher Education Digest June 2020

June 2020

Vol - 2 Issue - 8

College of the Year 2020 Special (India Edition) Editor in Chief

Dr. Manoj Varghese

Managing Editor Rose Mary

Consultant Editors

Dr. Johny Andrews Anjana K Shyam S

Navya Venkatesh Stanly Lui Emma James

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Art and Design Ajay K Das

Sales & Marketing

Arati Waghmare Jyoti Kumari Rupali Mohankar Prathyoosh K Shaji Samatha S P

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Higher Education Digest June 2020 March 2019

MANAGING EDITOR’S NOTE

Waiting for the Reopening

S

ummer vacation was one of most-awaited time during my school days. When I reached college, study leaves replaced the summer vacations. All those holidays, however, had one thing in common – I knew that I could go back to my college at the end of it and hang around with my friends like I always used to. Today, students are dealing with a different sort of vacation. They are at home but do not know when they can go back to their classrooms. Somehow, teaching and learning are happening in the form of virtual classes, but ‘when will the colleges reopen?’ remains one of the most searched questions on Google.

During a global pandemic that demands social distancing, online learning may be the only available option to keep our students engaged with knowledge.

However, remote learning is not for everyone. Even the fortunate students, those who have the comfort of a laptop, high-speed internet, and a room to study peacefully, are continually being interrupted by

distractions after distractions. Checking WhatsApp messages, scrolling through Facebook and Instagram posts, watching random YouTube videos, the list will hardly get an end. On the other side, teachers who were comfortable with their ‘chalk and talk’ method are now struggling with virtual classes. Who knows, more than students, it might be the teachers who are asking Google this question, ‘when will the colleges reopen?’

Remembering those good old days and hoping for the come back of the physical classrooms, we have come up with our latest issue – College of the Year 2020. We have handpicked some of the best colleges in the country that have been providing excellent education by overcoming the challenges caused by the pandemic lockdown. On the cover, we feature Koshys Group of Institutions located in Bangalore, which has successfully used COVID-19 a catalyst to search for innovative solutions.

Stay safe, enjoy reading.

Sarath Shyam

Higher Education Digest June 2020

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ADVISORY BOARD Dr. Kuldeep Nagi, Ph.D, MBA, BSc. Program Director of Ph.D, Recipient of Fulbright Fellowship Award & Dan Evans Award for Excellence and Writer columnist.

Dr.Varughese K.John, PhD, MBA, MPhil, MCom, LLB. Program Director, MS in Management Program, GSATM - AU

Dr. Venus M. Alboruto, PhD, Master Teacher, Researcher, Innovator, Trainer.

6 Major General (Rtd.) Dr. Sunil Chandra, VSM (Vishishta Seva Medal), Ph.D, M. Phil, MA, M.Ed, PGBDA Ex-M D Army Welfare Education Society, ExCOO GEMS Education - India, Ex- Addl Dir Gen - Army Education, Mentor - Adventure-Pulse

Dr. Ajay Shukla, Ph.D, MBA, BE.

Mr. Sreedhar Bevara, MBA, B.Com

Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Higher Education UAE

Senior General Manager: Panasonic Middle East & Africa, Thought Leader, Speaker & Author of ‘Moment of Signal’ (Amazon’s International Bestseller)

Mr. Amulya Sah, PGD PM & IR, PG Diploma in PM&IR (XISS Ranchi)

Shanthi Rajan (MSHRM, FHEA, AMCILT) Director, Institution Development, University of Stirling, RAK Campus, UAE.

Higher Education Digest June 2020

Senior Director HR. Head HR group Samsung R&D Institute India,Transformative HR Leader, Change agent, Digitization facilitator, Engagement architect, Trainer and Diversity champion.

Asst. Prof. Dr. Suramya Mathai, Ph.D,M.Ed,MA,BA. Teachers Training Expert, Writer, Author, Speaker & Social Worker

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Higher Education Digest June 2020

CONTENTS 18 C

O

V

ER

O T S

Y R

8

KOSHYS GROUP OF INSTITUTIONS

Innovating Education

During the Crisis Higher Education Digest June 2020

38 52

64 70 100

84 9

COLLEGE OF THE

YEAR 2020 38 - 45

52 - 59

ASIAN LAW COLLEGE

ADICHUNCHANAGIRI INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL SCIENCES

Creating Internationally Respected Legal Professionals

Transforming Clinical Care, Research, and Education in India

64 - 68

70 - 76

GLOBAL COLLEGE OF LAW

ICFAI LAW SCHOOL

Dodging the Pandemic Blow on Education

Offering 360 Degrees Learning to Equip the Aspiring Lawyers for the 21st Century Challenges

84 - 90 JECRC UNIVERSITY’S SCHOOL OF DESIGN

Pushing the Frontiers of Interior Designing

100 - 103

108 108 - 111 SAANVI DEGREE COLLEGE FOR WOMEN

Imparting Knowledge the Unconventional Way

RV COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

Driving Life-Changing Innovations

Higher Education Digest June 2020

MENTOR’S MANTRA

12 - 16

CONTENTS

Moving from a Paper and Pencil Test to an Online Administration: How is LSAC Helping Law Aspirants During COVID-19?

Kellye Testy, President & CEO, The Law School Admission Council

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

46 - 50

78 - 82

112 - 114

Distance Learning in the Time of Social Distancing: How is Coursera Helping Education Institutions Around the World?

Access, Adopt and Move on The New Mantra of Learning

Swiss Model of Experiential Learning in Hospitality Education

Raghav Gupta, Managing Director, India and APAC, Coursera

Manit Parikh, Country Head, ELSA Corp.

Georgette Davey, Managing Director, Glion Institute of Higher Education

ACADEMIC VIEW

28 - 31

32 - 34

60 - 63

Impact of COVID-19 on Higher Education

Studying Medicine Abroad Gives Aspirants a New Perspective Towards Their Career Goals

The Way Ahead for Hospitality Aspirants Following COVID-19

Dr Naresh Shetty, President of the International Program and Strategic Alliance, Ramaiah Group of Institutions

Dr Rajan Makkar, Dean - School of Hospitality, Rishihood University

92 - 95

96 - 99

104 - 107

How Did We Prepare Teachers for COVID Disruption in Education?

Why Study Biomedical Engineering - One of the Fastest Growing Areas in Engineering?

How to Educate the Future Generation?

Dr. Sunita Gandhi, Founder, Global Education & Training Institute (GETI)

Prof. Raymond Lee, Professor of Biomechanics and Associate Dean (Global Engagement), Faculty of Technology - University of Portsmouth (UoP), UK

Dr. DNS Kumar, Vice-Chancellor, Ansal University

Nidhi Bansal, Pro-Vice Chairperson, Pacific World School

MENTOR’S MANTRA

Moving from a Paper and Pencil Test to an Online Administration: How is LSAC Helping Law Aspirants During COVID-19?

Kellye Testy, President & CEO, The Law School Admission Council

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What are the significant challenges for LSAC to administer the 2020 LSAT—India online for the first time?

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on families and communities across India and around the world. We have heard from so many law aspirants across India who want to pursue their legal education to make a difference in their communities. In that spirit, we are pleased to deliver the LSAT—India in a secure online manner that will preserve the safety and health of students, parents, and administrators.

Delivering an online test to thousands of students in their own homes in the middle of a global pandemic is a big challenge. Still, our organization is built on a history of innovation, research, and access.

Fortunately, we began work on a digital LSAT more than five years ago. That work has provided a strong foundation for our transition to an online, remotely proctored LSAT to address the COVID-19 emergency. Regarding the LSAT—India, we were already planning to transition to a computer-based test in 2021. Given the current global health situation, we were in an excellent position to make that move this year.

We started with three priorities: security, reliability, and student convenience. We set out to recreate the stringent security protocols we have for our paper-and-pencil test. With the help of the AI technology on the testing platform and other security measures, we will be able to identify misconduct, thus preserving the integrity of the exam and helping us maintain our high-security standards.

As you may know, we recently delivered our first-ever online LSAT administration in the U.S. and Canada, which was generally

Higher Education Digest June 2020

Transitioning to an online, remotely proctored exam will help resolve significant challenges that law aspirants face this year

13 Kellye Testy

For the first time ever, Law School Admission Council (LSAC), creator of the LSAT— India, will be administering the 2020 LSAT—India online to provide a secure and timely testing opportunity for candidates despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Moving from a paper and pencil test to an online administration will enable candidates to take the test from the safety and convenience of their homes or a location of their choice. Thus, they can continue their goal of pursuing legal education despite necessary public health restrictions on travel and public gathering. In an exclusive interaction with Higher Education Digest, Kellye Testy, President & CEO, LSAC, talks about the significant challenges of administering LSAT – India online by ensuring integrity, learnings for the education sector from COVID-19 disruption, and many more.

Higher Education Digest June 2020

More about

Kellye Testy Since 2017, Kellye Testy has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Law School Admission Council (LSAC), the leading assessment, data, and technology hub for law schools and their candidates in the United States, Canada,

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and

throughout

the

world.

Under Testy’s leadership, LSAC, a 350-employee, not-for-profit organization,

has

worked

with its law school members Kellye Testy

and candidates, colleges and universities, as well as leading organizations in law, education, and

business,

to

promote

universal access to justice as a way to build a more just and prosperous world.

Higher Education Digest June 2020

successful. Nearly 10,000 candidates took the LSATFlex between May 18 and 22. While some test takers experienced technical difficulties with their computers or internet connections, 99 per cent of test-takers who started the test successfully completed it. We are using the experience of delivering the May exam to make future online administrations like the July LSAT—India even better.

We have been a trusted and reliable partner to law schools for 75 years. In that time, the LSAT has been referred to as the “gold standard” for law school admission testing. For more than 10 years, we have administered the LSAT—India for admission into law schools in India and have proven that we’re able to maintain the same high standard. It’s our responsibility to deliver reliable and accurate scores every time we administer an exam, and that commitment will continue as we move into an online format.

As the test moves from traditional mode to an online administration, what advantages do the candidates get?

Transitioning to an online, remotely proctored exam will help resolve significant challenges that law aspirants face this year. The main advantage, of course, is being able to test without being distracted by safety and health concerns.

But it is also much more convenient. There is no need to travel anywhere to take the LSAT—India this year, no need to wait for other test takers to check-in, and so on.

This online format allows candidates to take the test at home, in a comfortable and familiar environment that is free of distractions.

Tell us about the efforts taken by LSAC in making awareness about the online test pattern. How did you address the concerns for candidates on testing on an online format?

We began with a public announcement to the press, information posted on our website, and email communication to all registered candidates. We also reached out to several coaching institutes and influencers who have helped us in sharing the details of the test with students seeking admission into a law program this year.

We have hosted a variety of webinars with LSAC Global Law Alliance members and other stakeholders such as Careers360. We have more webinars planned this month on diversity in the legal profession, the value of global legal education experience, and an in-depth session on preparing for the LSAT—India. Closer to the test date, we will also be sending out a detailed document familiarizing LSAT—India test-takers with what they should expect with

the new format, test day do’s and don’ts, how to navigate through the test, and basic troubleshooting. We will also provide a short mock test to familiarize candidates with the online test format. Additionally, to help ease candidates’ concerns, we promptly respond to any query received on our candidate support lines (+91 89898 00123) and support email box (discoverlawindia@LSAC.org).

Cheating can occur in several ways, both before and during an exam. How is LSAC planning to control examination fraud?

For LSAC, the integrity of the test is of foremost importance. We have taken measures to help prevent candidate fraud and flag any possible misconduct.

Candidates are required to upload their photo while filling out the registration application for the LSAT— India. We review all the uploaded photos to make sure they clearly depict the candidate and appear to be recent, and we ask candidates to upload replacement photos when necessary.

On the day of the test, candidates will be required to show, via their webcam, a photo identification from the list of published acceptable IDs before they are allowed to begin the test. There will be strict rules about what a candidate may have on their desk or table during the test.

The secured browser that candidates will have to install to take the test will ensure that candidates cannot run any application in the background or access any material already present on the system as long as they are testing.

It completely locks down their system. During the entire duration of the exam, our software will monitor candidate movement and flag any suspicious movement for detailed investigation by the LSAC team.

Finally, we use sophisticated statistical techniques after the test to identify anomalous testing behaviour that may indicate misconduct.

What are learnings for the education sector from COVID-19 disruption? As a not-for-profit organization committed to promoting quality, access, and equity in law and education, how does LSAC see this situation?

Many of the lessons we have learned are grounded in the Hindi word “jugaad,” a creative or innovative idea that provides an efficient alternative way of solving a problem. We have faced several challenges in the past three months that we would not have been able to conquer without a heavy dose of jugaad, coupled with a focused determination to succeed no matter the odds.

Flexibility, adaptability, and quick decision-making to respond to the changing times are essential. The education

Higher Education Digest June 2020

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We strive to work with leaders in law and legal education to support India’s continued development as a significant contributor to the global economy

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sector will need to strike the right balance between timetested practices and innovative new approaches to navigate the challenges posed by COVID-19 and other factors.

Outreach and admission counselling, teaching methods, access to educational resources — all these aspects of education will need to be reviewed and updated. We have seen many law colleges in the U.S. and in India transition portions of their curriculum to a virtual environment.

The pandemic has disrupted every aspect of our lives.

Still, thanks to technological advances, higher education institutions are finding creative and effective new ways to do what they do best: teaching.

With virtual education becoming the new normal, LSAC believes access can and should improve for candidates with disabilities and those with limited financial resources. Faculties need not travel long distances now, whether across the globe or within India, and can reach out to students from anywhere in the world. This will require a focus on the needs of candidates with disabilities and candidates with limited resources but should help make professors and academic training more available for candidates.

As the President and CEO, tell us about your plans for LSAC. What are your short-term and long-term goals?

From the time we administered the first LSAT in 1948, LSAC has been working to help expand and diversify the opportunities for students around the world to discover law while creating pathways for them to connect with the right law school. Today, our commitment to cutting-edge research, industry-leading assessments, and innovative technology solutions to help law schools recruit, admit,

Higher Education Digest June 2020

and retain candidates is stronger than ever. You can see that commitment to innovation in our efforts to deliver the secure online LSAT—India exam in a few short weeks so that students can pursue their law school aspirations without having to risk their health and safety.

More broadly, we strive to work with leaders in law and legal education to support India’s continued development as a significant contributor to the global economy. As the centre of civilizations for millennia and the largest democracy in the world today, India’s leadership in modelling the rule of law is critical. In the short run, our goals include adding more law schools that deliver highquality legal education to the LSAC Global Law Alliance.

We would like to collaborate with law schools that share our student-centric vision and see the value in accepting LSAT—India scores as part of their admission process.

We are also working with organizations like Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access to Legal Education (IDIA) to promote access for the underprivileged and to bring diversity to Indian law schools.

In the long term, we plan to deepen our partnerships with Indian law schools to ensure that law students are prepared to provide all kinds of legal services, from the everyday legal needs of families and small businesses, to courts and government agencies, to international corporations and law firms. We are building resources for law aspirants to ease their enrollment journeys and exposing high school students to the plethora of opportunities in law. We are also laying the foundation for LSAC Global (our Indian subsidiary) to serve as a hub for legal education and law practice in India. All of this is in keeping with LSAC’s mission of opening the doors of justice to all who seek it — and, in turn, building a more just and prosperous world.

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Higher Education Digest June 2020

COVER

KOSHYS GROUP OF INSTITUTIONS

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Innovating Education

During the Crisis

By Sarath Shyam

Higher Education Digest June 2020

STORY

Dr Santhosh Koshy, Chairman

Higher Education Digest June 2020

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E

xtraordinary situations need extraordinary measures. With the unprecedented scale and unique response strategies, COVID-19 pandemic has given the world a realization that our current way of life many nor work. One of the significant areas where we saw substantial scale reformation is education. “The slow pace of change in academic institutions globally is lamentable, with centuriesold, lecture-based approaches to teaching, entrenched institutional biases and old classrooms. COVID-19 has nudged and pushed the education and led to surprising innovations,” opines Dr Santhosh Koshy, Chairman, Koshys Group of Institutions.

Higher Education Digest June 2020

For Koshys Group of Institutions located in Bangalore, COVID-19 has however become a catalyst to search for innovative solutions in a relatively short period. Dr Koshy adds, “We have shifted completely to a virtual college where we can easily reach to each one of our students during this lockdown. All our classes are running online and our teachers are covering their syllabus with ease.”

The institute uses technology platforms like Google Classrooms to conduct internal exams and the students regularly submit their assignments online. “At present, there are not many effects of COVID-19 on Koshys concerning the knowledge distribution,” pinpoints Dr Koshy.

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A 7 acre campus with around 1500 students, makes Koshys Group of Institutions a proeducation premise

Indeed, the higher education sector across the globe has reacted in a solidary manner and continued the delivery of knowledge and skills using new learning modalities - from live broadcasts to virtual reality experiences. Koshys Group of Institutions has been using this an opportunity to develop skills that are needed in this unpredictable world. Informed decision making, creative problem solving and perhaps above all, adaptability, are few to name among them. “To ensure those skills remain a priority for all students, resilience must be built into our teaching systems as well. Most importantly, we shall prepare our students to become a socially responsible citizen,� shares Dr Koshy.

Higher Education Digest June 2020

The calm and serene ambiance of the Koshys’ campus provides excellent opportunity for learning and exploring.

Dr Santhosh Koshy, Chairman

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A passionate human being committed to bringing quality health care for all – he founded Koshys Hospital in 2002 and Little Flower Hospital in 1998. Since inception, he has brought together some of the most excellent Doctors across specialities and developed Koshys into a Multi-speciality Hospital to provide quality health care to patients. With over two decades of experience, he is a highly respected paediatrician in the medical fraternity.

Higher Education Digest June 2020

At Koshys Group of Institutions, social responsibility does not stay as a theoretical concept inside the classroom. The institute meeting this unprecedented moment with a renewed sense of purpose about its role in the community. “We want to contribute in some way to the war effort. We have been providing groceries to the migrant workers, cab drivers, daily wage laborers as well as giving masks and gowns and other protective equipment for front-line health-care workers,” shares Dr Koshy. The college is also reaching out to our neighbouring village called Bagalur to provide each family with basic food items like rice, daal, potato and many more. Dr Koshy adds, “Our Digital marketing team is continuously working on social media platforms to spread awareness and educating people about basic do’s and don’ts about COVID-19.”

Making an Education Establishment that Matters Established in 2003, Koshys Group of Institutions is now considered a premier institute for management and nursing education in the country. Since its inception, the institute has been achieving the set milestones year after year in every sphere of education including academics, placement, industry interaction, corporate training and extracurricular activities and many more. “As the global competition is heating up, our educational philosophy is found on the belief that the students should not only be professionals in their chosen careers but also well-rounded personalities.

They must be knowledgeable with high professional and ethical standards,” explains Dr Koshy. Today, Koshys Group of Institutions strives to nurture its students to emerge as corporate leaders and entrepreneurs who can face challenges and contribute to the world.

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Higher Education Digest June 2020

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Although Koshys College of Nursing, which was established in 2003, had become a leading academic institution dedicated to educating exemplary nursing professionals, Koshys Institute of Management Studies had its share of challenges in the beginning. Dr Koshy recalls, “It was in 2010 when we started an MBA program. In the 1st year, we had only 12 students and among them, 3 finally did not continue. So we ended up with only 9 students.” Many of his friends and experts advised Dr Koshy not to continue with an MBA program anymore as the MBA market was not very promising at that time. However, Dr Koshy was not among those who would give up soon. He adds, “I had full faith in my vision and intention, as I wanted to give an affordable MBA college to the society that will have all facilities that a good MBA college usually has.

I discussed with my team and found that we all are on the same page. We all believed we could do it.”

Learning from the mistakes they did in the beginning, the team under the leadership of Dr

Higher Education Digest June 2020

Koshy sat together and planned out a road map for 2011. “We worked really hard that year and in 2011, we had 102 admissions. From 9 students to 102; that was our turning point. That year itself, we were awarded the Best Promising Business School in India

by Competition Success Review,” proudly shares Dr Koshy. The institutions have had hardly any setbacks after that. Today, Koshys Group of Institutions trains the students well to meet the international standards in their fields to be successful in India and abroad.

Most of the faculty members at Koshys Group of Institutions are research degree holders. They actively engage in curriculum designing at the university level. “Our faculty members use a variety of teaching strategies like a lecture, discussion, seminar, brainstorming, problem-solving, workshops, self-learning approach and many more. We Impart Experiential Learning in Teaching where faculty must update their knowledge for EL Application as Teaching Aid,” explains Dr Koshy.

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Dr. Santhosh Koshy, Chairman and Pankoj Roy, Admissions Director, of Koshys Group of Institutions, receiving the award for “Best Institution for Placement in Karnataka” at the Global Education Excellence Awards 2019 by Prime Time, from the chief guests Brad Hogg, Australian Cricketer and Mugdha Godse, a renowned Indian Actress

Establishing High Expectations and Clear Goals Koshy Group of Institutions is a place where students need to meet high expectations. In fact, there is a reason for setting such high standards. Dr Koshy states, “When expectations are transparent, students know where their learning is headed and are motivated to get there because it seems possible: the path is visible. Working towards daily, weekly and yearly goals give students a purpose and a meaning for the hard work that they do.” In this mission, the institute has provided all the facilities including study skills unit, peer support and tutoring programs, counselling, career services, clubs and societies, course-specific facilities and many more. “We also impart Nine Window Matrix Model, which is an idea-creation tool that ensures students for innovating or developing new ideas,” adds Dr Koshy.

On the other side, as Industry-Institute collaboration, Koshys Group of Institutions involves a diverse set of activities, resulting in a variety of outputs. “The success of any type of institute depends on the various parameters like participation of industrial personnel in a seminar, involvement

Higher Education Digest June 2020

The campus has stateof-the-art infrastructure with excellent amenities like sports ground, fitness centre, cafeteria, and many more

26 in curriculum design, summer training of students in Industry, technical problems as projects, consultancy to Industry, involvement in the teaching process and many more. It usually results in a percentage of students being placed in the Industry, better ranking in accreditation and feedback from the employer on the alumni,” explains Dr Koshy.

Koshy Group of Institutions has many collaborations with Industry, thereby narrowing the divide between theory and practice. Dr Koshy claims, “Our students will have a smooth transition from academics to the professional world, as we have trained them in interpersonal skills, communication skills and leadership skills, which provides a link with the potential future employee.” Placing the students in this turbulence is a big task. However, the institute has come up with a strategy called Talent Stacking. “We are continuously training our students on the key qualities of Talent Stacking like strong written and verbal communication skills, solid emotional intelligence, sales experience, public speaking skills, programming skills, strong persuasive abilities and social media skills.

Training is a part of our timetable and it starts from the day a student enters into the class for the first time,” shares Dr Koshy.

Higher Education Digest June 2020

Operating in the hug of young entrepreneurs in India, Koshy Group of Institutions understands that an MBA is not only for getting a proper placement but also for establishing a startup. The institute has an Incubation Center where students are free to submit their business ideas. The team of experts at the centre would scrutinize these projects and give the required corrections and advises to make it workable. “If their project is selected by our team, we arrange investors for them and provide all sorts of support to make their project stand on its own feet,” pinpoints Dr Koshy. My Dhobi App, Book Search (library App), and Lib Soft are some of the students’ startups that are already working successfully in the market.

While the uncertainties in reopening the educational institution continue, Koshy Group of Institutions is ready for both virtual and real-time class. Interestingly, they are planning to open a couple of new colleges. “This year, we are coming up with an animation institution named Koshys Animation and Media School and one new nursing college named Bangalore Little Flower College of Nursing.

Including these two colleges, we shall have 6 colleges under the banner of Koshys Group of Institutions. With all your blessings, we hope to have more colleges under our banner shortly,” concludes Dr Koshy.

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Higher Education Digest June 2020

ACADEMIC VIEW

Impact of COVID-19 on Higher Education 28

Dr. DNS Kumar, Vice-Chancellor, Ansal University

A

ccording to a report of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India conducted a survey on higher education and observed that there are 993 universities, 39931 Colleges and 10725 Stand Alone Institutions listed on their portal, which contribute to education. These institutions further reflect the student density of India as the total enrolments in higher education every year are nearly 37.4 million, reflecting the expanding horizons of the education industry. The sector was seen catching pace by the passing day until Coronavirus impacted the country intensely.

The current pandemic is not only seen affecting the health of the citizens in the country but is also seen hindering various industries and shaking them to their roots. The national lockdown and the ascending health crisis were striking the education of the students as well, with their universities being shut and their syllabi stranded, until the industry decided to initiate a revolution instead. Reinventing their radicles and making a conscious choice to grow even in the time of crisis, the universities decided to digitalise the sector. The educational reform in India in the COVID-19 era seems to be a live example of how need truly is the mother of invention or reinvention, in this scenario. Allowing educational institutions to adopt online learning and infuse a virtual study culture, the pandemic is already steering the

Higher Education Digest June 2020

The switch to online education has been ensuring that students suffer no loss of studies and their progress is being tracked simultaneously with timely evaluation

29 Dr. DNS Kumar

Dr. D N S Kumar, a doctorate and an erudite scholar with an experience of 29 years, is currently serving as the Vice-Chancellor of Ansal University. Rendering his expertise to students, he has worked as a professor of finance and catered to young talent by mentoring and teaching them various subjects including Strategic Cost Management, Corporate Finance, Risk Management and Valuation of Companies. He is a Master Analyst in Financial Forensics and has pursued his specialisation in Valuation of Companies, Bankruptcy and Liquidation and Reorganisation.

Higher Education Digest June 2020

Even though the country has been adapting to the newage learning, but there still lies an obstacle in making the endeavours entirely successful

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Dr. DNS Kumar

Higher Education Digest June 2020

sector forward with technological innovation and advancements.

The switch to online education has been ensuring that students suffer no loss of studies and their progress is being tracked simultaneously with timely evaluation. It is probably a first for India to experiment with the education system and make a paradigm shift to the virtual world, blending classrooms with online learning. Alchemising education with technology and forming a collaborative strategy to tread ahead while providing online lectures will also enable the students to learn creatively. Boosting retention of the syllabus by using innovative technology, the universities are also engaging students to learn by choice and not just by their physical presence in a classroom. Furthermore, providing AI-enabled learning by universities as they offer diverse courses in association with other collaborations is only making the country envision a new tomorrow based on educational reforms. For instance, medical students can opt for interactive sessions to discuss specific case studies, engineering aspirants could delve into the depths of environmental engineering and city planning along with the mentors playing videos and conducting online moot sessions for law enthusiasts and much more.

In fact, some of the universities are also offering courses related to the fourth industrial revolution, which will stimulate the minds of the students and inspire them to bring a change in their respective fields. Gaining popularity worldwide, online education is nourishing a lot many inquisitive students, instead of giving in to the circumstances.

One of the opportunities to focus amidst the crisis is the virtual internships, which are allowing the students to go beyond their curriculum and learn about the practicality of their professions. Another value addition for the field of education and thus students is the way universities are encouraging them to observe the current scenario and understand the need to automate. This will further allow them to digitalise their fields in the near future along with preparing them for any such situations. This practice will instil more confidence than chaos or panic.

Apart from interactive and virtual learning, the universities are teaching much more than just syllabus. They are sensitising their faculty to tackle the situation wisely. Online support groups along with emotional help by lecturers are only strengthening the system. Educating the students simultaneously about their anxiety, the current state of chaos, fears and emotions is not only preserving their sanity but also making them aware of how it is only natural for them to be in such distress amidst the crisis. Improving their emotional intelligence, this, coupled with the UGC’s guidelines of providing psychological support to students will transform the education system for good.

Even though the country has been adapting to the new-age learning, but there still lies an obstacle in making the endeavours entirely successful. What still remains intact is that only 45 crore people of our total population of the country have access to the internet and thus to e-learning. The people residing in rural areas are still very much deprived of the latest advancements and therefore hampering the cause of online learning. Now, virtual classrooms are not only dependent on e-lectures but also require one to have access to the e-content and online study material, practise sheets etc. as well. And that’s where we lag behind as India is not fully equipped to make education reach all corners of the nation via digital platforms or online classrooms. The students who aren’t privileged like the others will be held back due to the current resort and there is no denying that. But universities and the government of India are relentlessly trying to come up with a solution to resolve this problem.

Uncertain times call for stronger measures and the education industry has been stepping up to take some. The pandemic has been working as a catalyst for the educational institutions to grow and opt for platforms and techniques, they haven’t used before. The times are changing, and the theories have always pointed out towards the survival of the fittest. Surviving these crises with a different approach and digitising the sector are the two elements which will get the industry through the storm and wash away the blues of the pandemic.

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ACADEMIC VIEW

Studying Medicine Abroad Gives Aspirants a New Perspective Towards Their Career Goals Dr Naresh Shetty, President of the International Program and Strategic Alliance, Ramaiah Group of Institutions

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Tell us more about the new SGU and Ramaiah program of MBBS + MD in 5 years.

This program offers 10+2 graduates with the opportunity to acquire a postgraduate MD (Doctor of Medicine) degree in 5 years instead of the traditional 7-year route (MBBS + MS). It is recognized by the Medical Council of India (MCI). Aspirants will spend their first year at Ramaiah in Bengaluru, the second year either at SGU’s joint campus with Northumbria University in the UK or at SGU’s main campus in Grenada, the third year in Grenada campus, and the last two years of the MD program doing their clinical rotations either in the US or in the UK. Upon completion of the program, students will be awarded three degrees: an MD degree by SGU on completion of the program, a Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Sciences on successfully completing their third year, and a Certificate in Higher Education in Medical Sciences on finishing their first year.

How the first year at Ramaiah is a good option in the current COVID situation with limited and uncertain travel options?

At this time of global uncertainty, Indian aspirants may be wondering whether applying for a university oversea would be a good option. Considering the entire situations, MD5 program will allow students to stay in India for longer, studying the first of SGU’s five-year postgraduate degree at RIMS in Bengaluru, and the final four years at SGU in Grenada. The program allows some of these young students to get used to a difficult course in a more familiar environment. The parents also feel more comfortable with kids close to their hometown.

How this pathway will help students achieve their dream of practising medicine abroad at a lower cost and lesser time?

This particular course is designed as a fast-tracked medical program.

Students who do this course will get a direct passport to pursue their career

Higher Education Digest June 2020

At an average, 1.5 million students taking their NEET exams hoping to obtain seats among approximately 65,000 medical seats available every year

Dr Naresh Shetty

33 A recent data released by RBI says that Indians spent 44 per cent more from $1.9 billion in 2013-14 to $2.8 billion in 2017-18 while studying abroad and every year around 7,000 students go outside India to study medicine. Lack of seats in government colleges and poor ROI in private medical colleges has made foreign medical education an option for the students. Furthermore, affordable fees, accelerated course time, treatment trends and technological advancements have made studying medicine abroad a more feasible option for Indian students. “For those wanting to study medicine, there are only limited seats available in Indian medical institutions. At an average, 1.5 million students taking their NEET exams hoping to obtain seats among approximately 65,000 medical seats available every year,” says Dr Naresh Shetty, President of the International Program and Strategic Alliance, Ramaiah Group of Institutions.

Ramaiah Group of Institutions has entered a partnership with St George’s University, Grenada (SGU) to offer medical aspirants in India an innovative educational pathway to practice medicine in India, the US, or the UK. In an email interaction with the Higher Education Digest, says Dr Naresh Shetty talks about this new collaboration, why is Ramaiah a right choice in the current COVID situation with limited and uncertain travel options, and many more.

Higher Education Digest June 2020

More about

Dr Naresh Shetty Dr Naresh Shetty is an orthopaedic surgeon specialized in trauma and arthroplasty for the past 21 years. With an aptitude in administration, he was the Medical Director at M S Ramaiah Medical Teaching Hospital from 1998-2003 and at Ramaiah Memorial Hospital from 2004 to 2011.

Dr Shetty is now the President for International Program and Strategic Alliance at Ramaiah Memorial Hospital. He is the member of Board of Studies in Medical (PG) – (Clinical) – Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences and President for Orthopedic Association of South Indian States for the year 2012 – 2013. He has been conferred with International Youth Exchange Programme Award by the Rotary International in 1993 and Howmedica Fellowship in 1993, HongKong.

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in the USA or UK as they complete the USMLE during the course and residency is facilitated as they graduate from an American accredited college. A student doing the regular MBBS program in the Indian system has to appear for USMLE after graduation and apply for residency, which is very competitive. The chances of placement are less in the Indian pathway and the waiting period is longer.

What are the challenges faced by aspirants in India to pursue a global career in the international healthcare sector, and how is this partnership resolving it?

Response - For those wanting to study medicine, there are only limited seats available in Indian medical institutions.

At an average, 1.5 million students taking their NEET exams hoping to obtain seats among approximately 65,000 medical seats available every year. The remaining applicants have to look for alternatives elsewhere.

However, the problem is that students who decide to obtain their medical degree abroad find that most schools are not approved by the Medical Council of India and hence cannot return home to practice on completion. Despite this scenario, today there are around 300,000 Indian students currently studying medicine abroad, with an estimated 10,000 leaving India each year to study medicine at wellrespected and globally recognized universities abroad.

Higher Education Digest June 2020

Even more importantly, in today’s world gaining a medical degree overseas enables graduates to work internationally in countries of their choice and gain valuable experience in their field of specialization with leading healthcare systems, learning how to serve the needs of diverse populations. This global experience is very attractive to medical institutions in India, when selecting medical practitioners to join their workforce, and offers graduates the flexibility of living and working anywhere in the world.

Not only do students obtain valuable skills when studying abroad, with a strong focus on soft skills and their ability to work with patients and colleagues from very diverse backgrounds, but also many medical specialisms are more advanced in countries like the US or UK than in India (and vice versa). It is essential for healthcare experts of tomorrow to be aware of the cutting-edge technologies available in such countries, to be able to build a successful international career.

The various issues being faced by medical students in India have prompted Ramaiah to pursue an international partnership with St George’s University (SGU) Medical School. The collaboration between Ramaiah and SGU ensures students learn the latest medical and technological advancements and allows them to practice medicine in the USA, India, and more than 50 other countries.

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Higher Education Digest June 2020

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herever you are from, whatever your interests are or whichever industry you work in, you will have come across a tale about how ‘data’ is changing the way we live and work. The importance of data and automation has become so prominent in the world. We are already feeling it, and some of us are even worrying about it.

Whenever there is a discussion on this topic, somebody would always ask, ‘Will robots take our jobs?’ Well, we are not sure about which all jobs will remain for us, but, we do not need to worry if we take the time to understand what is happening, why is it happening, and why it doesn’t have to happen to us.

In fact, every generation sees new tools coming in to make daily life more efficient. Apparently, during the Third Industrial Revolution, between 1972 and 2010, the number of people employed in the manufacturing sector fell 35 per cent. Now, we are part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. In the words of leading economists from the World Economic Forum (WEF), we are living in the Cyber-Physical Age, where the physical world will integrate with the digital world through sensors and devices connecting everything and everyone.

So, do we need to panic, as many of our jobs be gone with the next decade? We have two options; run around with our hair on fire awaiting doom and gloom or start preparing ourselves with the skills required to stay one step ahead of the robots.

To help students India who are looking for a cutting-edge higher education that will prepare them to be the leaders of Industry 4.0, we have come with a list of ‘College of the Year 2020.’

In this issue, we have handpicked educational institutions across the country that are striving hard to give the students an in-depth mastery of the academic disciplines and applied functional areas necessary to every student’s success.

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Higher Education Digest June 2020

ASIAN LAW COLLEGE

CREATING INTERNATIONALLY RESPECTED LEGAL PROFESSIONALS 38

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ocated in Noida, Asian Law College (ALC) aims to carry forward the intellectual legacy of Asian Education Group, which has carved a niche for itself in the academic circuit since its inception. The institute holistically promotes academic excellence, intellectual discipline, and professional leadership. “We are committed to exploring multi-disciplinary approaches through our unique curriculum. Our aim is to revolutionize legal education through modern pedagogies, thereby adapting to the changing world in which law professionals operate,� says Dr Lalitya Vir Srivastava, Director, Asian Law College. Aiming at developing knowledge, skill, and value amongst the students, ALC nourishes the law aspirants with a critical learning pedagogy, which is mentored and supported by highly experienced faculty members and staff.

Higher Education Digest June 2020

COLLEGE OF THE

YEAR 2020

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“At ALC, we are looking at bringing about a paradigm shift in the delivery of legal education in the country.

We want to add new dimensions in legal education that would incorporate international standards, and provide an environment which would enhance freedom and innovation in the vigorous pursuit of thoughts and civil society engagement to advance the law of the land,� shares Dr Srivastava. Indeed, ALC looks forward to enhancing research inputs in the education modules. It would result in connecting students and faculty to the larger platform involving other national and international agencies and playing a pivotal role in framing socially relevant policies in the legal sector.

Higher Education Digest March June 2020

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“Our vision is to promote excellence in the field of legal education and to fulfil the ever-increasing demand of legal professionals for a growing legal world. We endeavour to produce lawyers who will be efficient in the art of advocacy, both at the trial and at the appellate level,” pinpoints Dr Srivastava. Asian Law College, with its vision “Growth with Education” makes sure that the journey of a young law aspirant transforms him/her to an independent, capable, and responsible legal professional.

Fighting the Crisis “Mankind has witnessed numerous catastrophes in history, including the calamitous outbreak of diseases.

However, the enormity of the hazardous impact of coronavirus and the uncertainty of finding an antivirus/preventive has created havoc among people, administration, and the government worldwide.

And, like every other sector, the education sector is suffering at all levels,” opines Dr Srivastava. Due to the pandemic, the state governments across the country have temporarily shut down schools and colleges.

There is uncertainty when schools and colleges will reopen. No doubt, this has impacted Asian Law School since it is the crucial time for completion of academic session 2019-20, ALC Entrance Examination and Admission, which are usually held during this period.

To maintain the social distancing norms, Asian Education Group has accelerated to adopting digital technology by introducing virtual classrooms and various online modes like Skype, Zoom, YouTube and WhatsApp tutorial. These online sessions included recorded lecture as per their subject completion, discussion of their coursework, PowerPoint presentation, notes, and many more with their

Higher Education Digest June 2020

respective faculty members. “Giving and receiving assignments through email has already been standard practice. AEG has also conducted its internal examination through Online mode along with Viva,” shares Dr Srivastava. Maintaining its educational standards, the institute has organized several Webinars for students and faculty members that will be beneficial for them in the long run. Dr Srivastava adds, “These interactions between student’s, senior Advocates, Judges and other industry professionals can help both the students and young lawyers to learn the tricks and challenges which they might require to face after the completion of their LL.B degree.

Working with the Industry For several years, innovation in the education system has impacted the way businesses operate. Millennials entering the job market today are ready to learn new technologies and how to collaborate. The need for innovation in today’s business environment and the ambition of policymakers to commercialize academic knowledge intensify this trend. “We at ALC ensure that each student is given right industry exposure & skill development to meet the high-end corporate expectations,” says Dr Srivastava.

Aiming at offering efficient and effective law professionals to the nation, ALC ensures to bridge the gap between the theory and practical application of concepts through a learning process which is simulative, participative, and multi-disciplinary. The institute has designed the academic curriculum and pedagogy to enable the young, budding lawyers to be well conversant with legal principles and practice, and to think creatively and critically in a holistic perspective. Dr Srivastava explains, “To ensure that our law graduates acquire the best possible knowledge of the law, skills of advocacy and drafting, we have designed a unique internship program with NGOs, judiciary, law firms and organizations. With the support of all stakeholders in the legal sphere, our students are certain to attain new heights and contribute positively not only to the growth of the legal industry but also the nation as a whole.”

Dr Lalitya Vir Srivastava, Director

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Keeping pace with the emerging importance of industrial collaboration, Asian Law College has established cooperation with the prestigious University of Cape Town, South Africa. ALC students of BA. LLB /LLB International Program have the unique opportunity of getting an enriching international exposure with Eight-day Fully Paid educational trip to the beautiful city of Cape Town where they will undergo a practical workshop on International Law and Legal Framework at the University of Cape Town Campus. The Exclusive workshop at UCT-SOL Campus designed especially for ALC students of BALLB /LLB International programs focusses on diversified aspects of International law and its practical applications. The workshop complements the lessons that the students learn during their regular classes of International Law Subject.

Dr Srivastava shares, “Students of BALLB /LLB International program have an added advantage when they apply for jobs and internships in the legal field and corporate sectors. The international law has developed by leaps and bounds, and with the modern global leap of India in terms of its foreign relation and international trade, the importance of International Law has increased manifolds.”

The workshop will accustom the students with the practical usage and application of International Law principles, which will broaden their understanding of the subject and further the role of International Law on maintaining International peace and security along with the relationship of International law and Municipal Law will be the cardinal area of the workshop.

Maintaining Excellence in Teaching Teaching excellence is core to the Asian Education Group’s mission. “Our teaching staffs are energetic researchers and excellent communicators. As experienced practitioners

Higher Education Digest June 2020

and experts in their field, our staff describe on their own knowledge and hands-on familiarity to deliver professionally oriented programmes,” pinpoints Dr Srivastava. The faculty members of Asian Law College comprise of a group of professionals having substantial experience in the legal and academic domain.

“The main aim of faculty is the overall holistic development of each student. ‘Developing the best by helping the weakest’ is the guiding philosophy here, which can be witnessed by the quantum of hard work each faculty member does for every student,” says Dr Srivastava. The faculty member of ALC come from a diverse background, including eminent lawyers, researchers, theoreticians, and legal consultants. It provides valuable insight to the students and instils in them a continuous desire to achieve excellence. Dr Srivastava adds, “The faculty combines formal mentoring with the remarkably high standards of teaching for the best of interest of the students. We at Asian Law College, encourage our faculty members in their research developments and augment their professional development by organizing Faculty Development Programmes that will not only help them grow but also mature their teaching skills.”

ALC, with its vision “Growth with Education” makes sure that the journey of a young law aspirant transforms him/her to an independent, capable, and responsible legal professional. “Our focus is on justice education.

We envision to shape a better future for Mankind by producing efficient and socially responsible aspirants,” states Dr Srivastava. By developing excellent and worthy

professionals, the institute wants to assist in the overall progress and development of its students. To ensure this, ALC has mapped each course and their learning outcome with the programme education objective and learning outcome. In addition to this, the institute emphasizes experiential learning by applying innovative pedagogy, which means, the focus is also on affective domains in addition to the individual’s subjective development.

On the other side, Crafting Prodigy Program developed by the Centre for Skill Development at ALC is a unique skill development program. It focuses on the overall development of the students by their crafters, who assist them in identifying their skills and abilities and also motivates them to work on them, but more importantly focuses on developing independent and responsible individuals.

Offering the Best Possible Placement Opportunities The principle body assigned with the responsibility of supervising and conducting the campus recruitment in ALC is the Legal Placement Cell. The vision of this cell is to build a string of industry-academia interface for training and placement of students to meet corporate and legal challenges. “Every Thursday, we conduct activities to ensure a development-oriented student growth process.

As a part of this, students are trained and moulded to be at the top with the blend of managerial and leadership skills and a wide range of legal professional skills,” says Dr Srivastava. Keeping this in view, the placement

Asian Law College organized ALC National Moot Court Competition, 2020, which was based on Constitutional Law

Higher Education Digest June 2020

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cell ensures best possible industry exposure by bringing in legal industry experts to interact with the students, arranging industry and court visits with the best learning so as to bring in the best placement opportunities for the students.

“With globalization, various new opportunities have come on the scene, and now students are not much interested in traditional fields of law, such as criminal, contract and so on.

Fields like Cyber Law, Intellectual Property Rights are gaining huge recognition,” opines Dr Srivastava. Aligning with the need of globalization, the institute has introduced diploma courses on Cyber Law (affiliated from Asian School of Cyberlaw), which will acquaint students with the knowledge of laws protecting the crimes due to digital technology, and also on Intellectual Property Rights (affiliated from Enhelion), which aims at providing awareness to the rights of patents, trademarks and copyrights. Dr Srivastava adds, “Additionally, to shape them better, we have a diploma course in corporate communication, and personality development focused entirely on the soft skill, communication and professional conduct in the legal world. We also equip them with additional language training of their choice between French and German.”

The final placement process at ALC begins during the final semester of students. “Our Placement model is a five-stage process involving soft skills development, Career Guidance, the Pre-Placement talk, Executing placement and company joining of students. We at ALC ensure that each student is given right industry exposure and skill development to meet the high-end corporate expectations,” explains Dr Srivastava.

The Corporate Resource Cell (CRC) at ALC helps to solve

Higher Education Digest June 2020

the students’ recruiting puzzle. Through numerous activities like pre-placement talk, on-campus interviewing and events such as placements weeks, the institute has created a platform to connect with talent and identify the best human resource for the companies looking for their future employees.

“Furthermore, to enhance our students with practical knowledge and also enhance their communication and in-depth knowledge before their actual entry to the Legal world, we have developed a Centre for Skill Development Program, which offers one to one individuated interactive sessions wherein each prodigy (student) shall have a Crafter (faculty advisor), who will be the counsellor as well as the mentor for academic, cocurricular and extra-curricular activities,” shares Dr Srivastava.

ALC has also given particular emphasis to courtroom exercises to gain excellent rhetoric skills and in-depth knowledge of precedents, and to familiarize students with the environment of courtroom long before their actual entry into the legal world.

Dr Srivastava proudly adds, “Our students actively participated in the National Trial Advocacy Moot Competition that was held from 8th to 10th of February 2020 at Maharaj Vinayak Global University, Jaipur and they, importantly, won the “2nd Runners Up” position.”

Indian Canadian Panjabi playback singer and songwriter Jazzy B during AEG KESSHET 2020, which is considered as one of the biggest inter-college cultural fest of NCR

Making of Lawyers with Exceptional Qualities Study of law is unquestionably one of the most gratifying career options for millennials considering the job challenges and financial benefits. Over the last few decades, India has witnessed a steady rise in demand for law graduates in various professional fields. “Earlier students were offered courses in civil, criminal, corporate, taxation, labour and election law. Today the repertoire has included new specializations including space, cyber, intellectual property, and international laws. The prospect for law students is particularly good as they are now better armed than those 10-15 years ago,” opines Dr Srivastava.

Asian Law College educates students in a multi-dimensional cadre. They train them in experiential learning by applying innovative pedagogy, that is, the focus is also on affective domains in addition to the individual’s subjective development.

“We facilitate the students through various cells such as Moot Court Society, Asian Legal aid Cell, Cultural Cell, Sports Cell and Debating Society which further enhances their skill development,” says Dr Srivastava.

Asian Law College students are versified and hence post their graduation, a student has strong proficiency in understanding all kinds of cases which will help them grow as an Advocate. Every student of ALC possesses excellent communication skills, exceptional memory on essential sections of the law, open-mindedness, good leadership qualities, logical reasoning, and analytical power. They think out-of-the-box and, have in-debt knowledge and understanding of statutes, rules, regulations, and notifications.

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INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

Distance Learning in the Time of Social Distancing: How is Coursera Helping Education Institutions Around the World?

Raghav Gupta, Managing Director, India and APAC, Coursera

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OVID-19 has impacted over 1.5 billion learners in 165 countries across the globe. To support countries to scale up their best distance learning practices and reach children and youth who are most at its risk, UNESCO launched a global education coalition, which is a multisector partnership to provide appropriate distance education for all learners. It brings together the experience and expertise of multilateral partners, the private sector, philanthropic and non-profit organizations and media outlets.

Coursera, in collaboration with its partners, has launched a global effort to make its course catalog available, for free, to all impacted colleges and universities world over. Universities can sign up to provide their enrolled students with access to more than 3,800 courses and 400 Specializations from Coursera’s top university and industry partners.

These institutions will have access until July 31, 2020, after which we plan to provide month-to-month extensions depending on prevailing risk assessments. We have already received over 20,000 inquiries from 120+ countries. We look forward to expanding this initiative with UNESCO and other coalition members to ensure learning and education for all young people during this crisis.

Increase in Number of Users Thousands of universities and colleges have turned to Coursera at these particularly challenging times. We have received more than 3700 queries from colleges and universities. We are humbled to receive such massive interest from across India. Over 1290 campuses have already signed up, and we have activated access for more than 835 of them.

Symbiosis Institute of Technology, World University of Design, BML Munjal University, National Rail and Transportation Institute, NMAM Institute of Technology, University of Engineering & Management, and many more are a few taking the lead to respond to the crisis.

Higher Education Digest June 2020

Online learning has democratized access to the best education world has to offer

47 Raghav Gupta

Raghav leads India and APAC business of Coursera. He is responsible for growing Coursera’s consumer and enterprise business in the region, and thereby bringing the world’s best education to learners. In this role, Raghav is responsible for driving impactful partnerships with leading corporate and government institutions. Raghav has 20 years of experience across consumer, internet, and management consulting industries in India, Southeast Asia, and Europe. Previously, Raghav was India Country Manager at BlaBlaCar, an intercity carpooling service. Raghav holds an MBA from INSEAD in France and is a recipient of the INSEAD Syngenta Scholarship for Emerging Country Leadership.

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Our platform allows learners to download the lectures and assignments to work on it offline, and later seamlessly upload them for a grade when bandwidth returns

Higher Education Digest June 2020

Raghav Gupta

We are also seeing a growing number of new learners coming on the Coursera platform and a broadened content consumption trend. Comparing the past 30 days (as of April 8) with the same period one year ago, the new registration grew 539% (YoY) and enrollment increased 465% (YoY). Enrollment in Public Health content saw a 2561% (YoY) increase. To be the place where so many come to learn and grow, and to seek comfort and clarity, is an honor that we accept with humility.

Coursera’s Presence in India Online learning has democratized access to the best education world has to offer.

Coursera has more than 6 million learners on its platform in India. Online learning strongly complements the existing education system and can help educational institutions scale up and broaden their reach. For professionals to be able to continue learning throughout their careers to stay skilled and relevant to the dynamic job market, online learning is the solution. We strongly believe that online learning platforms, like Coursera, are crucial to the education ecosystem, workforce transformation and individuals skilling needed for the jobs of tomorrow.

India is the second-largest market for Coursera. We work with many universities and colleges who have partnered with Coursera to provide high-quality new age content to their on-campus students. Some of these campuses are Manipal University, Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), Shiv Nadar University (SNU), UPES, Pearl Academy, KL University. These universities are early adopters of Coursera for Campus platform, launched in Oct 2019. We have seen growing interest among campuses to provide their students with access to our course catalogue.

The current pandemic has forced educational institutions across the globe to close campuses. India has over 37 million students enrolled in higher education across thousands of universities and colleges.

Traditionally, campuses have not invested enough in building technological backbone and digital competency to weather this crisis.

It is a period of forced experimentation for universities around the world - akin to what we witnessed during the Y2K crisis that compelled institutions to upgrade their technical infrastructure. The pandemic requires universities to rapidly offer online learning to their students. Fortunately, technology and content are available to help universities transition to online quickly and with high-quality. Consistent to our mission of serving learners everywhere, on March 12, Coursera announced free access to its catalogue for impacted universities, and we have received a humbling response.

Coursera’s Unique Offerings With 4,100+ courses, 430+ Specializations, 8 MasterTrack™ Certificates, 15 Professional Certificates, and 17 degrees, Coursera has a vast course catalogue offering learners enough choices to explore their interests and build skills necessary to transform career and life. Coursera makes online learning highly personalized by better understanding learners’ career aspirations and then providing them with a richer, and more applied learning experience, and employerrecognized credentials. Using advanced technologies, Coursera has built a robust platform with technology integrations like live video sessions with professors, Slack integration for communication with peers and mentors, and remotely proctored exams. Coursera mobile app makes it all the more easy and convenient for the students to access content remotely and submit assignments on the go. Our platform allows learners to download the lectures and assignments to work on it offline, and later seamlessly upload them for a grade when bandwidth returns. Such innovations are necessary to facilitate on the go learning.

To help universities, colleges and its staff, including faculty members, Coursera launched the Coursera for Campus platform last year. The platform allows colleges to not only deliver high quality, job-relevant, on-demand learning to students; it also offers various tools to the faculty and administrators to ensure learning happens as per their design and plan.

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Some of the features available to the faculty include: ● Curate courses: ● Universities can map courses to their curriculum - they can choose from pre-configured Essential Skills Collections or customize based on specific curriculum needs. Simply swap them out with new courses from the broader Coursera catalog or with courses universities have authored themselves. ● Custom university branded portal - students will experience Coursera for Campus as a seamless extension of their university learning experience ● Administrators can manage learners and programs centrally ● Manage invitations & whitelist participants ● Set consumption limits ● Track progress with analytics ● Measure learner activity, progress, and feedback ● Evaluate contract utilization ● Integrations ● Universities often have their own LMS. Coursera for Campus will come with API access for LMS integration. ● Authoring tools ● World-class authoring tools, developed in partnership with top universities, are now available to every university - they can publish content including assessments, lessons and courses exclusively for their learners and integrate courses for blended learning ● Develop specific content for certain audiences (e.g. incoming students and alumni) to complement core curriculum or launch new programs ● Gradebook integration: ● Increase flexibility and control with extensive grading capabilities ● Understand individual learner’s performance (e.g. number of assignment attempts, score by each attempt, average score) ● Private sessions ● Faculty can publish private content that is available only to students and alumni of their university ● Single sign-on ● Manage learner access at scale with University SSO, offering data protection and best in class identity management. ● Use learner affiliation (to provide streamlined access and manage the lifecycle - Prospect, Applicant, Admitted, Student, Alumni) ● Plagiarism detection ● Review student submissions process rigorously to ensure academic integrity, especially for credit-eligible courses

Higher Education Digest June 2020

● Utilize Turnitin integrations, anonymous peer reviews and unique URLs (preventing link sharing) Online Learning Trends to Follow Over the past several years, educational institutions, industry bodies, and businesses have noticed the potential of online learning and are aggressively exploring it to their benefits. All the perception challenges have been addressed by business leaders and academicians from across the world. In India, the government’s nod for online degree programs is a strong indication of the extensive integration of online learning in Indian higher education.

Content quality and the effectiveness of online learning has been under scrutiny for long but not anymore.

At Coursera, we aim to partner with the world’s top 200 universities. We also work with global industry leaders like Google, Intel, and IBM to create career-focused and aligned to in-demand technologies and business skills that universities don’t teach. Content partnership with industry players ensures that our learners are future-ready and are abreast with industry-relevant skills.

We are experiencing a watershed moment for education systems. As universities develop their digital competencies, education space will not remain the same - today’s short-term response to a crisis will likely become an enduring digital transformation of higher education.

Most of the learning will move online, and even the on-campus programs will have a substantial online component. Along with building digital capability, universities will start producing digital content for their existing curriculum and new course launches using widely available, cost-effective authoring tools. They will also have the option to combine that with live lectures or custom assessments. Though slowly, online learning was already transforming higher education; however, now, it will happen at a rapid speed and scale.

Advice to the Learners The future of education and the future of work is converging. Competency development and reskilling have become a way of life, not a stage in life. It’s the only way to adapt as work becomes increasingly volatile and uncertain.

Lifelong learning and constant upskilling are the ways to survive and thrive in an ever-evolving business and work scenario. The current situation is highly volatile, learners should focus on building the right skills to stay on top and in demand. (As told to the Editor)

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ADICHUNCHANAGIRI INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL SCIENCES

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TRANSFORMING CLINICAL CARE, RESEARCH, AND EDUCATION IN INDIA

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he impact of COVID-19 on Adichunchanagiri Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) located in Mandya District of Karnataka was bifold. One was to serve the community by continuing to provide quality health care to patients and to protect them and the health care workers from getting infected by possible suspect cases of COVID-19. On the other hand, to effectively deliver the curriculum to more than 750 undergraduate students and around 170 postgraduate students from different parts of the country. “Precautionary measures were initiated early to ensure the safety of the patients and health care workers. The guidelines laid down by the authorities were completely adhered to. Various measures like securing the entry and exit points of the hospital, thermal screening, starting of fever clinics, the establishment of sample collection centre, dedicating beds to COVID-19

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cases and procuring of high-quality PPEs to protect the workforce were initiated,� shares Dr M G Shivaramu, Principal, AIMS Dean, Health Sciences(Medical), Adichunchanagiri University. It was impressive to see that the institute establishing a dedicated RT PCR virology lab for running diagnosis of COVID-19 cases within a short span of 15 days, spending over ten million rupees. Adichunchanagiri Hospital and Research Centre (AHRC) is now designated as a Dedicated COVID Health Center by the Government of Karnataka.

Higher Education Digest June 2020

However, the teaching-learning process at AIMS continues despite the ongoing challenges.

“Addressing the curriculum delivery began with asynchronous teaching sessions to allow the students to make a transition from face to face learning.

Meantime the faculty were trained in preparing quality educational resource materials for the students and in conducting live/synchronous teaching-learning sessions,” says Dr Shivaramu. Over last three months, AIMS has conducted about 800 teaching sessions for undergraduate students and around 45 national and international webinars for the benefit of our faculty and students. Dr Shivaramu adds, “These sessions have been challenging initially for both faculty and the students. But with time, both have mastered the process of effective online teaching-learning.”

AIMS was started in the year 1986 under the stewardship of Paramapoojya Jagadguru Padmabhushana Sri Sri Sri Dr Balagangadharanatha Mahaswamiji, who was also the President of the Sri Adichunchanagiri Shikshana Trust (R). Since 1986, AIMS has been imparting education in medical sciences (MBBS, MD/MS, Diploma) course. The institute is recognized by the Medical Council of India, General Medical Council, London, UK and was earlier affiliated to the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Karnataka.

54 Dr M G Shivaramu, Principal, AIMS Dean, Health Sciences(Medical), Adichunchanagiri University.

The “AIMS Learning Resource Centre” being one among the core department in the Adichunchanagiri Institute of Medical Sciences has been established in the year 1986 with a sole purpose to quench the thirst of knowledge and to fulfill the concerned needs of both the faculty and the students.

Higher Education Digest June 2020

Now it is a constituent college of Adichunchanagiri University. The University is currently guided by the honourable Chancellor Paramapoojya Jagadguru Sri Sri Sri Dr Nirmalanandantha Mahaswamiji. The vision of the institution is to be a centre of excellence with an emphasis on socially meaningful medical education, research, and healthcare.

Being a Frontrunner in Fighting the Pandemic Since the first case reported in India, Adichunchanagiri Hospital and Research Centre (AHRC) has been on high alert, and they have taken several measures to face COVID 19.

“We started the fever clinic according to MOHFW guidelines and ensured the initiation of thermal screening and regular reporting of ILI AND SARI cases to the state government was done daily,” shares Dr Shivaramu. AHRC was actively a recognized COVID 19 SAMPLE COLLECTION centre by the District Health Authorities. A team consisting of Clinician, Microbiologist and Lab Technician were involved in the safe collection of samples following an SOP that was developed according to ICMR guidelines. The hospital also conducted training to define the role and responsibilities of each team member. Dr Shivaramu adds, “A kiosk was developed to protect the Health Care Workers during the sample collection. PPEs were provided according to ICMR guidelines for sample collection. Environmental sanitation was done after each individual sample collection.” AHRC was actively involved in the sample collection of migrant workers. A team was formed to collect the sample in Mobile sample collection vehicle at the quarantine centre and District Security Check Post.

A series of measures have been taken by AHRC in managing the COVID 19 cases. “In recognition of our efforts and availability of facilities in our hospital, AHRC has been designated as Dedicated COVID Health Centre (DCHC) by Government of Karnataka. We have designated a separate

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block in our hospital with separate entry and exit to cater to the needs of COVID Positive cases. We have allocated separate areas for both suspected and confirmed cases,” explains Dr Shivaramu. All the beds in AHRC COVID 19 block have assured oxygen support. AHRC has the maximum number of well-equipped advanced Ventilators in Mandya District to provide the services for severe cases which require ventilator support. The hospital has a dedicated team of Intensivist, Anesthesiologist, Physician, Nursing and Paramedical staff available for providing the services.

“We have also dedicated a Basic Life Support Ambulance (BLSA) equipped with sufficient oxygen support for ensuring safe transport of a COVID 19 cases.

We have also arranged for separate dedicated COVID 19 labour room and Caesarean Section Operation Theatre to provide the maternal and Child Health Care for the surrounding population,” shares Dr Shivaramu. AHRC has never compromised in providing the safety of HCWs in the battle to fight COVID-19. The hospital has taken all measures in protecting their HCWs in the line of treatment. “We have followed the ICMR/WHO guidelines in providing the protection gears to all the staff-Doctors, Nursing staff, Paramedical staff, Security personnel, Ambulance drivers, Cleaning staff and Helpers. Regular classes were conducted to demonstrate how to use masks and donning and doffing of PPE. Strict environmental sanitation measures were followed in the patient treatment area to break the chain of COVID 19 transmission,” says Dr Shivaramu.

Being a Research-Oriented Medical Institute AIMS has a well-defined research promotion policy and has fully active scientific and institutional ethics

Higher Education Digest June 2020

committee which monitor and guide the research activities. The institution has set aside an exclusive budget for encouraging research activities by faculty and students.

“In the last five years, we have published more than 700 research papers in peer-reviewed national and international journals and have carried out 50 student research projects under the sponsorship of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR),” shares Dr Shivaramu.

AIMS publishes Journal of Medical Sciences and Health (JMSH), an indexed, peer-reviewed International open access Journal with print and online version. The journal is into the 5th year of publication and provides a common forum where all aspects of Medical, Clinical and Health Sciences research can be published. Dr Shivaramu adds, “The journal is indexed with DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals), Index Copernicus, Advance Sciences Index (ASI), Google Scholar, International scientific indexing, Index Medicus ( Global and SEAR database), Infobase Index, National Science Library and Open J Gate.” Current research projects of AIMS aim at, studying social/academic/economic impact of COVID-19 on the students and community; studying complications of extubation; quality of life among end-stage renal disorders patients; comparison of different methods of cholesterol estimation; ocular morbidity, glaucoma, eye donation and acute appendicitis.

To augment its research capacity and improve the overall quality of medical education, AIMS has been actively collaborating with international institutions.

“Global partnership provides great opportunities for students and faculty to form networking which is essential for career progression. These can be research opportunities, cultural awareness, study abroad programme, student and staff exchange programmes and collaboration with other

universities for awarding degrees,” opines Dr Shivaramu.

AIMS has an association with Rotaplast International, Inc., an organization which is committed to helping children and families worldwide by eliminating the burden of cleft lip and/or palate, burn scarring, and other deformities.

In association with Rotaplast International, the institute organizes cleft lip and cleft palate surgery camp every year.

Dr Shivaramu adds, “Hundreds of underprivileged from the rural community are benefited by this programme.

A team of surgeons from the United States visits AIMS every year to conduct these surgeries. This provides a great opportunity for our students and faculty to interact and train with clinicians from abroad.” The institute has been conducting camps from last decade, and more than 1000 patients/children have been benefitted.

AIMS is also associated with the Medical Students Association of India (MSAI) and the International Federation of Medical Students Association (IFMSA).

MSAI is an organization, which strives to provide its medical students with numerous opportunities to become global health leaders of today and tomorrow.

The International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA), founded in 1951, is one of the world’s oldest and largest student-run organizations. It represents, connects, and engages every day with medical students from 135 NMOs in 125 countries around the globe. IFMSA offers a Professional Exchange program under The Standing Committee on Professional Exchange (SCOPE). SCOPE is a full educational program offering clerkships to medical students abroad. AIMS is a SCOPE active institution in India.

AIMS has all the facilities for recreational activities including gym, Badminton, Cricket, Football, Athletics, Volleyball, Kabaddi, Synthetic Tennis and Basketball court, Table Tennis, Chess, Carrom, and many more

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State-of-the-Art Infrastructure AIMS is housed in a unitary Wi-Fi enabled campus of about 56 acres of unpolluted and pristine surroundings near its teaching hospital with plenty of room for future expansion. All buildings are spacious from within while their exteriors are aesthetically designed. The College complex features large, digitally-enabled Theater Classrooms, Lecture Rooms, Laboratories, R & D Center, an Anatomy Museum, the Administration Block, and an Open-Air Stage in its Central Courtyard. The campus also features an elegant Residency complex for students, a Food Court and ATM facilities.

The aesthetically built centrally air-conditioned Auditorium is AIMS’ pride-of-place with towering columns and majestic steps that lead into a hall of 2000 seating capacity complete with a professionally designed stage fitted with motorized screens and a sophisticated sound and light system. At the ground level of this magnificent edifice is a state-of-the-art, centrally air-

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conditioned Learning Resource Center featuring the latest volumes of medical literature, a Digital Classroom and vast study areas.

“Adichunchanagiri Hospital and Research Center (AHRC) was commissioned in 1990 to render affordable healthcare services to the poor and the needy. Today, the hospital provides priceless teaching and training ground for AIMS Undergraduates and Postgraduates who benefit from the experiences of renowned doctors. To study at AIMS, therefore, is a matter of active learning in an atmosphere of intense intellectual excitement,” pinpoints Dr Shivaramu. The programmes offered here include assessed clinical experiences, an essential component of academics, supported by purpose-built facilities and technology, designed to replicate real-life situations.

Advanced coursework is informational and enriched by hands-on learning from mentors who push the boundaries of knowledge.

AHRC has 1050 beds under one roof with a built-up area of about 40000 sq.mt. The hospital has state-of-theart infrastructure and the most advanced equipment. It is a tertiary hospital and is dedicated to serving the poor and downtrodden with affordable and quality healthcare.

The hospital also offers round the clock diagnostic services in Virology, Hematology, Biochemistry, Clinical Pathology, Cytology and Histopathology, Microbiology & Serology, RadiodiagnosisRadiodiagnosis & Imaging and Immunology.

All hospital clinical departments are supported by 24×7 services like in house Central Sterile and Supplies Department, in house Hospital Laundry, Drug Stores, Medical Gases, Security, Ambulance Services, Medical Record Department, Hospital Management Information System, Mortuary, Dietetics, Cafeteria, Public Relations and Telecommunications, Medico-Social Welfare Department, Voluntary Services (Helping Hand) and Clinical Trial Management Services. The hospital is geared to provide excellent service in multi-disciplinary ICU, Surgical ICU, Isolation ICU, Pediatric ICU, Neonatal ICU, Cardiac ICU, Respiratory ICU and Renal ICU. These specialized intensive care units are specially staffed and equipped to provide the highest level of care to patients.

Achieving High Academic Excellence Students of AIMS have always made the institution proud by achieving academic excellence. Dr Shivaramu proudly says, “In the last 5 years, our undergraduate students have secured 15 ranks, and postgraduate students have secured 37 ranks under Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences. Our students have also excelled in the field of research.” Over the last 5 years, 50 research proposals have

Higher Education Digest June 2020

been accepted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) under the short-term studentship programme (ICMR-STS), 4 research proposal under student research grants of Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences and 18 research projects under Adichunchanagiri University.

Recently a batch of AIMS students has been selected under standing committee on Professional Exchange (SCOPE) under the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA).

“The teaching faculty at AIMS is a unique blend of youth and the experienced. We have with us highly motivated and professional teaching faculty who are involved in providing health care to patients and medical education of global standards to the undergraduate and postgraduate students,” pinpoints Dr Shivaramu. AIMS has a well-established medical education unit (MEU) within the campus which provides training for the faculty in medical education technologies. Majority of AIMS faculty members are trained in the Medical Council of India recognized, Revised Basic Medical Education Technology programme. The MEU conducts regular faculty development programs for training the faculty to keep them updated in the field of medical education and to help them in the process of effective curriculum design and implementation.

With such highly qualified faculty members, AIMS practices a unique mentorship programme, wherein a faculty in each phase/year mentors about 10 students.

The mentors provide help to the first-year students in understanding the challenges and opportunities present in the college and allow a smooth transition to campus life.

“They also counsel academically weak undergraduate students and play an important role in helping them cope with academic and extra-academic problems,” pinpoints Dr Shivaramu. Mentors provide the opportunity for interaction with positive role models, alumni and allow for great networking. They also identify problems of the students and bring them to the notice of the concerned authorities.

“Our students have been outstanding even in extracurricular activities. They have brought laurels to the institution in sports and cultural activities at various University, State and National level,” shares Dr Shivaramu.

In fact, apart from the regular academic activities AIMS believes in the holistic development of the students. Dr Shivaramu adds, “We have regular cultural activities through various committees, including Sports and Cultural Committee, NSS, YRC and so on.”

In a nutshell, every aspirant who is willing to get admitted to AIMS should not only meet the eligibility requirements as set by the Government of India but is

The institute’s air-conditioned auditorium has a seating capacity of 2000 and it is fully equipped with high-tech facilities for the organization and supporting training programmes, meetings, workshops and conferences.

also expected to have qualities like discipline, compassion and empathy, responsibility, humility and should have a sense of duty, service and social responsibility. Indeed, the goal of AIMS resonates with the attributes of an Indian Medical Graduate as defined by the Medical Council of India. A student after graduating from AIMS will be ready to undertake the responsibilities of a primary care physician/doctor of the first contact who can provide preventive, promotive, curative, palliative, and holistic care with compassion. “He/She will be a “five-star doctor,” possessing the ability to fulfil roles of a clinician, a leader, a communicator, a professional and a lifelong learning learner,” states Dr Shivaramu.

Today, AIMS has many ambitious plans. “Our immediate plans are to ensure the safety and safeguard the interest of the students, community and our workforce. All measures are being taken to ensure best practices in online teaching, learning and assessment are implemented,” shares Dr Shivaramu. The COVID-19 RT PCR virology lab will serve the community by providing timely diagnosis and management of COVID-19 cases. “Safety of our workforce will continue to be of paramount importance to us, and all measures will be taken to ensure the same,” adds Dr Shivaramu. At the same time, AIMS is also progressing rapidly towards enhancing the undergraduate admissions to 250 and completing a new multisuper speciality hospital block, starting of new DM/MCH courses, enhancing existing MD/MS seats to 150. “AIMS will strive towards becoming a centre of excellence with emphasis on socially meaningful medical education, research and healthcare,” concludes Dr Shivaramu.

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ACADEMIC VIEW

The Way Ahead for Hospitality Aspirants Following COVID-19 60

Dr Rajan Makkar, Dean - School of Hospitality, Rishihood University

How has been the impact of COVID-19 on Indian Higher Education so far? How will it affect the upcoming academic years?

COVID-19 hit our country in the latter part of March. And most colleges and universities in India usually follow the academic calendar January-May. So, many educational institutions managed to cover the remaining syllabus post lockdown via online teaching platforms. As regard to upcoming academic year Institutions will most likely have to follow the blended teaching system where the initial 20% will be done online, leaving the rest of the syllabus to be covered in physical classrooms.

What is the impact of COVID on the hospitality industry?

How is it going to affect the job aspirants?

All is not well in the hospitality industry, but there is a light. It will take no less than 24 months for the hospitality, travel, tourism, and aviation sectors to bounce back, but for sure, the industry will bounce

Higher Education Digest June 2020

It will take no less than 24 months for the hospitality, travel, tourism, and aviation sectors to bounce back, but for sure, the industry will bounce back hard

61 Dr Rajan Makkar

COVID-19 impact has created extraordinary situations across the sectors, including hospitality education. However, the professionals and the educators in the hospitality industry believe that newer job roles will emerge, and old ones might not be relevant. “All is not well in the hospitality industry, but there is a light. Soon, when the industry gets ready to bounce back (get back to normalcy), there will be dynamic positions announced for the young people to join and contribute to the new normal, as there will be massive introduction of technology to the hotel operations,� says Dr Rajan Makkar, Dean - School of Hospitality, Rishihood University. In an email interaction with Higher Education Digest, Dr Rajan Makkar talks about the impact of COVID-19 on the hospitality industry, global challenges in the hospitality education sector, and many more. Excerpts.

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More about

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Dr Rajan Makkar Dr Rajan Makkar has a Doctorate degree in hotel management. He is a double graduate from IHM Panipat and Delhi University and has done MBA in Tourism and Hospitality Management. Dr Makkar has a rich industry and academic experience of 21 years in the same sector.

He has given numerous talks on Radio on related topics and career in hospitality.

Dr Makkar has extensive experience of organizing international hospitality events from concept to execution and has organized many such events under his guidance and leadership. He formed various strategic associations with numerous hotel companies and placement agencies overseas, for the better placements of Hotel School Graduates.

He was recognized by Indian Hospitality Congress in the year 2015 and was conferred IHC Educators Award in college education. Dr Rajan Makkar has formed and signed collaborations with foreign Universities and colleges to add international flavour to the education delivery system at GIHM.

Higher Education Digest June 2020

back hard. The current situation is not a happy situation for any industry and so for hospitality.

This is certainly not a piece of music to the ears.

Soon, as the industry gets ready to bounce back (get back to normalcy), there will be dynamic positions announced for the young people to join and contribute to the new normal as there will be massive introduction of technology to the hotel operations.

Do you think India has an adequate number of institutes that can create quality manpower to support the growth of the hospitality industry in India?

Compared to the developed nations, what should be the focus of Indian hospitality colleges now?

In India, there are very few hospitality institutes producing quality manpower. The number is countable on fingers. To feature on the international map, Indian hotel schools and colleges need to bring serious changes in the present conventional kind of curriculum that is the only vocation oriented. There is a call for complete reformation and restructuring of the contents to achieve the desired learning outcomes to produce and develop hospitality leaders.

At present, what are the global challenges in the hospitality education sector? What should be the focus of hospitality institutes when they prepare the workforce of the future?

The global challenges for educators in hospitality education are to sensitize the young students towards workplace safety, new protocols of health, safety, and hygiene of spaces. Students also need to be technology savvy. There will be a lot of technologies including thermal scanners, ultraviolet rays sanitizing systems, electrostatic spraying in the guest rooms and public areas, robotized housekeeping services, use of robots in bar operations and may be robotized reception kiosks for contactless check-in and check-out procedures will be engaged in hotel operations.

What are the significant changes that you have noticed in the way hospitality students are taught to engage with the world?

What are the global trends in hospitality education?

To the best of my understanding, students in the hotel schools of international repute are professionally groomed on two different fronts.

Choosing one out of the two in the final year, which is also the career-launching year. Students either opt for specializing themselves as business managers within the hospitality industry or join the different hotel operations to their preference and skills.

What are the career opportunities available for students who completed Master Programs in Hospitality?

Career opportunities are endless, with a wide variety of careers from operational functions to managerial roles. With a degree in hospitality and professional experience, one can redirect one’s career into other service sectors too.

What advice would you give to a student thinking about becoming a hospitality professional?

My sincere piece of advice to students thinking about becoming hospitality professionals is, to develop intelligence, sense of urgency, sensitize themselves towards human emotions, hard skills, soft skills, strong theoretical knowledge, and practice.

Tell us about your vision for the School of Hospitality at Rishihood University.

The School of Hospitality at Rishihood University shall develop, in our students, the set of skills in 2 essential areas- the Art of Hospitality and the Science of Business, together with the most excellent industry training, management education and applied academic research. Let me share our USPs: World-class curriculum, International industry exposure, Semester abroad, Students’ institutional exchange with our partner Hotel Schools abroad, Mobility of faculty under foreign exchange ties, and Graduation with perks.

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GLOBAL COLLEGE OF LAW

DODGING THE PANDEMIC BLOW ON EDUCATION

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he COVID-19 epidemic is hitting everyone hard. But schools and colleges, which have always been places for real-life, physical interaction, have been among the hardest hit. As hundreds of millions of students around the world struggle to study at home, it remains to be seen how educators and the sector, on the whole, will deal with the new learn-at-home reality. In India, technological solutions to the challenge seem limited at present to premier urbancentric institutions. But if the lockdown and the education downturn continue, there is a real, pressing need for innovators to come up with technologies that can help Indians learn remotely, especially in the most remote and vulnerable parts of the country. “The onslaught of COVID 19 was felt in the mid of March 2020, and we all immediately went under lockdown as per Government’s orders. Through CCS

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University Meerut’s prompt support, we conducted practical exams for the outgoing odd semester students. Subsequently, we prepared for online classes based on the course curriculum for the even semester students, which was not covered before the nationwide lockdown”, says Bharat S Satyarthy, Trustee, Global College of Law. Offering an academic environment, the Global College of Law enables its students to build their attitude, leading to developing a high level of confidence to sustain themselves in the competitive global scenario. “We foster a culture of substantial legal study to generate a

Higher Education Digest June 2020

66 legal education system of Global Standards and be a leader in the Global Legal Industry”, quips Bharat.

Intending to assist students in understanding the complexities of the law in all its ramifications, the Global College of Law assists in developing a system in which every citizen of the country can enjoy the right to equality, liberty, and fundamental freedom as enshrined in the Constitution of India. “We desire to strengthen and inculcate every citizen the respect for Law and ensure that every citizen of the society gets access to their legal rights, irrespective of caste, colour, creed or sex”, envisions Bharat.

A Digitized Approach to Education Though the Pandemic Lockdown has affected the extracurricular activities like field visit to Lok Adalat, Courts and adopting of villages for legal aid, the students of the Global College of Law have become well acquainted with the theoretical part of the outdoor study. “We greatly appreciate the lead taken by our teachers and students in handling the situation and accepting the challenges during such trying times, helping us prepare for the final semester exams that are likely to be held in July 2020”, quips Bharat.

Higher Education Digest June 2020

The Global College of Law is in constant touch with their students. “We have declared ourselves virtually open. Along with the Santosh Nair Academy Motivational lectures, our YouTube channel, which consists of simple classes, delta activity and global study network, has been made available to our students free of charge, to keep them elated through virtual connect”, says Bharat.

Lessening the burden on its students, the Global College of Law has relaxed the norms of fee collection for the upcoming 2020-21 session. “The inflow of students for the new session may be lukewarm due to the impact the lockdown had on the economy, but we plan on giving relaxations in fee payment schedules, which can turn out to be beneficial to a lot of students”, adds Bharat.

Before the lockdown, some colleges were exploring ways to add remote learning options to shift to digital learning. But when faced with the task of making a quick change, online education became a mandated reality.

“During the last 3 months, we have noticed that the online classes, meetings, and seminars did not serve the desired purpose, but we have decided to follow the COVID19 Protocol and do our best to deliver excellence either way”, opines Bharat.

The teaching staff of the Global College of Law are up to date with their teaching techniques. One of them had been selected in the Higher Judiciary and in the Junior Division of Judiciary in Uttar Pradesh. “Two of our faculty members are pursuing their PhD in Law, who supported us during the COVID fight by arranging online classes and webinars”, quips Bharat. Following the present trends in the industry, e-journals and e-libraries have played an incredible role in helping our teachers gain knowledge and virtually connect with the college”, says Bharat.

Achieving their Ambitions Well established personalities like Mr Bhaskar Chatterjee (IAS), Mr AC Hudda (ACP Delhi), Diamond Satyarthy (MBA, IIM Calcutta), Mr Sumit Shukla (MBA, Symbiosis), and Mahesh Jain (topper of Sriram College of Commerce, Delhi), chose to pursue their LLB at the Global College of Law, reflecting the achievements of the institution. Bharat adds, “Right from 2010, every year, one or two teachers are getting selected in Judiciary

Diamond Satyarthy, Founder, Trustee

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Higher Education Digest June 2020

Global College of the Law conducting National Seminar on Position of Insolvency And Bankruptcy Laws In India

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Services. All our students are well settled in the legal profession including in J&K where our 12 students after passing LLB in 2018 have joined the practice and likewise in all parts of India including Mumbai where Shishir Verma, Rakesh Kumar Khanna in LLB Final Year, Alumni Abdul Wakeel Koka and Sunil Kumar (Batch 2018 passed out ) are doing wonders”.

Planning to serve by contributing to the betterment of the state’s legal system and the quality of its citizens’ lives, the Global College of Law is preparing its students for their roles as advisers, advocates, and leaders in private enterprise and public services by seeking excellence in its educational program. Students at the Global College of Law prefer to find their own ways and are well placed in legal practices. Bharat adds, “In NCR Delhi there is abundant scope for practice if knowledge and ethics are clubbed which we teach to our students from day one.

Our students, after passing LLB, have preferred to go in the legal profession in an individual capacity or in Group making Firm”.

Higher Education Digest June 2020

Universities and colleges yet to implement changes to campuses in response to the novel coronavirus should take cues from others who have already taken action. They should analyse the steps already taken by other educators to understand what has worked, what hasn’t worked and how to tackle the challenges they may face. With the spread of the disease expected to worsen before it gets better, administrators should take quick action to safeguard their campuses and students in preparation for potential closures. Teaching their students to serve the society following the legal ethics, the Global College of Law is currently working on the survival of the community and themselves owing to the Pandemic Outbreak.

But it is not all doom and gloom. The higher education sector has withstood turbulent economic times in the past, and it will face them again. In a digital age, universities and colleges are better placed today more than ever to provide students with easy access to continue their studies online.

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Higher Education Digest June 2020

ICFAI LAW SCHOOL OFFERING 360 DEGREES LEARNING TO EQUIP THE ASPIRING LAWYERS FOR THE 21ST

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CENTURY CHALLENGES

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ffecting educational systems worldwide, the COVID19 pandemic has led to near-total closure of schools, universities, and colleges. This unexpected and unwanted guest has disturbed the functioning of the law school equally like any other professional colleges and universities, which has resulted in the ICFAI law school closing due to the pandemic lockdown from March 2020, 2020. “With the help of technology, by using Zoom, Cisco WebEx and Google classroom software, online classes were conducted, uploaded the study material, clarified doubts through Google classrooms, WhatsApp calls and personal calls. We are strictly adhering to the directions of the UGC, BCI, and Government. Technology has come handy during this lockdown period”, says Prof A V Narsimha Rao, Director, the ICFAI Law School, Hyderabad.

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A constituent unit of the ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education a deemed-to-be University, the ICFAI Law School was established with an ambitious objective to strive for the transformation of legal education with a value-added student-centric teaching-learning approach and well designed dynamic curriculum to carve out new generation lawyers. “We envision developing a new cadre of professionals who will not only command a high level of domain proficiency but also have the ability to integrate activities for developing scientific and technological solutions and work standards�, quips Prof. Narsimha Rao.

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Coping with COVID ICFAI is concentrating on the online simulation programs, such as moot competitions and mediations, where the students have won two online moot court competitions during the lockdown under the guidance of the faculties. During the present lockdown scenario, the most challenging issue ICFAI is facing is the evaluation of the student performance in academics and preparing the results. The law school has decided to conduct the online examination for its final year student in July, without compromising on the quality of the legal education and declare the results by August.

“We have planned to conduct the final/end term examination to the students other than the final year once the college reopens as per the guidelines of the BCI. Thus, the physical classroom education has been modified to the online classes and physical examination to online examination model”, adds Prof. Narsimha Rao. As suggested by UGC, ICFAI plans to reopen in August for all sections and in September for the first semester students. “We are conducting the entrance examination online, personal interviews from the first week of July on zoom. If the Government instruct to close the campuses and hostel further, we will start online classes as per the schedule. The law school has sufficient bandwidth for conducting online classes”, says Prof. Narsimha Rao. With active and professional networking with legal professionals, judiciary and advocates, ICFAI organises a residential training program every year during the summer vacations to young advocates of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, in coordination with the Bar Council

Higher Education Digest June 2020

The ICFAI Law School organized a seminar in association with Competition Commission of India (CCI) - a One Day National Seminar on Competition Law 2.0: A Way Forward

About Prof. Narasimha Rao, Director, ICFAI Law School Prof. Narasimha Rao has a total experience of 20 years in teaching law. Currently serving as the Director at the ICFAI Law School, he has also been a visiting professor. Prof. Narasimha has been a part of the ICFAI family since 2007, when he joined as an Associate Professor and Dean, Faculty of Law. Prof. Narasimha has also served the Bank of India in different designation for almost 20 years.

Having conceptualising, editing and publishing articles and journals, Prof. Narasimha has edited 20 books and published 4 original books.

of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. “We have organised an All India University level Moot Court Competition jointly with the Bar Council of India, where the advocates of High Courts and District courts attended and acted as judges for the student’s moot court and mediation competitions, along with participating in various conferences and seminars we organised”, says Prof. Narsimha Rao. The students of ICFAI also intern with advocates, law firms, and some of the government institutions, where the senior advocates would be their project guides for their internship projects.

Prof. Narsimha Rao adds, “We have nominated two advocates to the Board of Studies and also into the Academic Council, to provide their views on the curriculum and to improve the quality of the curriculum”.

Also, ICFAI has donated law textbooks, reference books, and commentaries along with 11 computers and printers with an online database, for the benefit of advocates and judges of the High Court of Telangana. “The Judges, Senior Advocates, Partners and Associate Partners of Law firms regularly visit our school and interact with the students through expert lectures and also during the activities. Three former judges of High Court of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are associated with our school as adjunct faculties and train students in procedure laws by sharing their expertise and experiences every week”, points out Prof. Narsimha Rao. Bridging the Student-Industry Gap ICFAI has excellent professional links with the judges of the Supreme Court of India, and few of them have also inaugurated the school’s programs. Along with this, the alumni association of the law school is even playing a significant role in the networking of ICFAI with the legal professional bodies.

Providing practical training, clinical courses, legal aid problems, client counselling, and mediation simulations, participation in seminars and conferences, interactions with the judges of Supreme Court, High Court, District Courts, tribunal and senior advocates of different courts, in addition to the regular classroom lectures, discussion forums, and extracurricular activities, ICFAI aspires to give its students 360-degree learning experience.

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The law school takes exceptional care of its students with marginalised learning capacity by providing additional and focused classes and mentoring. “The students undertake various activities through 11 live active clubs to improve the skills in the areas of moot court, mediation, negotiation, and client counselling, oral and written communications through debates and essay writing competitions, promotes the clean environment through the environmental club and cultural and sports competitions”, says Prof. Narsimha Rao. Students of ICFAI have won the All India InterUniversity Moot Court Competition organised by the Bar Council of India in the academic year 2019-20. Also, the students have won prizes and certificates in the field of sports, debate, moot court, mediation, client counselling, and cultural competitions at the national level. Prof.

Narsimha Rao adds, “Few of our students got admissions abroad in law schools of famous universities with fee concessions and scholarships. Some of them have passed the accreditation tests required for the arbitrator. Four students of previous batches got selected as a junior civil judge. Thus, students have done a wonderful job and got recognition”.

Pillars of Strength – Faculty of ICFAI The faculty is of ICFAI is its strength and are known for their efficiency, commitment, and proactive attitudes.

With around 47 faculty members teaching law subjects, ICFAI also has exclusive faculty members who teach

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management and social science disciplines, along with three former High Court judges as adjunct faculty. About 29 teachers at ICFAI have a doctorate, while 8 of them are NET qualified and the rest of them are pursuing the PhD program. “In addition to the classwork, they write articles, participates in the workshops, conferences, and seminars organised by the Law School and also outside the school across the country. Few faculties have presented their papers in the international seminars and conference held outside the country”, points out Prof.

Narsimha Rao. The faculty of ICFAI also get an opportunity to attend a weekly research seminar, where one of them even get to present their research papers in front of all the faculties participating in it. Along with this, they get to coordinate and organise seminars and conferences at national and international level. ICFAI publishes a quarterly journal, IUP Law Review, which contains articles authored by the faculty members.

Also, ICFAI is known for its unique mentoring process of the students. Every faculty will act as the mentor for a group of students, whom they guide, monitor, and help in their personal and professional works. “The faculty will be guiding the students to participate in the national level moot court and other competitions. They help the students in procuring the internships, monitor the project as a faculty guide, and also contacting the parents of the students to notify the progress of the students”, adds Prof.

Narsimha Rao.

The faculty of ICFAI is always working on research projects and activities other than regular academics. They are encouraged to write articles, edit books, and take part in national and international seminars and conferences. The school also supports its faculties financially for presenting papers at national and international conferences and seminars.

Guest Speaker at ICFAI Law College: Nooty Ramamohana Rao, Former Judge – Madras High Court

Prepping Students for the Cutthroat Competition Carving students into legal professionals, most students of ICFAI prefer to choose litigation in place of corporate jobs as they got motivation during internships and interaction with the advocates and judges. Although, a small part of students opt for placement and 100% of placement assistance is provided by the law school’s Career Guidance Cell, which provides the soft-skill training and refresher classes relating to essential concepts and fundamentals of law.

With ICFAI having an extensive and robust network, it arranges personal interviews with the students. Although COVID19 has been a hindrance to the placement process, the college has organised most of the procedures to happen smoothly through online tests and interviews. “Few of our students got collected from different companies and waiting for results. The Career Guidance Cell also trains the students for competitive examinations such as Civil Service Examinations, judicial examinations, and company secretaries examinations”, opines Prof.

Narsimha Rao. As the economic conditions are not encouraging, some of the students got placed in companies with reasonable pay packages, while some of them are working as associate partners for law firms. ICFAI is doing its best in tapping its secure networking with the legal professionals and corporate to provide placement assistance to the students.

Motivating their students to strive for more, ICFAI has introduced the “Entrepreneurship and Leadership” and “Skill Development” subjects in the curriculum.

The law school has also started an “Entrepreneurship and Innovation Cell”, to motivate its students to start new ventures and support them financially and technically. “Our students have developed a website where the user can access information about advocates and courts for each category of law, substantive or the procedural. Another student has developed software that can be used for networking of students and advocates. Along with us, a student has developed a

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website for providing free services to villagers”, adds Prof. Narsimha Rao. Doing their bit towards making the society better, ICFAI has adopted 5 villages near the college campus, which the students and faculty visit regularly, conducting legal awareness camps in schools and gram panchayat offices for the villagers about their voting rights, consumer rights, domestic waste management, hygiene of surroundings, swatchata, child rights, against child marriages, child abuse, and many more topics. The members of the Legal Air Club, Environment Club, and Cultural club students undertake various activities and use the street plays, poster display, and discussion forum for increasing legal literacy.

“During the pandemic, because of the lockdown and physical distances, few faculty visited the villages and explained the need for self-regulation, sanitation, physical distancing.

The students of law school also contributed to the distribution of necessaries to the people in distress. The University has donated almost one crore rupees for the supply of groceries, including essential items and sanitisers, masks, and many more”, says Prof. Narsimha Rao. Paving the road ahead The students of ICFAI get a chance to improve and possess the analytical skills, logical approach to the problems, high level of soft skills, commitment towards their work and profession, networking capabilities, and gogetter attitude. “The present law students are more active, takers of the challenges, and work hard to accomplish their objectives and goals.

They are more technical savvy and explorers of information technology. They have definite planning and career objectives and energies

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to realise their dreams. They have better negotiation skills and compromising attitudes without diluting the professional ethics.”, opines Prof. Narsimha Rao. The ICFAI Law School, Hyderabad has an objective to be one of the top law schools in India imparting legal education. In this direction, the law school plans to adopt cutting edge curriculum having the blend of theory and application of law equally. It has a clear mandate to prepare the students for market-ready legal professionals. “We are striving to provide a 360-degree learning process with studentcentric approach having quality checks at every point and takes initiatives to improve the key indicators of the program every semester”, adds Prof. Narsimha Rao. During the Covid-19, ICFAI is planning to use the technology and digital platforms for successfully imparting the law program.

To achieve its objective, it has designed hard and soft resources, more especially the tools of information technology, digitally equipped classrooms, digital libraries, computer labs, career guidance cells,. The soft resources include the digital databases, human resources including the proficient faculties, supporting staff, and well-defined assessment and evaluations, the culture of innovations and creativeness, and well-defined systems in place.

ICFAI has also prepared a dynamic curriculum to meet the expectations of the legal arena to transform legal education to the next highest level of quality. In this direction, it regularly interacts with the judicial officers, industrialists, associations of businesses, and academicians for improvements and developments, to provide updated and industryready lawyers to the world.

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INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

Access, Adopt and Move on - The New Mantra of Learning Manit Parikh, Country Head, ELSA Corp.

78 How is ELSA Corp responding to nationwide lockdown and school closures?

With the lockdown and schools being shut, a lot of institutions and schools have realized that the lockdown can extend for a few weeks more, which may hamper classes of Kids especially their semesters.

Hence, looking at the current scenario, a lot of schools have come up with video learning techniques, which has benefitted many companies like ELSA which are into the online education field.

Teachers have realized that a lot of students who are at home and not being taught are not doing their homework properly. They wanted to incorporate learning with some gamification that is where ELSA has worked well. A lot of schools are now using ELSA for online learning and for giving online homework/assignments to the students through our digitized app.

The student after their classes can log in to our ELSA App and do their homework, practise their reading, speaking and listening skills. The moment they submit their assignments the teachers gets a notification about their submission and the real-time notification pops up. Based on that, the teacher would be able to bifurcate different students as per their capability and assign them homework accordingly.

Looking from that perspective, ELSA has benefitted. The app downloads and sign-ups have doubled since last one month. ELSA has also announced a subscription grant worth of 52 crores for students in India for the next three months.

Higher Education Digest June 2020

We are not 100% digitized or even close to 100% when it comes to learning across all spectrums of education

79 Manit Parikh

ELSA (English Language Speech Assistant) is an AI-powered app for the 1.5 billion language learners in the world to learn to speak English more fluently, thereby changing their careers and lives. To support and encourage students to utilize this valuable time during the lockdown period, ELSA Corp announced free ELSA PRO accounts for all students from 3rd to 12th class and college students. “ELSA app downloads and sign-ups have doubled since last one month. We have also announced a subscription grant worth of Rs. 52 crores for students in India for next three months,� says Manit Parikh, Country Head, ELSA Corp. In an email interaction with Higher Education Digest, Manit shares his views on the current status of online learning in India, common misconceptions of Indian students and parents towards eLearning platforms and many more. Here are the excerpts.

Higher Education Digest June 2020

Manit Parikh

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The key and the biggest trends after the lockdown is going to be that each school, each parent and student is going to make sure that an online app for learning or an online infrastructure for learning is there in their institutions

What is the status of online learning in India?

The current state in India is quite nascent. The Private institutes probably have the infrastructure and state because of sufficient capital which can be used for digital learning. However, when it comes to government schools, they are far away from any kind of digitization. Though there are a lot of government initiatives, I think those were not able to provide desired outputs towards digitization.

Honestly, I would say that as of now, we are not 100% digitized or even close to 100% when it comes to learning across all spectrums of education.

What are the opportunities ELSA Corp see in the Indian education market? Also, what are the challenges for you to become a major player here?

Challenges we see is the lockdown, of course, we don’t know when the lockdown will be uplifted. We primarily focus on B2B in the market. B2B is a bigger segment for us. B2B is going a bit slow compared to what it was a month back because of the lockdown and people holding on to cash. We see that as a bigger challenge because at the time of the lockdown is lifted there will be a gestational period for a month after which the revenue will double.

The advantage we see in India close to 150 crore people that we have as a population and I think 20%-30% of them speak some form of English, that’s a massive population around 45 crores and I think that itself is a pool that we

can target. Based on a lot of research and conversations with English experts who talk about how English can be taught or learnt. The first thing these expert’s advice to people who want to learn English is that they should first speak and listen and then listen and speak a lot of words then speak to their colleagues and peers. The grammar part comes very late, and that’s how we realized that there is a lot of opportunities which we can tap, there are many people/ students out there who did not know how to speak English but wanted to learn. Hence, we wanted to position it in a way, that there are modules in the app where people can listen to a lot of words and when you start listening memory starts registering and when it starts registering we start speaking that is where we will correct. With this 45 crores population, we will be tapping into 60% - 70% of the market opening which we can reach out to.

There are many apps in India which focuses on English learning and I believe, maybe one or two focuses on English speaking. In our case, we started as an Englishspeaking entity as a company and product and now we are venturing into even crowded English learning space.

Now, for us, the opportunity is huge because English learning space is a proven market and English speaking is a newer market where people are grasping the idea of differentiating between learning and speaking. We also have B2B users and we are doing quite well there. With the learning market already doing great, COVID-19 has helped us we have given free license, and have we got a

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lot of users who don’t know how to speak English and that automatically opened up the market for us.

We have other players in the market who don’t venture into what we do and we don’t venture into what they do. After all, they are heavily funded and they are clearing the pass for us for online app-based learning which is making our case study which is proven by other players that app-based learning or speaking makes it a lot easier we don’t have to spend a lot of dollars because other players are already doing that. We just follow them on their track and we just position our products differently because they are more into science, maths, biology and physics learning and content learning, where we are purely into English speaking and that’s where we see a massive opportunity and that should allow us in the next 6 months to a year for English speaking app to become the market leader.

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What are common misconceptions Indian students have about online learning programs? What kind of technologies would you recommend schools systems adopt?

Parents have a misconception that if online education comes into existence then the screen time will increase for the kids. Since no technology can replace teachers, which is true to a certain extent. However, this is also a kind of misconception that the Indian parents and students need to get away and it’s going to be blended learning, especially in schools. It is always going to be virtual learning and physical learning, and combining both it will make a powerful learning structure. Virtual learning with the technologies like AI, NLP, and speech assistance and so on will make the teachers to assist the students and allow them to help the students grow faster, better. It will make sure that all students are learning at the same pace.

In class, it all comes in a real-time basis where we need an answer with emotions and not in a monotonous way. There is where the misconception lies that the emotions need to be explained thoroughly.

I believe, today the school system should adopt the following technologies: 1. Decent high-speed internet 2. They need to have high-level computer labs 3. Finally, to incorporate all updates, Schools should adopt key technologies like AI, Speech recognition, NLP and others that are around to help understand the student behaviour analytics. That allows the principal and teachers to make them better and well down.

This is where technology lies.

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What are some of the most innovative technologies in Ed-Tech right now? What are the key trends of e-learning to follow in 2020?

AI, NLP, Speech Processing, AR & VR, these 5 are very innovative and are still getting innovated because I think we have only scratched the surface of 5% in many lakhs and we still have 95% to cover. I believe these 5 technologies will be the buzz word and will continue to be the buzz word. It will completely change the way Ed-Tech in the near future. The key and the biggest trends after the lockdown is going to be that each school, each parent and student is going to make sure that an online app for learning or an online infrastructure for learning is there in their institutions.

They will never take a chance and according to me, the biggest trend is going to be the adoption of a virtual classroom-based learning and virtual app-based learning in the near future.

What would be the future of Ed-tech market right now? What is some advice that you have for the startups that are emerging in the Edtech space?

The Ed-Tech market is quite big. It is growing to get bigger and there are many more points of talking. The kind of innovations happens to the Ed-Tech is going to define which company will survive and which company will not. Off-course, some deep-pocket companies probably have enough money to muscle the smaller players but I think it is just a matter of time because sometimes low operation costs with higher technological innovations with some funding can disrupt the market. It’s a long way for Ed-Tech to go, we are basically at the pinnacle right now.

I would recommend building a sustainable product, focusing on technology and how technology is going to solve the whole problem.

What is your advice to the online learning aspirants?

The aspirants should not get bogged down; they should adopt online learning. As a new variant, it is fun but it’s also critical to not to completely be dependent on online learning. It is a tool to assist you more and more and to make you better when you are in the classroom you are on par with the other kids. So, access and adopt because it’s going to be safe. If you don’t adopt today you will be left behind in the race. Once that is done and you are left behind, tracking it up is quite difficult because right now the time is very fast. My advice is Access, Adopt and Move on.

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JECRC UNIVERSITY’S SCHOOL OF DESIGN

PUSHING THE FRONTIERS OF INTERIOR 84

DESIGNING

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ducation was started out with an aim to make an impact on students with knowledge.

While teaching the students is the primary focus of most education systems, generating new knowledge through creativity becomes secondary to most scholars. We are left to choose, between knowledge and creativity, which one is more important? The question is more relevant to students in higher institutions of learning since this level of learning is developed enough to generate creative thinking, in addition to impacting students with knowledge.

JECRC University (JU) is driven by the spirit of innovation-led research, which is clearly seen in its infrastructure, as well as practices.

The multifaceted research encompassing subject-specific exploration

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and contexts of the business environment, helps the students operate and perform effectively. “We aim to create valuable resources for the industry and society through its interventions in the creation of research and innovative academic, professional and cultural enhancements.�, says Shivani Kaushik, Head of Department, Faculty of Design, JU. With its campus in the capital city of Rajasthan, Jaipur, JU has a 32-acre Campus with unique classical architecture, thoughtful layout, and landscaping to create a perfect ecosystem. JECRC University was established and

Higher Education Digest June 2020

Incorporated as a State Private University vide JECRC University Act (Act 15/2012 of Rajasthan State Legislature) from the UGC. “We aim to identify various areas of focus and specialization, based on an informed perception of Indian, regional, and global needs, on which the university can concentrate on”, adds Shivani.

Pursuing to focus on research and spirit of innovation, the college aspires to develop human potential to its fullest extent so that intellectually capable and imaginatively gifted leaders can emerge in a range of professions. Built to initiate a thoughtful and reactive design process, the B.Des in Interior Design program of JU facilitates the students to understand and create human habitation spaces. Shivani includes, “Our program aims to provide varied understandings of theory, studio, practical skills, live projects, case studies, field trips and encounters with industries and professionals.”

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The students are trained in representative skills through regular studios and instilled with environmental awareness, for the benefit of human health, wellbeing, and productivity. Shivani points out, “The department has a team of specialized Design Faculty that focuses on freehand drawing, technical drawing and model making, which are further supplemented through elective subjects such as Interior Lighting, Interior Landscape, Sustainable Interior, Set Design, Interior Project Management, Furniture Design, and Product Design.”

Pushing students into being an independent and effective learner, the program aims at promoting a holistic approach to the designing process by simultaneously involving inputs from theory, allied subjects, and electives to design.

Encouraging Innovation and Creativity Believing in “Learning by doing”, JU’s School of Design comes up with different realistic projects within the university itself for the students. The students get practical experience in commercial contexts, the needs of the client, and enhance their decision-making skills, problem-solving skills, and communication skills. “Know-How”, a workshop

Shivani Kaushik, Head of Department, Faculty of Design Currently serving as the Head of the Department, School of Design at the JECRC University, Ms. Shivani Kaushik has studied Jewelry and Textile Design and is an alumnus of the University of Rajasthan. With 20 years of teaching experience, she continues to serve as a Board of Study Member and Examiner for Design in various other Universities and Colleges.

School of Design and School of Hotel Management at JECRC University conduct an event called “ART ON A PLATE” is a perfect blend of creativity, enthusiasm, zeal and efforts

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88 series, is conducted on a regular basis where eminent industry personalities come as guest lecturers and interact with the students. “With an aim to expand the horizons of student’s creativity further, these workshops are a great way for the students to gain hands-on experience and rapidly acquire knowledge in their area of expertise” opines Shivani.

Striving to get the best out of their students, JU has many Techno-Cultural Clubs, Student Chapter of Professional Bodies, Technology Incubation and Entrepreneurship Development Centre, Global Outreach Programs, Training and Placement Cell, and many more special facilities for the students to utilize.

These facilities were provided with an aim to make the students focus and aide in their career growth.

“We believe in enabling the students with the latest technological skills. Thus, preparing them for the future is our key responsibility as a technical institution. In this direction, we are strongly looking for collaborating on the latest technologies like UI, UX, Design Thinking, Spark and many more”, says Shivani. In their 6th Semester, the student at JECRC University undergo internships of 140 days in an Interior Designing or Architectural, where they form a project report about the practical experience,

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JECRC University firmly believes in importance of experimental learning and offers internship opportunities that integrates knowledge and theory learned in classroom with practical application and skill development in professional setting

they gained by working on various projects, under the supervision of a professional designer. They get handson experience in the existing work practices, conditions, and acquire in-depth technical know-how.

Industry experts are regularly invited to make our students acquainted with the latest industry trends and design methodologies. “Furthermore, we are in the regular practice of organizing industrial visits for the students where we take them to national-level exhibitions and ongoing live premium sites�, says Shivani. The whole process is well coordinated with the client industry and is efficiently regulated with mentorship and guidance from faculty at JECRC University throughout the training.

Facing the Industry World The industry offers opportunities to young designers in large setups of architecture, interior design, kitchen design, and exhibition design practices. Graduates are equipped to begin their own practice or further their education by applying to study in post-graduate programs ranging from furniture, exhibition, product, and interaction design to craft and technology, historytheory-criticism and Energy efficiency and green design.

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Shivani says, “we have an exemplary placement record with our students being chosen by industry leaders every year. Hosting ‘Stand-alone Recruitment Drives’, leading business houses participate to test the mettle of students.

We receive top-notch companies every year for recruiting the students, owing to our consistent performance in these years.” Receiving 100 percent placements, JU School of Design has a focused approach towards persistent and multi-dimensional training of students in-line with the industry expectations and gives hands-on-learning has led to an increase in the number of placement offers and record salary packages.

“Our students are recruited by companies like Kredenza Interior Studio, R.K. Associates, Connoisseurs Desk, Hiren Patel Architects, Shantanu Garg Designs and many more”, adds Shivani. With the best placements and paid internships with an average stipend of Rs. 18000, The alumni of JU are working with renowned firms like Hiren Patel Architects, Ahemdabad, Shantanu Garg Designs, Jaipur, Kredenza Interior Studio and many more.

Streamlining JU’s School of Design Aiming to scale new heights, JU has already sketched out a roadmap to achieve it. The university plans on collaborating with industry leaders to get the latest

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technological skills on board to help make the students future-ready. “We also plan on increasing our interactions with the industry to get to know more about the industrial problems and appropriate solutions for the same”, says Shivani. JU is going to train its students and develop a corporate connect to increase the bar of the average package in the recruitment drives. Along with this, the college is also planning to work extensively in the field of research in order to publish IPR from the university and bag extensively funded research projects from various funding agencies.

Students at the JU get a chance to develop their critical thinking skills, work-oriented skills, and behavioral skills, that help them acquire a positive attitude towards themselves, their peers, faculty, facilities, and others, which gives them the ability to carry out directions, meet deadlines and attendance requirements.

Creativity among college students should be encouraged than the sole pursuit of knowledge in order to develop solutions that are so much needed in the working world and society at large. “We aspire to become a renowned center of higher learning, and work towards academic, professional, cultural, and social enrichment of the lives of individuals and communities”, concludes Shivani.

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ACADEMIC VIEW

How Did We Prepare Teachers for COVID Disruption in Education?

Dr. Sunita Gandhi, Founder, Global Education & Training Institute (GETI)

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There has been an increase in the number of students pursuing online degrees in recent years. Do you think the COVID-19 pandemic will cause those numbers to grow?

Absolutely, the reason is people who are unaware of the online opportunities have been given a crash course knowingly as well as unknowingly. There is now a lot more awareness of online courses and a lot more people are getting on it, and they understand that it is very effective and less expensive. It will yield an excellent qualification.

I believe and hope that more and more people will move to online education, as it is environment friendly and less expensive. In fact, there are a handful of universities like Denver University based out of the US, have started offering online courses and are also promoting online learning.

In India, how seriously are students going to be set back by not having formal instruction for at least two months, if not more? What are the efforts from GETI to control the damage?

To control the damage GETI is trying to get on board a lot more schools so they can provide online teaching to their students. GETI is offering basic 101 courses right from the start, and we train them on how to handle the technology, how to set up a timetable, even the kind of assignments that they can give to the students taking these online classes.

GETI is also providing textbooks to teachers as well as students that are very useful for homeschooling with a lot of self-learning components. These books are called TIER books, and they are bitesized like the course of a year in a subject & is divided into six parts.

So that makes it very concrete, like those who came within this month, they could try and give a one year of work.

These books are available in the format of e-books that envision every child can access. And teachers can do a lot of activities that are provided in it. These books have a proper timeline that allows better structure than just going through the chapters. We are offering a lot of support for their learning, and to a great extent, that learning is real.

Higher Education Digest June 2020

In the future, mobile would be a very potent mechanism to reach out to the children

Dr. Sunita Gandhi

A PhD holder from Cambridge University, UK, Dr. Sunita Gandhi is the founder of multiple institutions including Council for Global Education, USA, Global Education & Training Institute (GETI), DEVI Sansthan: Dignity, Education Vision International, India, and Education Society of Iceland. Her efforts in education have expanded a vast range, from the bottom up a grassroots level in Indian slums and villages through her NGO, to top-down policy work with the World Bank in Washington, DC, where she was selected as a Young Professional and completed a ten-year tenure as an Economist. In an email interaction with the Higher Education Digest, Dr. Sunita Gandhi elaborates on how GETI is helping schools during the COVID19 Lockdown with Digital Transformations.

A PhD holder from Cambridge University, UK, Dr. Sunita Gandhi is the founder of multiple institutions including Council for Global Education, USA, Global Education & Training Institute (GETI), DEVI Sansthan: Dignity, Education Vision International, India, and Education Society of Iceland. Her efforts in education have expanded a vast range, from the bottom up a grassroots level in Indian slums and villages through her NGO, to top-down policy work with the World Bank in Washington, DC, where she was selected as a Young Professional and completed a ten-year tenure as an Economist. In an email interaction with the Higher Education Digest, Dr. Sunita Gandhi elaborates on how GETI is helping schools during the COVID19 Lockdown with Digital Transformations.

Higher Education Digest June 2020

There is a lot more screen time than it was in the past, but if children did not go onscreen to learn, they would do other things, and that is even worse

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Dr. Sunita Gandhi

Higher Education Digest June 2020

The digital divide between students in India has become apparent as schools have increasingly turned to online instruction. What can school systems do to address that gap? How is GETI helping students with online education in Tier II and III cities?

Yes, I agree with the statement the digital divide has become very apparent. We have schools in rural areas which cater to children of farmers and vegetable vendors. We found that there is at least one smartphone per household, and they are aware of the fact that these online courses are the medium of learning, and that would be stuck for quite some time.

In the future, mobile would be a very potent mechanism to reach out to the children. So, yes, there is a divide, but the divide can be overcome, and it’s a necessity as we forge ahead.

The schools will have to embrace the challenge, one because it is going to become increasingly necessary.

Secondly, because it is a powerful learning mechanism that they did not know earlier. We are increasingly finding that students with very meagre resources own one mobile device at least which is hopefully a smartphone so they can get WhatsApp for the connectivity and the possibility of online learning.

And in case there are no smartphones, the schools are now thinking to provide one. GETI is also helping in the sense of giving the opportunity to train the teachers and handling them and showing them how to create effective learning programs online and not just learning, but also assessments and assignments.

How did GETI anticipate the school closure in Indian and train teachers in the use of digital processes? How has been the response from schools after the lockdown?

So we did not anticipate it far in advance. We did get the idea though maybe a week before it all happened. And though we had trained our teachers on some platforms, for example, the Google classroom, the majority of the teachers even then were not very comfortable with it. So we’ve gotten some experts to train them immediately.

The response of schools after lockdown has been phenomenal. The teachers are highly engaged, which is a big surprise about all the difficulties that they’re having in this in the initial days that perhaps they will give up. And they have not.

And in fact, teachers have surprised us because they learned so many more ways. They learned Google Classroom and Google Hangout as well as WebEx by cisco. Then along the way, they learned about the

fingerboards system that I brought in thinking this is good. So they have lapped so much, not just in terms of how they teach online and remotely, but in terms of the technology. So, we are all very delighted. The children have all the tools, and on all fronts, it’s going well.

What can parents do to help with the homeschooling of their children in the current crisis?

Currently, all over the world, parents are homeschooling their children, be it with the help of the Internet or without it. But with the technology, the parents have had to play a critical and collaborative role, especially for younger children. We have asked the parents to make a video of the children’s activities, and they’ve done it.

They have also engaged them in Hands-On activities at home, sorting, and helping them and chores around the house. For now, we will advise parents to put less stress on their children and help them in evolving their skills.

Through homeschooling, children can not only learn academically but also values like helping their parents, listening to them and respecting the elders.

Are there concerns about the negative effects of increased screen time, especially on younger children, as we move education online?

Yes, there are some negative effects, and that’s why GETI has provided teachers with bite-size screen times.

There is a lot more screen time than it was in the past, but if children did not go onscreen to learn, they would do other things, and that’s even worse. So we can say that at least they’re now going online for a mix of reasons, not just playing games. It’s a question similar to what you have in a matchbox.

It has its benefits, but then it has some hazards. The only solution is that parents have to manage the screen time as there is no other way. The balance has to be made, and parents can cut television and video games time.

What is your advice to students and teachers?

For the teachers, I would like to say that technology is here to stay, so continue with it and don’t give it up when the schools reopen because it’s a powerful mechanism that allows a different possibility for learning. For the students, I would like to advise that this is an opportunity to pick up on masterstroke technology as it’s a very efficient way to learn and for you to get feedback about your learning. So adapt it, learn as much as you can during this period, do some extracurricular activities and help your parents in chores around the house.

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ACADEMIC VIEW

Why Study Biomedical Engineering - One of the Fastest Growing Areas in Engineering?

Prof. Raymond Lee, Professor of Biomechanics and Associate Dean (Global Engagement), Faculty of Technology - University of Portsmouth (UoP), UK

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Your research lies at the interface of engineering and clinical science. Could you tell us more about the specifics of the research that you are doing now? How will this research impact the world?

Biomedical engineering sometimes referred to as bioengineering, is a multidisciplinary STEM field that lies at the interface of medical sciences and engineering. It is a broad field, and my academic work is related to biomechanics which is associated with the application of mechanical engineering to medicine and healthcare. It is a subdiscipline of biomedical engineering.

More specifically, I look at the application of health technologies and sensors that can improve our health and well-being. For example, we have developed sensors and mobile apps that can help reduce the risks of neck and back pain and detect falls in the elderly. In our research group, we have an active programme of work related to heart and respiratory disorders and a wide of health technology applications, including sleep disorders.

When did you start researching on quantifying the mechanical loading on the body during everyday activities?

What sparked your interest?

We have published a new algorithm for monitoring physical fitness and activity level, and we are interested in looking at the relationship between obesity and bone and muscle health in older adults. We have been studying activity monitors for more than ten years. Our interest in this area is driven by a lack of scientific evidence to support what we do. Most commercial activity monitors only look at the number of

Higher Education Digest June 2020

The increasing demand for biomedical engineers is linked to society’s general shift towards everyday utilization of technology in all aspects of life

97 Prof. Raymond Lee,

Prof. Raymond Lee, Professor of Biomechanics and Associate Dean (Global Engagement) in the Faculty of Technology at UoP. Prof. Raymond Lee is the Associate Dean (Global Engagement) of the Faculty of Technology, and also the Chair of the Biomedical Engineering Research Group. His research lies at the interface of engineering and clinical science. Prof. Lee has specific interests in spine biomechanics, ageing and osteoporosis, using engineering methods to study the mechanisms underlying spine disorders and to quantify clinical outcomes. In an email interaction with Higher Education Digest, Prof.

Lee talks about his latest research, the growing popularity of Biomechanics as a career choice, the scope for Indian students in this course and many more. Excerpts.

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98 Prof. Raymond Lee,

A student can return to its original disciplines such as mechanical engineering or computing science if one later finds that biomedical is not one’s preference

Higher Education Digest June 2020

steps that a person take in a period, although this parameter may not be most useful in assessing the influence of physical activity on health.

Exactly, what is the study of biomechanics? Why should some study biomechanics, and what jobs will they get on graduation?

Biomedical engineering is one of the fastestgrowing areas in engineering. The increasing demand for biomedical engineers is linked to society’s general shift towards everyday utilization of technology in all aspects of life.

Biomedical engineering is a diverse field with many career prospects. Apart from health technology and biomechanics in which I am involved, artificial organs, surgical robots, artificial intelligence in health, orthopaedic implants, artificial prosthesis, biomaterials for healthcare using advanced manufacturing technology are other examples of career paths.

Tell us about the programmes offered by the University of Portsmouth (UoP), the UK on biomechanics. What are the scopes for Indian students in these courses?

One may engage in a career in biomedical engineering by doing an undergraduate or postgraduate degree in this area. We offer PhD study in this area at the University of Portsmouth. It will be a good idea if a student pursues an undergraduate degree in one of the parent disciplines from which biomedical engineering has evolved. This includes a degree in mechanical, electrical/electronic, manufacturing engineering, or a degree in computing sciences or data analytics. The University of Portsmouth offers all these degrees, and the student may start to consider the biomedical application in the final year project. I think getting an undergraduate degree in these parent disciplines is an excellent option as this provides broader training and allows the student to be a chartered engineer in one of these disciplines, while at the same time working in the multidisciplinary field of biomedical engineering. For instance, a student may become a chartered mechanical

engineer and work in the field of designing surgical prosthetic implants, or a computer scientist working in artificial intelligence in healthcare. The above arrangement also provides maximal flexibility in career choice.

A student can return to its original disciplines such as mechanical engineering or computing science if one later finds that biomedical is not one’s preference.

How is UoP uniquely positioned to offer Indian students a comprehensive program in Advanced Manufacturing Technology?

Advanced Manufacturing is one of the fastest-growing areas in the University of Portsmouth. We have invested significant physical and human resources in this area and have one of the best 3D printers in the country, housed in an ÂŁ11 million recently opened Future Technology Centre. The Zeiss Global Centre (ZGC) is a strategic collaboration between the School of Mechanical and Design Engineering at the University of Portsmouth and Carl Zeiss Ltd. It is an integral part of the Future Technology Centre and has achieved an international reputation in the research of natural materials, biological structures, biomaterials, and bio-inspired engineering materials using advanced X-ray microscopy.

What is your advice to the students who want to pursue a career in the field of biomechanics?

The Faculty of Technology welcomes applications from Indian students for both our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. We have a wide range of engineering programmes, including mechanical/design, electrical/electronic, civil engineering, mathematics and physics, computer science and data analytics. We also offer January intakes for a number of postgraduate programmes. Students will be able to enjoy industrial placement opportunities as an optional year in the undergraduate programmes, and some of our postgraduate programmes also offer a professional experience element. Such experience will of course enhance their future career opportunities.

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RV COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

DRIVING LIFECHANGING INNOVATIONS 100

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t is evident that these are hard times for the economy and industries in India. Many companies have put their expansion plans on hold as they are uncertain about their near future. That means, the job situation, especially for the fresh graduates, is not favorable today. However, Bangalore based RV College of Engineering (RVCE) has not felt the pinch of this sudden economic slowdown. Instead, a reverse trend has happened at RVCE. “Last year, we had over 210 companies visiting our campus for recruiting our students. Two of our students were offered a salary package of Rs. 53 LPA and another three students got Rs. 49.5 LPA. CISCO alone has taken 50 students for Rs. 30 LPA,� says Dr. K. N. Subramanya, Principal, RV College of Engineering.

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One of the premier engineering colleges in the state of Karnataka, RVCE has always been at the forefront when it comes to providing the best job opportunities for its students. For the academic year 2019-20, the institute has already received over 1452 job offers and the numbers are still counting. Over 90 percent of the students were placed in top firms including Customer Private Limited, Delloite, Kirloskar Oil Engines, Accenture, Adobe Systems India, CISCO and many more. The average packages ranged between Rs. 8-9 LPA. “The number of joboffers has been increasing every

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year and this year there was an increase in the number of companies looking for students who are good at Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning,” pinpoints Dr. Subramanya.

Staying relevant is the mantra adopted by RVCE to remain strong in these tough times. “In 2018, we revised our syllabus by giving more importance to the skillbased learning method. Now, everything is experiencebased learning here. We have also introduced projectbased learning and we are also looking into ICT enabled teaching-learning in many subjects. All the faculty members are now trained in making online content,” shares Dr. Subramanya. The faculty members of RVCE are always ready to learn newer things and deliver it to the students in a better way. “Many of our faculty members are involved in funded projects in the niche areas of IoT, cloud computing, Biotechnology, Robotics, and Mechatronics. This way, their knowledge base has been enhanced. We also send them to a lot of international conferences. Paper presentation is very common for the faculty members here,” adds Dr. Subramanya.

Focusing more research has helped RVCE to file 45 patents and 35 of them have been published. “Around 50 – 60 percent of these patents were undergraduates or postgraduate projects. Basically, the final projects that they would be doing for over six months would be converted into a patent,” explains Dr. Subramanya. At RVCE, the last semester is completely dedicated to do projects and students can do their projects anywhere in the world. “Bangalore in a great place to get some hands-on experience. However, we are not restricting our students to stay in Bangalore to do their projects or internships. Our students have done internships in countries like Sweden and universities like Stanford University,” says Dr. Subramanya.

RVCE prepares its students be competent in the globalized work environment. The results were evident in the recent placements. The institute saw an increasing number of companies from countries like Japan visiting the campus for recruiting their future talent.

Taking it a step ahead, RVCE has signed MoUs with four international universities to have student-faculty exchange programmes. “We have sent our faculty members to countries like Germany and we hosted few students from them in our campus. In next few years, we would like to increase the number of collaborations with international universities,” shares Dr. Subramanya.

On the other side, RVCE has signed MoUs with over 90 companies across the world to help students to get internships and find research and consultancy projects for its faculty members. Dr. Subramanya states, “Many

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Dr. K.N. Subramanya, Principal Dr. K.N. Subramanya had early education in Acharya High School and AES National College-Gauribidanur. Then he pursued B.E in Industrial and Production Engineering from Bangalore University, M.Tech in Industrial Management from IITM-Chennai, MBA from Karnataka State Open UniversityMysuru, with HR specialization (5th Rank) and Ph.D. from Avinashilingam UniversityCoimbatore. He did his Proficiency Courses on ‘Engineering Consultancy Practice and Non-Destructive Testing’ from Indian Institute of Science, NPTEL online Certification course on ‘Educational Leadership’. Has total 28 years of experience in Teaching, Training & Consultancy, Research and Administration. Having Strong communication and presentation skills, effective collaboration & team building capabilities with zeal to adapt to latest technological and leadership concepts & utilize the same in a productive and effective manner for the progress of the institution.

of our faculty members get to do funded projects with the industry. For instance, CISCO has set up a center-ofexcellence in IoT in our campus. They have given Rs. 3 Crores to make it, as IoT has become very popular in the recent past. We have trained over 1500 students across the state in IoT till now.” In association with Mercedes Benz, RVCE have started Postgraduate Diploma course in Mechatronics with an intake of 20 students. The facilities created for this course is also used by Aeronautical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering students.

“We have also set up a center-of-excellence in Computational Genomics in the Biotechnology Department. Here, many funded projects from central government agencies are going on and students are part all the projects. We are planning to make at least two centers-of-excellence in every department,” shares Dr. Subramanya. The research projects undertaken by RVCE faculty members and students are not only futuristic but also help the society. “We have introduced a concept called Design Thinking Lab. All the second-year students will go through these courses of two credits, where they have to identify a problem in the society and make a prototype to solve the issue. We believe that it is an excellent way to learn engineering problems,” explains Dr. Subramanya.

RVCE has already reached out to over 25 villages in the vicinity, helping the villagers to overcome many challenges including infrastructural issues, education, employability and many more. “Last year, AICTE introduced Activity Points, where every engineering student in his four years is supposed to get 100 points by doing something for society. This is being done to help them become successful professionals, which needs excellent soft skills,

entrepreneurial and leadership abilities, team spirit and societal commitment, besides expertise in their chosen fields,” says Dr. Subramanya.

Entrepreneurship is another buzzword at RVCE. In fact, for the past 10 years, the institute has been educating students about entrepreneurship and now they have started getting some results. “Though the society and parents still prefer their kids to have a job first, the younger generation is more interested in incubating their ideas and making them into their own venture once they are out of the campus,” opines Dr. Subramanya. RVCE has created an ecosystem in the campus to learn entrepreneurship.

“There are 5-6 course available for students from the first year. They will learn subjects like Intellectual Property Rights, Management Behavior Science, Cost Economics, Systems Engineering and many more,” adds Dr. Subramanya. RVCE also has an Entrepreneurship Development Cell with over 200 students as members of it. Dr. Subramanya shares, “Two years back, we started an Incubation Center on the campus. We have incubated over 10 companies till now and seven of them are run by our students. Apart from funding, we have tied up with over 15 companies to give the guidance and support needed for our student entrepreneurs,” shares Dr. Subramanya.

Today, with an alumni network of over 30, 000 professional working across the world, RVCE is set to become a private university in the coming few years. The institute has many ambitious plans. “We would be working on international placements and our collaborations with global universities. Setting up of a few more major centers-of-excellences are also in pipeline,” concludes Dr. Subramanya.

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ACADEMIC VIEW

How to Educate the Future Generation?

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Nidhi Bansal, Pro-Vice Chairperson, Pacific World School

● What is the purpose of school in this era of technology?

School systems are challenged by today’s dynamic world with new and complicated problems such as information explosion which is illustrated by the fact that the amount of information doubles every year. But yes, undoubtedly, technology plays an important role in every sphere of life.

Especially, if we see that instant connectivity has branched out from merely a tool of personal communication to a platform for educational instruction and outreach. Schools play a vital role in this era as they help students develop perspective and enable them to use this overflow of information judiciously. ● What is the changing role of the teacher, and how do we support that new role?

Teachers and mentors play a vital role in the passage of time and the integration of technology in this digital era. The education system is constantly being challenged to offer better education to more people, at the same time as technological development continually opens up new possibilities and methods of learning. Nowadays, teachers are expected to become technologically oriented and responsible not only for their teaching but also for their students’ learning. Teachers need to meet the standards of the curriculum while enhancing students’ creativity,

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The need in today’s time is to impart education which is practically oriented rather than being mere textbook or cognitive learningoriented

Nidhi Bansal

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Nidhi Bansal is the Pro-Vice Chairperson of Pacific World School. Graduated as a Psychology Hons student from Delhi University and MBA in Human Resources from Central Queensland university, Australia, Nidhi polished her qualifications and developed a sharp eye to hire the best talent for her institute. She brings with her years of rich corporate experience in international firms in India and abroad. Nidhi started Pacific World school in 2018, and in just 2 years the school is rated number one in its vicinity. “Learn to adapt, adapt to learn,” is the motto Nidhi lives by. Blessed with the opportunity to travel across the globe right from childhood, her school education has been in various Indian and international boards, from American International schools, to public schools to Kendriya Vidyalaya. In an exclusive interaction with the Higher Education Digest, Nidhi Bansal talks about changing role of teachers, use of technologies in today’s education, learning that happens outside the classroom and many more.

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The education system is constantly being challenged to offer better education to more people, at the same time as technological development continually opens new possibilities and methods of learning

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Nidhi Bansal

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curiosity and motivation. We at Pacific World School have a strong focus on fostering creativity and customization of learning objectives and outcomes to suit individual needs. ● How do we help students discover their passions?

Of all the gifts students receive from education, passion is the greatest. For teachers, passion offers one of our most effective teaching strategies for engaging students. Discovering students’ passion is not easy. In fact, it often takes years of struggle and hard work to figure out what truly brings them joy. Also, when we’re given opportunities to explore our interests and talents at a young age, it’s usually much easier to choose a career that makes us happy. As a teacher, we can tap students’ strengths and encourage their curiosity, which may guide them towards more fulfilling and content lives. Also, teachers need to create more time with students as more time with them would mean better understanding and early recognition of their passion and interests in various fields. ● How do we adapt our curriculum to the technologies that kids are already using?

With the rapid advancement of technology, the entire system of learning has changed where teachers need to meet the standards of the curriculum while enhancing students’ creativity, curiosity and motivation. This adaptation has changed the classes to learner-based that requires a metamorphosis of educators into technologists. So if they want to achieve institutional success as well as students’ success, they need to embrace technology. ● Since there are numerous sources available to gain knowledge, how do we change policy to support more flexible time and place learning?

We must look at the education systems of the developed nations and how they are maintaining the balance. The need in today’s time is to impart education which is practically oriented rather than being mere textbook or cognitive learningoriented. Policies should make it mandatory that a certain percentage of school education should have a practical component which would help

students become educated instead of just being literate. ● What are the essential practices of teachers in a system where students are learning outside of school?

Learning experiences outside the classroom are much integrally multidisciplinary as field experience is very important for the students because it helps to become more determined and motivated to pursue a particular career.

Moreover, schooling and education have become more integrally natural and learner-oriented while shifting from the boundaries of the classroom into the real world. After the collaborative learning environment that impacts to develop the creative and sole relationships outside the classroom to put them to the deep learning environment, it happens when students take into the real world of practice.

Whatever students theorize in the classroom is totally different from what they learn on the field. ● How do we ensure those without privilege have equal access to quality education and opportunity?

Many schools run separate classrooms for the lesser privileged kids from the neighborhoods and this model can be followed under the CSR activities of a school. If good schools take over the responsibility, then we can ensure that the same quality education can be imparted to all strata of society. ● How do we evaluate and validate the informal, self-directed learning that happens outside of school?

Nowadays, learning has become more selfdirected, informal and open. With the rapid advancement of technology, education has also changed its path. Now learners approach different ways to get information without any barriers of time and place. Also due to technology and its benefits informal and self-directed learning is increasing outside the school. It is also imperative to evaluate the learning objectives, hurdles that arise in the path of getting self-learning, success factor when acquiring an online education for informal and self-directed education. In general, there is no efficient way to evaluate informal training outside the school other than by checking practical skills in a particular field of study.

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SAANVI DEGREE COLLEGE FOR WOMEN

IMPARTING KNOWLEDGE THE UNCONVENTIONAL WAY 108

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aving the largest number of youths in the world, India is producing graduates in huge numbers. However, when it comes to the skills required by the industry, there is a lot to improve. The reason for this mismatch is inadequate preparedness, and industryacademia connect. The lack of understanding about the requirements in the job market and faculty members not being exposed to the industry is where we fall behind.

Currently witnessing the fourth industrial revolution, i.e., Industry 4.0, the world is focusing on creating smart factories, smart industries, and smart manufacturing. Forcing traditional manufacturing processes to go through a digital transformation, Industry 4.0 is giving rise to a digital production system with

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intelligence. The massive transformation in the industry has changed the way companies approach recruitment and skill set requirement of their employees.

An ongoing endeavour, The Saanvi Degree College for Women, is giving its 100% when it comes to making their students ready for the industry. “Through campus recruitment training, campus placements, lectures by external speakers and industry experts, we are keeping our students aware of the industry’s requirements. We are encouraging them to know more about the companies and industry through

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researching”, says J Venkat Reddy, Chairman of Saanvi Degree College.

Established in 2013, Saanvi Degree College for Women aims to prepare young women to excel in all fields, be it academics, entrepreneurship, and higher studies. The institute has grown and has established itself as one of the preferred degree colleges for women in Hyderabad. With its relentless pursuit towards their goals, exposure to the job market and industry and excellent infrastructure, Saanvi Degree College for Women is all set to become the go-to college for women who aspire to achieve educational excellence.

The importance of forming industry collaborations can’t be underemphasized. All educational institutes ensure that their students are well placed in the industry and make a mark for themselves in society. Hence partnerships with the industry are essential to get the students placed in the industry they wish to work in. “Our collaborations with the industry are not just for the internships and jobs, it is also for the corporate exposure and all-round development of our students”, adds Mr Venkat Reddy.

Stepping into the Future Industry Completely invested in their student’s future, Saanvi Degree College has associations with companies like Titan Group of Industries, Shriram Group of Companies, Karvy, Decathlon, QConnect, GE-Genpact, Accenture, Google, Wells Fargo, and Friendly IT Consultants. Mr Venkat Reddy points out, “Our Institute holds a record of 90% Campus Placements, with key recruiters being the Titan Group, QConnect, Karvy, Accenture, Decathlon, Google, HSBC, GE, Genpact, TCS, Wells Fargo, Amazon, ICICI and many more.”

The students at the Saanvi Degree College are encouraged to be creative by challenging status-quo. They are given challenging situations related to self, family, society, and the nation, on which

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Dr. Mounika Reddy, Principal

J Venkat Reddy, Chairman they can share their thoughts. Through internal and external motivation, the students are stimulated to work hard and focus on their studies. “Our students go through a serious of motivational lectures, discussions and videos to set their aim high, challenge their circumstances and achieve their goals. They also get a chance to share their experiences and learn from each other”, Says Dr. Mounika Reddy, Principal, The Saanvi Degree College for Women. .

The institute also provides a platform for the students to motivate and encourage them to come up with their business ideas and boost their morale and help them explore the concept of entrepreneurship. Holding various workshops refining their entrepreneurial skills, the students have an inspiring example in their college itself, Dr Mounika Reddy, Principal/Director of The Saanvi College. Many of the students have been successful in entrepreneurship and are part of their family business.

Saanvi College is all set to face the industry by setting up plans for the future. Training the students in niche skills, the college is planning to expand their scope, strengthen their excellent efforts and have more industry collaborations to help their students and the institution as well. The Saanvi College takes pride in their discipline, academic performance, campus placements and all-round development of its individuals.

Achieving academic excellence and industry readiness, the students of Saanvi College get a chance to learn lessons for life and not just lessons provided during their course. “We make our students confident, successful and responsible citizens of India by honing their communication skills, interpersonal skills and assertive behaviour”, concludes Dr. Mounika Reddy, who has received ‘WOMEN ENTREPRENEUR AWARD’ from ILDC & AMP. .

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INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

Swiss Model of Experiential Learning in Hospitality Education Georgette Davey, Managing Director, Glion Institute of Higher Education

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hether it is globally or within the Indian service sector, the tourism and hospitality industry remain among the largest industries. Indeed, it is one of the industries that has been getting the hardest hit from the current pandemic situation due to its size and the lockdown measures implemented worldwide. The current situation will change the future of hospitality, but this sector has been constantly growing for over 30 years at a rate of three to five percent per year and today weights 10.4% of global GDP, 4% of worldwide investment and represents 330 Million Jobs. It will be a driving force of the economy recovery. After previous crisis such as 9/11 or the Great Recession in 2008, history tells us it is one of the most resilient sectors.

India was ranked 34th in the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2019 published by the World Economic Forum (WEF), and 3rd in Travel & Tourism’s total contribution to GDP in 2018 according to the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). With the diverse tourism portfolio of India: adventure, wellness, eco-tourism, religious tourism, and many more, India has grown the interest of international travelers.

The increasing variety in travelers type requires the future hospitality leaders to learn from international institutions which offer a globallyfocused curriculum and opportunities to gain experience abroad.

According to the WEF’s Global Competitiveness Index (2019), Switzerland ranked first in education as a result of its capability to attract talents from abroad due to its dual educational and vocational

Higher Education Digest June 2020

To equip students with the skills and experience required to actively shape the future, it is also critical for them to learn from individuals working in the industry

113 Georgette Davey

Georgette Davey brings over 25 years of experience in academic leadership and hospitality management. She began her career in education as a professor at University College Suffolk, where she spent eight years delivering courses in hospitality, leisure and tourism. In 2001, Davey joined the faculty of Les Roches Global Hospitality Education, Glion’s sister school, teaching human resource management. She was also instrumental in developing curricula for the Les Roches Jin Jiang branch campus in Shanghai, China. She holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Education from University of East Anglia and a Postgraduate Diploma in International Hospitality Management from Sheffield Hallam University.

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training system, combining theory and hands on practice. India has created an important and well-prepared workforce in the service area through its vocational education. However, with the globalization in today’s world, graduates will also need to get international exposure by either studying abroad or gaining international work experience to move forward with their career.

With the growth and skills gap in the Indian hospitality industry, it is also beneficial to include an academic and managerial side to the educational curriculum.

Glion Institute of Higher Education is part of Sommet Education, a unique education group specialized in hospitality management and the culinary arts, committed to delivering an exceptional student experience and developing future talent for the experience industry. We offer Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Hospitality, Luxury and Finance to an international student body across three campuses in Switzerland and the United Kingdom, with the opportunity for our students to spend part of their studies in one of our sister institutions: Les Roches, with campuses in Switzerland, Spain, China, or Ecole Ducasse, our culinary and pastry schools in France. One of the latest additions to our portfolio of programs is the Master’s in Luxury Management and Guest Experience taught since 2018 by Dr Nicoletta Giusti, Clinical Professor and Director of the MSc in Luxury Management and Guest Experience, which follows the specialization in Luxury Brand Management launched in 2015 and being the first specialization of its kind to be offered by a hospitality management school.

Our educational approach is based on the Swiss educational system which includes both theory and practice. As a successful hospitality leader needs to understand all sides of the business, we require all our students to complete a practical arts curriculum featuring immersion in key hospitality divisions, such as kitchen, service and housekeeping. During their program, our students also follow business related courses such as business development and strategy, management of food and beverage, or corporate finance. This

Higher Education Digest June 2020

method enables students to develop essential soft skills, such as communication, teamwork and leadership, as well as hospitality operations know-how. With the skillsets developed during their studies, our graduates not only become our indirect ambassadors but also greatly contribute to the industry.

I would like to mention, Amit Bhosale, the Managing Director of the realty major ABIL Group and part of Hotelier India’s Power List 2019. Success of our alumni is what means success for us.

To equip students with the skills and experience required to actively shape the future, it is also critical for them to learn from individuals working in the industry.

During the Bachelor and Master programs, students spend at least six months working in a company to build practical skills and have a better understanding of the workforce.

These internships are the best opportunities for students to apply their practical skills and academic knowledge.

During these unique circumstances, we have implemented an exceptional training called “Leading Hospitality Through Turbulent Times”, with great insights on three major topics: Global Trends & Economic and Financial Impact, Strategies & Tactics, and Organizations, Leadership & Careers. This is an opportunity for our students to understand how to face crisis situations such as this one in order to be better prepared for their future careers.

We have been seeing a growing number of Indian students in Glion Institute of Higher Education due to an increasing interest in the more traditional European hospitality practices and the branding of luxury hotels. The opportunity for students to grow and become the hospitality leaders of tomorrow is limitless with our 3 campuses in Switzerland and the United Kingdom, combined with the possibility to study at one of our sister schools, Les Roches or Ecole Ducasse. Indeed, with 98% of our job-seeking students having one or more employment offers upon graduation, we make sure our students get the best opportunities to start their careers.

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