The Rhodes Scholarships, named after Cecil John Rhodes, is an international postgraduate award for selected foreign students to study at the University of Oxford. It is widely regarded as “the most prestigious scholarship” in the world.  Established in 1902, it was the first large-scale programme of international scholarships.

Rhodes Scholars may study any full-time postgraduate course offered by the university, whether a taught master’s programme, a research degree, or a second undergraduate degree (senior status). In the first instance, the scholarship is awarded for two years. However, it may also be held for one year or three years. Applications for a third year are considered during the course of the second year.

Each scholarship covers all University and College fees, a personal monthly stipend to cover accommodation and living expenses and one economy class airfare to Oxford at the start of the scholarship as well as an economy flight back to the student’s home country at the conclusion of the scholarship.

The following diagram illustrates the application procedures for Rhodes Scholarships India Programme

Some of the Rhodes Scholars from India:

• Mr Girish Karnard, Playwright, Film Director and Screenwriter;
• Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Indian Economist, First Independent evaluator of IMF; former Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Government of India;
• Ms Sagarika Ghose, Indian Journalist, news anchor and author.

Just in case you are not already aware, both former President of United States of America (Mr Bill Clinton) and the Republican Presidential aspirant (Mr Bobby Jindal) are Rhodes Scholars.

Students wanting to join the impressive list of Rhodes Scholars would be keen to take advantage of The Rhodes Scholarships 2016, should they find suitable courses at University of Oxford.  As you will see from the Diagram, the closing date to submit application form is 31 July 2015.

Wish you good luck.

ONLINE PORTAL FROM IITs and IISc ON THE LINES OF MOOCs

Courses are  offered through an Online course Portal launched by IITs and IISc.  This is an initiative of  National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning.

NPTEL is the joint initiative of :

• IIT, Bombay
• IIT, Delhi
• IIT, Guwahati
• IIT, Kanpur
• IIT, Kharagpur
• IIT, Madras
• IIT, Roorkee
• Indian Institute of Science (IISc)

https://onlinecourses.nptel.ac.in

Visit the above link and click on a course name to see more details about it.  You will need to log in to register for any course. After the registration you will be able to see the course contents as and when they are made available by the Course instructors.

As you will see, the courses are delivered by experienced and reputed academics.

The courses are free for anyone with access to the Internet.  Besides taking advantage of the courses, it is possible to obtain a Certificate, as well,  by paying a nominal fee.

Incidentally, this kind of opportunity never existed until a year ago.

Some of the forthcoming courses are:

• Computer science;
• Aerospace Engineering;
• Electrical Engineering;
• Metallurgical Engineering and
• Management sciences.

Examination for these courses is scheduled to be held in September and November 2015.

Post School education  Please visit the link to read the Post. Thanks.

The ultimate public transportation mobile application for commuters in Chennai

Most of the IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) graduates (if not all) proceed to USA for higher studies and job, as USA is a land of opportunities.

But we must congratulate and thank the three IIT Graduates, namely (i) Mr Siddharth Krishnaswamy, (ii) Mr Akilesh Koppineni and (iii) Mr Krishna Chaitanya who decided to team up to have a start-up with a view to showcasing their love for the City of Chennai. .

Thus, we the Chennai residents should be more grateful to these Graduates, as their dream project is benefitting us in a big way.   Raft – A public transport mobile application, which launched recently, is the outcome of their hard work out of an office space at the IIT Madras Research Park.  The app has more than 50,000+ downloads already.   The App gives the user the best routes to take between any two points in the city, using up-to-date timings of buses and trains

Covers all modes of public transportation options including MTC buses, Local trains, MRTS.  For now, the three are waiting for the Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) to start operations.  If we go by the news item recently on TV Channels, the Chennai Metro rail is scheduled to start its operations in Chennai on 10 July 2015 and thus the Raft will be updated to include Metro rail timings, as well.

According to the Graduates, efforts are on to branch out to other cities. We wish them a huge success with their efforts.

It was unfortunate that IIT-M (Indian Institute of Technology, Madras) was in the news in connection with Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle – the student body that was suspended on 22 May 2015.  Fortunately, the problem is sorted out with IIT-M lifting the ban on 8 June 2015.  However, there was a lot of tension, anxiety which I am sure would have affected to a certain extent the academic and research activities at IIT-M.  I personally feel Politicians should keep themselves off from academic institutions in general and premier institutions like IIT in particular and allow them to continue to carry out their teaching and research activities without any hindrance.  At least in future, let the Politicians leave it to the Institution and students themselves to sort out the differences, if any.

The outcome of the dream project by the three IITM Graduates is a classic example of the transfer of their knowledge leading to the mobile application, which is hugely benefitting the commuters in Chennai.

National Health Service (NHS) Surcharge introduced

Life is becoming increasingly difficult for applicants intending to apply for UK visas.  Effective from 6 April 2015, there is yet another step before applying for Visas.  That is all applicants from countries outside of the European Union now need to pre-pay for National Health Service (NHS) charges before they submit their visa application.

You will have to pay:

• Pounds 150 per year as a student
• Pounds 200 per year for all other visa and immigration applications

If you have any dependents, they will usually need to pay the same amount as you.  The exact amount you have to pay depends on how much leave you are granted.  For more details, please visit  The UK Government immigration healthcare pages .

Applicants must pay the surcharge for themselves and any dependents before they submit their visa application (or book an appointment at a public enquiry office). Applicants must register and pay online.

Biometric Residence Permits (BPRs)
Successful applicants for a visa to enter the UK for more than six months will receive a Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) upon arrival in the UK.  They will be issued with a vignette in their Passport which is valid for 30 days from the date they indicate as their intended travel date in their visa application.  The vignette is proof only of the student’s permission to enter the UK and will allow them to travel to the UK.

Students then need to collect the BRP on arrival in the UK.  The BRP is proof of the holder’s right to stay, work or study in the UK.

Full details can be found in the Home Office overseas BRP leaflet (PDF 498 KB)

Applicants are strongly advised to visit the website UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) for the most up-to-date visa rules  before they make a visa application.

If not all, some of us are aware that the UK Government does not have a ranking system for its Universities. If this is the case, then one wonders what are these ranking tables published by Guardian, Times, etc.

I thought Prospective students and Parents, who are not already aware  would appreciate this Post, which illustrates what (i) the UK Government’s stand on ranking system and  (ii) ranking tables published by Independent agencies, such as Guardian, Times, etc. especially at a time when  the Guardian has published recently its University Guide 2016.

Quality Assurance Agency (QAA):

The UK has a well-deserved reputation world-wide for providing high quality and well-respected higher education. There are well over 100 institutions in the UK that are permitted to award a wide variety of degrees to suit most educational aspirations.  All those institutions have degree awarding powers recognised by the UK authorities (UK and Scottish Parliament, Welsh and Northern Ireland Assemblies).

In addition to institutions awarding degrees, there are also several hundred colleges and other institutions which do not have degree-awarding powers but who provide complete courses leading to recognised UK degrees. Courses at these institutions are validated by institutions which have degree awarding powers.

However, universities and their courses are independently assessed by QAA (Quality Assurance Agency). These reviews contain judgements on whether standards, quality and the information an institution provides about itself have met UK expectations and the reviews can be found on the QAA website.

The UK authorities recognise those institutions which have been granted degree-awarding powers by a Royal Charter, Act of Parliament or the Privy Council.  These are known as ‘recognised bodies’. All UK universities and some higher education colleges are recognised bodies. Other institutions, which do not have the power to award their own degrees, may provide full courses which lead to a degree of a recognised body. These are known as ‘listed bodies’.

Source: https://www.gov.uk/recognised-uk-degrees

Published Rankings:

Guardian University Guide 2016

http://www.theguardian.com/education/datablog/2015/may/26/guardian-university-guide-2016-download-full-tables

This Guide includes an Overall Ranking of Universities and 53 Tables for each subject area.

According to Wikipedia, three national rankings of universities in the United Kingdom are published annually – by The Complete University Guide, The Guardian and jointly by The Times and The Sunday Times. Rankings have also been produced in the past by The Daily Telegraph and the Financial Times.

The primary aim of the rankings is to inform potential undergraduate applicants about UK universities based on a range of criteria, including entry standards, student satisfaction, staff/student ratio, academic services and facilities expenditure per student, research quality, proportion of Firsts and 2:1s, completion rates and student destinations. All of the league tables also rank universities on their strength in individual subjects. There is loads of advice for students thinking of going to university on the Guardian Students site.

The tables have been compiled for the Guardian by Intelligent Metrix, an independent consultancy that specialises in measuring performance in higher education. The rankings are based on official data collected by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (Hesa) and on the National Student Survey, published by Hefce.

Prospective students – Good luck with finding your perfect course.

Students intending to study in the United Kingdom would be interested to know the London Campuses of UK Universities.

According to www.qaa.ac.uk most of the London Campuses were established between 2009 and 2014.  The main reason to establish them in London was to increase the recruitment of international students who would be more attracted to London than to the home campus.

The London campuses offer mainly postgraduate programmes in business, management, accountancy, tourism, law and computing with two offering PhD opportunities.

The 13 universities that have London campuses are listed below:

1. Anglia Ruskin University
2. Bangor University
3. Coventry University
4. University of Cumbria
5. University of East Anglia
6. Glasgow Caledonian University
7. Glyndŵr University
8. University of Liverpool
9. Northumbria University
10. University of South Wales
11. University of Sunderland
12. University of Ulster
13. University of Wales Trinity Saint David

More recently, there have been proposals to develop courses in public health, architecture, forensic psychology and Irish studies.

People at large expect plain insurance policies, plain tax forms, and plain health information.  Besides, there is a strong need for plain legal language to understand the Judgements from different courts, be it Trial Courts, High Court or Supreme Court which are running to hundreds and thousands of pages with a lot of Legal Jargons, etc.  The mammoth discussion papers and reports from Government Departments, Committees, Advisory Panels, etc.  make citizens’ life difficult, as the Reports are running to several hundred  pages.  It is really putting off even educated people, let alone ordinary citizen.  With the result, there is little feedback or comments from the people for whom these documents are written.

Why can’t various Laws, Judgements, Government Reports, etc., be brief, simple and in Plain English.

I am not sure if the Law Schools, as part of their Curriculum, teach Plain English or Plain Legal language.  I remember some years ago, the British Council in Chennai facilitated discussion and training on Plain English aimed at Legal community.

I am sure Plain English Campaign is already existing.  I wonder if Lawyers together with likeminded colleagues who are in discussion groups in various Social networks could take the Plain English Campaign to its logical end and ensure that the Law students at various law colleges and law schools are taught Plain legal language so that at least future generation will be dealing with simple, brief reports and judgements.  I hope Lawyers would not reject this suggestion saying that Plain Language is impossible because the law deals with complicated ideas that require a greater precision, which I think is a myth.

Like the Consumer movement, I think the Plain English Campaign should gain force.

I read recently, New Zealand, in some ways, has led the world in bringing the law closer to the ordinary citizen.

Are you intending to study Medicine/Dentistry at any of the UKCAT Universities for entry in 2016 then you should be aware of UKCAT, its format, Registration and how to prepare for the Test, etc.

The UK Clinical Aptitude Test (UKCAT) is used in the selection process by a consortium of UK University Medical and Dental Schools. The test helps universities to make more informed choices from amongst the many highly-qualified applicants who apply for their medical and dental degree programmes.

The 2015 UKCAT can be taken between 1 July 2015 and 6 October  2015.  Prospective students are strongly recommended to register and sit the UKCAT at their earliest convenience to ensure places are available at a local centre. (see elsewhere for Test Centre locations and Test Centre Locator).

Prospective candidates can check http://t.co/7SFhg66UUF to see if they are eligible for a Bursary to cover the full cost of their test.

Test Centre Locations

Candidates from the following countries must take the UKCAT.  Use the Test Centre Locator to find your nearest centre.

Source: http://www.ukcat.ac.uk/

Only a few weeks ago we came across a news item about an Indian origin girl (Ms Pooja Chandrasekar) making history at the age of 17 by receiving University admission offers from 14 top US Universities, including 8 Ivy League universities with her academic and non-academic achievements.

We heard a couple of weeks ago yet another news that a student from Mumbai (Ms Bhavi Jagatia) at the age of 17 made another history by  securing Cornell University (Ivy League University) admission with a Scholarship worth Rs 2 Crore [0.315 Million US Dollars]  Congratulations from all of us to Ms Jagatia. Ms Jagatia will use this scholarship to study Aerospace engineering programme  to pursue her dream of becoming an Astronaut.  Once at Cornell, she has no dearth of grown-up role models, including the likes of Indian-American Astronauts Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams.

Both these achievements, I am sure, will motivate a lot of other students wanting to be star performers.