AMU opens centre for interfaith understanding

 To mark the bicentenary celebrations of the birth of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan in 2017, Aligarh Muslim University has opened Centre for Interfaith Understanding to foster a culture of liberal views and tolerance. The centre was inaugurated on Republic Day at Sir Syed Academy in the university.

Addressing the guests, vice-chancellor Lt Gen (Retd) Zameer Uddin Shah said that this was a step in the right direction towards fulfill Sir Syed's dream of making society more tolerant and liberal. "AMU should take the initiative to promote interfaith dialogue. This centre will examine the commonality of all religion to encourage understanding between all major religions," Shah said.

On the occasion, suggestions from AMU alumni and teachers were taken on activities at the centre and how it could evolve over time. The people present gave their views on having literature from all religions, teaching a Sufi course, reciting works of Kabir and Tulsidas as well as inviting people from all faiths to deliver lectures and papers.

Delivering a lecture on the need for the inter-faith centre, Masoodul Hasan, former chairman of the department of English said, "Sir Syed Ahmad Khan believed in having an ethical and pragmatic approach, and one of the main pursuits of his was to bring together distanced communities, respecting tenets of each other's faiths." He pointed out that Khan wrote Tab'eenul Kalam, an important work on comparative religion in the post-1857 era.

Abid Raza Bedar, former director, Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library, Patna said the best way to celebrate the birth bicentenary of the AMU founder is to have a centre for creating interfaith understanding among Indian religions. "This is the beginning. A platform has been created and it will mature with the passage of time," said Rahat Abrar, PRO of the university

UGC asks varsities to observe January 30 as 'Martyrs Day'

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has instructed varsities to observe Saturday (January 30) as "Martyrs Day" and to give due solemnity to the day, instructions have been given to observe two minutes silence and remember the martyrs.

In a letter written by UGC secretary, Jaspal S Sandhu to all vice-chancellors, directions have been given to the varsities to follow ministry of home affairs instructions to observe "Martyrs day" in memory of those who gave their lives in the struggle of India's freedom.

It is learnt that the instructions have been given to observe silence and work should be stopped for two minutes at 11 am, and wherever available the commencement and termination of two minutes silence period should be indicated by the sound of a siren or Army guns. It has also been instructed that sirens should be sounded from 10.59 am till 11.00 am, and after two minutes, all clear sirens should again be sounded from 11.02 am till 11.03 am.

On hearing the signal people must stand up and observe silence, to give utmost respect to the brave men who sacrificed their lives for the country.

Set up counselling system for students: UGC to universities

UGC has written to all universities to put in place a "student counselling system" for redressal of problems and challenges faced by students in the backdrop of massive outrage over the suicide by a dalit research scholar in Hyderabad University.


This system should be interactive and target-oriented, involving students, teachers and parents to address common student concerns ranging from anxiety, stress, fear of change and failure to homesickness and other academic worries, UGC secretary Jaspal Singh Sandhu said in a letter to vice-chancellors of all universities.


Referring to UGC guidelines on safety of students on and off campuses, he said that according to them all higher education institutions have to "mandatorily" put in place a broad-based "student counselling system".


These guidelines he said have already been communicated to universities last year, he said.

The UGC letter said that the counselling system should bridge formal as well as communicative gaps between the students and the institution at large.

IGNOU OPENMAT 2016: Download the admit cards

The admit cards for IGNOU (Indira Gandhi National Open University) OPENMAT have been released and the candidates who have registered for the same can download them from the official website. The exam is scheduled to be conducted on February 7. The cards will also be available at the nearest Common Service Centre (CSC) on the payment of Rs 5.

Steps to download the admit card

• Log on to the official website www.ignou.ac.in
• Click on the link 'OPENMAT XXXIX Admit Card 2016'
• Enter the enrollment number and date of birth and click on submit
• The IGNOU OPENMAT XXXIX admit card  will be displayed on the screen
• Download the same and take a print out for further reference

Syllabus

The OPENMAT will test your ability in the following fields:

• General Awareness
• English Language
• Quantitative Aptitude
• Reasoning

Exam pattern

The duration of the exam will be three hours. There will be a total 200 multiple choice questions, divided into four sections.

• General Awareness: 30 Questions
• English Language: 50 Questions
• Quantitative Aptitude: 50 Questions
• Reasoning: 70 Questions

For every correct answer, one mark will be awarded and no negative marking will be done for wrong answers. Exam is in test booklet format with 200 multiple choice questions and a specifically designed OMR response sheet. The cut-off mark for OPOENMAT is decided by IGNOU. However, the minimum marks required to get admission to the management programmes offered by IGNOU, is 60 to 70 per cent.

Delhi: 130 students get selected in placement drive held at IGNOU

As many as 130 students were selected in a placement drive conducted by the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) at Maidan Garhi in south Delhi on Friday.

Around 600 candidates were interviewed by companies such as British Telecom (BT), Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services, HDFC Argo, CYIENT among others.

Expressing happiness after getting selected by British Telecom, Chanchal Sharma, an IGNOU student, said that more such initiatives should be taken by all the institutes that offer distance learning courses.

Addressing students before the drive, IGNOU VC Prof Nageshwar Rao stressed upon the importance of self-confidence and multi-skilling for candidates to be able to grab good job offers. He further informed students that such drives will be continued in the coming months.

Campus Placement Drive with British Telecom on 29.01.2016 at IGNOU Campus

These are the countries where it's most expensive to go to university

Testing authority planned on lines of SAT, GRE

HRD ministry is going to the Cabinet with its proposal to set up National Authority for Testing (NAT). To be established as a society, NTA will be a lean body and conduct aptitude test for class IX, X, XI, XII students.

NAT will consult top experts of psychometrics, both in India and abroad and will even take help of Educational Testing Service that conducts tests like SAT and GRE. For the first few years, NAT will be fully funded by the government but eventually the idea is to make it financially autonomous. "We expect that apart from conducting aptitude tests that will help IITs in filtering students for Joint Entrance Examination, NAT in future will be able to conduct similar tests parallel to other entrance examinations," one official said. "We hope that in future aptitude test score will become mandatory for admission across streams, be it engineering or humanities," he said.

HRD ministry is hopeful that Cabinet clearance will be in place so that NAT tests are conducted at least twice in the first year (likely to be 2017) in order to shortlist 4 lakh students who can appear for JEE. After the first year, NTA will conduct aptitude test four times each year. The tests will be designed to judge the scientific and innovative thinking of candidates and cannot be gamed through coaching. JEE, on the lines of the current JEE (Advanced), will test the students on their knowledge of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. From JEE, ranks will be issued to 40,000-plus students who can seek admission in IITs and NITs based on common counselling.

Explaining the reason behind aptitude test from class IX, one official said, "It will help assess the child correctly. It will also give a better insight into strength of a child so that he can direct his energy in that direction rather than unnecessarily stressing himself for admission to engineering courses."

Hall Ticket for Practical Examination, January 2016

Please Download your Practical Examination Hall Ticket from the Following Link:

http://www.7techies.com/rcdelhi1/practical/hallticket.aspx


Best Wishes

Naveen Raj Bhatia

IGNOU SC-0742 (D)

University of the People opens doors to Indian students

CHENNAI: University of the People, which claims to be the world's first non-profit, tuition-free, accredited American online university, has said it is dedicated to opening access to higher education globally. 

In an official statement, the university said it has opened its doors to Indian students, offering tuition-free, accredited online associate and bachelor degree programs in business administration and computer science. It is currently in the process of developing new health science and MBA degrees. 

The university has enrolled students from over 170 countries, including India. The university has partnered with New York University (NYU), Yale Law School, and supported by the likes of Microsoft, Intel, and HP.

For details, visit www.uopeople.edu. 

IGNOU organised one day seminar on best practices in ODL at IGNOU

The Inter-University Consortium (IUC) of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) organized one day seminar on “Best Practices in ODL at IGNOU” at the convention hall on 4th January 2016. The Inauguration of the workshop was done by Prof. Nageshwar Rao, Vice Chancellor IGNOU. The Chief Guest for the Workshop was Prof. Kailash Sodani, Vice Chancellor, Maharshi Dayanand Saraswati University, Ajmer, Rajasthan.

Director IUC Prof. Gayatri Kansal and Prof. S.C. Garg of IGNOU were also present at the inaugural session. Delivering the welcome address Prof. Kansal elaborated on the need of best practices in ODL system of IGNOU.