Gujarat University to offer aviation course

If you are a commerce or arts student, and still aspire to fly an airplane, your dream may take wings soon. Gujarat University (GU) plans to collaborate with an aviation university to allow interested students - irrespective of the streams, to pursue their dream career.
GU is all set to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Electrotherm's Indus University - so far the only university in the state offering courses in commercial pilot license and aviation maintenance. The MoU will be signed during Vibrant Gujarat 2013.

The MoU will also mark GU's launch of the 'multivarsity' concept, where students will be able to pursue multidisciplinary courses from various colleges at the same time. The concept is based on the virtual university model, which will make higher education accessible in remote villages.

Arvind Bhandari, registrar, Gujarat University, said, "We are considering the proposal of students being offered aviation as a part of their curriculum. It will be a multidisciplinary course on the choice-based credit system. The MoU will be signed during Vibrant Gujarat.

" As part of the MoU, students from non-science streams will be offered a bridge course before pursuing the aviation program.

D P Giridhar, vice-chancellor, Indus University, said, "Students of Gujarat University will get a chance to expand their opportunities through our course. We have submitted an expression of interest and are in the initial stages of discussions." The universities are likely to issue joint degrees for the course.

Jagat Shah, advisor to Udisha project of commissioner of higher education, department of education, Government of Gujarat, is coordinating the MoU. "The MoU will be signed in front of an actual aircraft out on display at the education hall during Vibrant Gujarat," he said. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Government of India's requirement is a science background in order to pursue a career in aviation but with this course, students from other streams can pursue a career in flying. The initiative of launching the multivarsity is expected to boost employment and focus on skill-based courses from the next academic year. The multivarsity model will be an open higher education model that will have a virtual entity with a complete back office. It

will be linked to the National Knowledge Network associated with seven national programmes of education. Halls of Culture and Training (HCT) will also be set up across the state.

Knowledge-hungry Gujarat to join hands with 77 varsities

Close to 77 universities from 25 countries will visit Gujarat to forge strategic partnerships with universities in the state. The universities will meet at the International Conference for Academic Institutions 2013, as part of the Vibrant Gujarat Investors' Summit, to promote research activities, faculty and student exchange, knowledge exchange and capacity building of the universities.
Home to globally-renowned educational institutes like Indian Institute of Management, Indian Institute of Technology and National Institute of Design, Gujarat will draw global universities in January.

University of London, Harvard Kennedy School, University of South Australia, University of Toronto, University of British Columbia, Association of African Universities, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, University of Glasgow, University of Houston, University of South Carolina, George Washington University, University of Wollongong, University of Liverpool, Royal University of Bhutan, among others will visit the state for various initiatives.

Dr Vedant Pandya, director (research and innovation), Knowledge Consortium of Gujarat, said, "Besides exchange of knowledge, the conference will focus on making graduates in Gujarat job eligible and employable in the industry. The interaction with foreign universities will open up doors of skill development, internships, exchange of teaching and learning material and research among other possibilities."

The Gujarat government has put preparation for the upcoming business summit on a fast track. The conference will be held on January 9 and 10, 2013.

According to officials, the conference will focus more on sharing of ideas, promotion of innovation and research as compared to earlier summits, which focused on generating investments.

About 50 educational collaborations were announced during the Vibrant Gujarat summit held in 2011. The state government, along with Tata Motors, identified and trained around 1,000 youngsters for the company's Nano car plant in Sanand.

Universities like Stanford had signed collaborations with Ahmedabad University for faculty exchange.

Gujarat Board Class 12th Results out today

Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) will declare the results of the first semester exams of class XI (science) today.

Officials said that nearly 1.70 lakh students have appeared in the first semester exam which comprised objective-type questions. This is the highest number of students appearing in the science board exam this year.

These papers were corrected by Optical Mark Reader (OMR). The results will be sent to school principals and will be declared to students on the same day. The result is expected to be around 90 per cent since the students tend to score better in OMR papers.

Recently, the third semester results of HSC (science) students was declared, and they were in the 90 per cent region. The final fourth semester exam for the students will be held in March.

SSC, HSC supplementary results in August

The results of SSC and HSC (science) and (general) stream supplementary exams will be declared on August 4 and August 6 respectively.

Officials of Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) said the results of SSC supplementary exams will be declared on August 4 while HSC results will out on August 6.

The board had taken supplementary exams of students who had failed up to two papers in SSC and HSC (science) and one paper in HSC (general) stream.

This year, the marksheets will be issued the same day that the result are declared on the board. Earlier, marksheets were issued three to four days later.

Gujarat University exams rescheduled to May 7, 8

Gujarat University (GU) exams which were slated to start from May 3 have been rescheduled due to administrative reasons and will now begin from May 7 and May 8 respectively.

GU officials said that as per the revised schedule, exams of BA first semester (regular, repeater and external), BCom first semester (regular, repeater and external), BSc first semester (regular and repeater), BBA first semester (regular, repeater and external), BCA first semester (regular, repeater and external) and BSc first year (regular) will begin from May 7.

The number of ATKT students is huge and the sitting arrangements caused some problems. This resulted in the exams being pushed back by four days. "Owing to space crunch and lack of adequate staff - since summer vacations are on - we've decided to take the exam in two parts," said a GU official.

From May 8, MA first semester (regular, repeater and external), MCom first semester (regular, repeater and external), MA semester three (regular and repeater), MCom (regular and repeater) and MSC semester five (regular and repeater) exams will begin. tnn

In the exams beginning from May 7, no less than 60,000 students are expected to appear and another 45,000 students will appear for the exams from May 8.

However, some students were less than pleased by this development. "The GU authorities should take proper care before announcing the exam dates. As per the earlier schedule, the exams would have ended by May 10 and many of us would have drawn up vacation plans and others who are employed would also have applied for leave. Now, all these have to be reorganized in a hurry," said an MCom student.

Second semester exam of XI (science) begins in Gujarat

Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) is conducting the second semester examination of Class XI (science) from Monday. Nearly 1.18 lakh students are appearing for the examination.

The board had introduced the semester system in Class XI (science) and this will be extended to Class XII (science) from this year. The students will have to appear for four semester examinations in Class XI and XII, with each examination carrying a weightage of 25 per cent.

On Monday, the students appeared for Mathematics paper, which they claimed was not very difficult but was lengthy and that the questions had been asked from the text book. However, one case of copying was registered in Anand. tnn

"It was an extremely lengthy question paper. I did not even get a single minute to revise. I completed it dot on time. Some of the questions were twisted and I was not able to solve them. I expect to get 70 marks", said Ajay Rawat , a Class XI student.

"I would say it was nice but a lengthy paper. I was not able to attend around 10 mark question. Even some of the MCQs were twisted and called for a lot of thinking", Rohan Sharma, another Class XI student, said.