Global exposure for Indian students

In the prevalent times, students are not only seeking to gain global exposure but also want a taste of diverse cultures, languages, attitudes, ways of living and different approaches to learning across disciplines and life in general. The delivery of the same is promised by global exchange programmes by reputed universities nowadays. The programmes not only lead to the broadening of social horizons, inculcating a better tolerance power of other cultures; but also greatly enhance the learning process, lending it a holistic and quality approach. 

Student exchange programmes may involve international travel, but does not necessarily require the students to study outside of their home country, pertaining to broadly two kinds of programmes – long term and short term. Most programme costs include insurance and other risk management components, including health insurance. While long term exchange programmes often come with a scholarship that covers most of the expenses, including travel, accommodation, etc.; secondary school exchange programmes may include a scholarship, but most of the time it is self-funded by the parents. Universities are increasingly indulging in signing MoUs and offering exchange programmes with foreign universities, keeping in mind the challenges presented by globalisation. 

Proving to be a transformational learning experience, global exposure via global exchange programmes promise to offer a different academic perspective and culture, allowing students to experience international issues and ideas from a fresh perspective. They imply a brilliant opportunity to challenge oneself in a new environment, helping young minds to gain confidence while strengthening life skills. In a scenario where education is not merely confined to be a text book learning exercise, equal emphasis is now laid on getting out of the bubble and experiencing life in a colloquial environment as well. Put in simple words, life experience is something that cannot be taught and something that is appreciated by employers too.

University of Delhi, for instance, has MoUs with foreign universities in Asia, Europe, Africa, North America and Australia, among others. On the same lines, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, India and Karlstad University, Sweden have inked a MoU in order to promote cooperation and the advancement of academic, research and educational exchanges between IITG and KAU. IIM Bangalore boasts of one of the most comprehensive exchange programmes. B-schools like the London Business School, GSB Chicago, Anderson School - UCLA, HEC Paris and close to 50 others in 26 different countries participate in the programme each year offering a total of 174 students to undertake a term of study at their campuses.

Another prestigious university joining the league is UGC recognised Apeejay Stya University, India’s first Liberal Arts and Meta University. In order to extend a diverse global exposure to its students, the University has signed MoUs with many international institutions and universities. Apart from identifying and developing collaborative research projects, the MoUs entail student and faculty exchange programmes and designing of other mutually beneficial potential academic modules. Some of these include Ecole Superieure d’Arts Appliques de Troyes, France; Georgia College and State University, USA; Normandy Business School, France; Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam, Netherlands and Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands. The University continuously interacts with leading universities and institutions for course development/enhancement, while regularly upgrading its teaching-learning processes to make them more efficient and market-oriented.

Global exchange programmes/MoUs not only ensure a holistic learning experience but also adhere to meet excellent education standards. A critical requirement in today’s competitive times, these programmes are pertinent in delivering quality education.

Catching up with OpenCourseWare

The OpenCourseWare movement started in 1999 when the University of Tübingen, in Germany, published videos of lectures online and it only took off with the launch of the OpenCourseWare(OCW) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in October 2002. The movement has now spread to over 120 other universities worldwide. 

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Pioneered by MIT, Wikipedia defines OCW as course lessons created at universities and published gratis via the internet. MIT describes it as an initiative to put all of the educational material of an institute’s courses online which could be partly free or openly available to anyone, anywhere.

What sets OCW apart is the fact that it is free and is available to everyone and anyone via web access. For instance, in China, where Netease attracts about 1.2 million visitors per day, users view OCW as a way to learn English; to find out more about the experience of studying abroad as they establish their own study groups; among other things. The educational benefits of using OCW are evident, given that OCW can be easily adapted in most cases, or can be used in its original form.

Among the multiple advantages of an OCW, the basic ones include aiding college students explore a potential major as they plan out their programmes of study, enhancing their knowledge of any subject for real-world applications. It further helps them in gaining an additional perspective on a particular homework problem or concept. It is also understood that at conventional universities, OCW is often blended with other forms of learning for providing the students with quality educational experience. It also encourages faculty to update their courses as they keep a track of what fellow instructors are doing on a regular basis.

Having proved to be a life-modifying resource for those who have no other access to higher education, OCW’s beneficiaries also include self-learners, participating universities, and faculty members. However, OCW does not provide any credentials and self-learners use it exclusively for personal benefit and there is also an inability to interact with the professors who create the materials.

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Along with MIT, OCW is being offered by many other prestigious universities like Yale, Stanford, Tufts, Apeejay Stya University and many more. Apeejay Stya University (ASU) has also adopted Open Educational Resources/OCW with open arms. Recently, a workshop was organised by Commonwealth Educational Media centre for Asia (CEMCA), the Asian arm of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) to introduce the faculty members with this digitised academic hemisphere on the ASU campus by Dr. R. Sreedhar, Professor Emeritus, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, ASU and Dr. Savithri Singh, an expert on the subject and Principal, Acharya Narendra Dev College, Delhi University. 

Speaking on the occasion, Vice Chancellor of Apeejay Stya University, Prof. Dr. K.K. Dwivedi said, “The world has turned digital so why not education? Foreign Universities have updated their course materials on the net and this is the time that we need to innovate and design new pedagogy at the Apeejay Stya University.”

Dr. Sanjaya Mishra, Director, CEMCA who was himself involved in the drafting of the Paris Declaration on OER in June 2012, inaugurated the workshop. He requested ASU to develop their own Institutional page on the WikiEducator and in the days to come create an ASU wiki in their servers.

The participants to the workshop include from various sister institutions belonging to the Apeejay group. The training was given on Wiki educator and all the 20 odd faculty members created their own home page and got interested in this form of collaborative writing of course materials.

Dr. Sanjaya Mishra assured to support the Teacher Training Programme on OER so that the schools from the group could benefit from this movement.

OCW is a new and evolving concept. However, the recently added Google search facility on the OCW Consortiums website is an encouraging example of a super-organisational approach. The initiative enables searches across all OCW offerings. OCW Consortium has 300 university and organisational members worldwide.

Universities have always been keen to have their own area where they could be among their peer institutions, aiding students in the discovery of their content. Today, there is availability of a wealth of no-cost OCW material available to learners across the globe.

Beyond Academic Experience

A truly educational experience gets its stamp of completion when students make the most of the ‘extracurricular’ activities while at the University that helps them develop and demonstrate relevant skills and interests. The significance of extracurricular activities on college campuses is well established and pay attention to the individual student level, the institutional level, and the broader community level. The range of extracurricular activities varies extensively because of the diverse interests of college students, depending upon the size and type of college/university.

These activities range from social organisations to governance organisations to intercollegiate athletic programmes; including sports, public speaking, special interest groups, arts, political, educational, environmental, community or church activities. Students must be encouraged to look for and engage in groups and activities that best suits their interests and academic/professional goals. Diverse groups of individuals, working outside of the classroom, allow for students to gain more self-confidence, autonomy, and appreciation for others' differences and similarities.

Adding a rich layer to a student’s time at the university, extra-curricular activities offer perfect opportunities for students to socialise with their fellow students, engaging in sports or other activities, volunteering in the community or taking on leadership positions, enhancing communication and inter-personal skills.

Extra-curricular activities exist to complement the university's academic curriculum and to enhance the student's educational experience. While internships and work experience offer a glimpse of the working world, societies, unions and clubs too contribute to personal growth, contributing to a rich university experience to the students. Developing skills specific to their respective career paths is something that is imperative for future job success and extracurricular involvement allows students to link academic knowledge with practical experience, thereby leading to a better understanding and clarity of their own abilities, talents, and career goals. Potential employers seek individuals with these increased skill levels, making these students accessible to more lucrative opportunities in the job market.

However, it should be noted that indulging in extra-curricular activities could be apart from sports and social possibilities. For instance, if there isn’t a society for what you’re seeking, you can always set one up!

Student involvement in extracurricular activities also impacts educational attainment. Ernest T. Pascarella and Patrick T. Terenzini's 1991 research indicates that extracurricular involvement has a positive impact on attaining a bachelor's degree and on educational aspirations. Students who are actively engaged are more likely to have higher educational ambitions than uninvolved students.

One of Canada’s best known institutions of higher learning, McGill University has over 250 activities, clubs, and services that students may join. With regards to exploring extra-curricular interests, Oxford University offers students a multitude of opportunities from getting involved in Oxford’s world-famous rowing teams to pursuing artistic and musical interests. Established on the academic pattern of the Ivy League Universities of the USA, Apeejay Stya University campus, too, bustles with creative and innovative students who find their own unique voices and means of expression through the various clubs managed by the students. These clubs cater to a wide range of interests, including music, dance, dramatics, fine arts, photography, literature, yoga and meditation, and many others. The clubs provide students an interactive platform through which they can engage with like-minded peers and evolve in the course of mutual learning. In the times to come, ASU plans to add a range of clubs and activities to its portfolio – aiming to serve the ever-changing and growing interests of students, aiding them to attain holistic development and personalities.

However, such involvement should not be overdone or the so-called ‘over indulgence’ must not creep in! Whatever one takes up shouldn’t replace or sideline one’s degree! Interestingly, in an article written by Nick Collins for ‘The Telegraph’, dated August 27, 2010, carries the title – ‘Universities uninterested in pupils' extra-curricular activities’. Mentioned in the same article, a spokeswoman for Cambridge had expressed, “All admissions decisions are based on academic criteria, and excellence in an extra-curricular activity will never 'compensate' for lower academic potential.”

Nevertheless, the ‘extra’ edge provided by such constructive involvement in recreational activities certainly aids students in standing out from the crowd when applying for jobs or participating in interviews. Not to forget that employers love to see them on a resume!

Your Campus Your Life

Your Campus, Your Life!

A University is not merely a place you apply to for attaining a degree of your choice but also offers an incredible campus life. It promises to be a very special time in one’s life, especially when the University is committed to aid students in developing critical thinking and communication skills, teamwork qualities, community service and independent learning. Undoubtedly, campus life offers some wonderful prospects for personal growth, correlated with academic and career success, providing the right platform to an individual to stand out in the crowd.

An ideal campus life exudes vibrancy and a great sense of oneness, thanks to the unique confluence of students from varied backgrounds, nationalities and states, all of which lead to a diverse setting where one can venture out and explore new avenues. The rich exchange of knowledge, experience, and cultures, enabling students to become more tolerant and sensitive to each other's diverse backgrounds, are among the many plus points of a healthy campus life.

In today’s competitive times, it is of absolute pertinence that one learns to balance time and commitments since being involved in ‘outside-the-classroom’ activities can keep one busy. However, they offer a great chance to get a glimpse of what life will be like after graduation.Many studies have shown that students who are involved in college activities outside of class are more likely to persist and finish their degree. Being involved, students come across and experience many reasons to stick around and finish what they started.

Getting involved in the college campus has many benefits for the student, both scholastically and socially, contributing to the development of the total person – academic, aesthetic, spiritual, social and physical. A student must seek to get involved in the community life of his/her campus. For instance, a student who works for the college newspaper may decide to volunteer for the needy by doing his bit of social work. He, then, returns to the college campus and shares his experiences with the fellow students once the article gets published in the newspaper. This explicitly shows the involvement of the student in the college community.

Life at Apeejay Stya University!

Interestingly, as a matter of fact, it isn't enough to study a certain major in college, since one can get a head-start to one’s future career by joining a particular club or college organisation that covers the same major as one is pursuing.

Infrastructure and its aesthetic contribution to the learning process is of critical importance to the life that a University aims to offer to its students. Apeejay Stya University (ASU) has made tremendous investment in the development and layout of its academic and social spaces, be it state-of-the-art ICT-enabled lecture rooms, conference halls, computer & science labs. Added to this, with its vast library, cafeteria, green areas and indoor/outdoor sports facilities, the ASU campus provides a 360-degree solution to all the needs of its students. The entire campus is Wi-Fi enabled, and includes the hostels, library and cafeteria.

ASU provides affordable residential accommodation integrated within the campus to promote dialogue among students, their peers, and faculty members. Overlooking green manicured lawns, the two hostels can accommodate 150 boys and 100 girls, respectively. They offer single or double occupancy rooms depending on availability, student seniority and merit.

The ASU campus bustles with creative and innovative students who find their own unique voices and means of expression through the various clubs managed by the students. These clubs cater to a wide range of interests, including music, dance, dramatics, fine arts, photography, literature, yoga and meditation, and many others.

Meeting new people, establishing personal and professional connections, campus experience isn’t just about buying books and listening to lectures. Campus life is a complete experience which is hard to describe. It is best one experiences it for oneself!

Liberal Arts Education: Making headway in India

Having transformed from being an ‘option for the fortunate’ to ‘a necessity for all students’, Liberal Arts Education presents itself as an approach to learning that aids in preparing individuals to deal with complexity, diversity and change. With subjects ranging from science to performing arts, Liberal Arts Education aims to deliver education in a holistic way, helping students to develop an attitude enriched with open mindedness and freshness of thought.

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A democratic society needs citizens who can think for themselves and   in society, which makes liberal arts education extremely valuable in India. A liberal arts education is the answer for students who wish to develop a better understanding of the historical and cultural contexts of life today. As Albert Einstein said, "The value of an education in a liberal arts college is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks."

Critical thinking is an integral part of a liberal arts education. A liberal arts education encourages students and teachers to ponder over difficult questions pertaining to an open-minded scrutiny of the deepest thoughts about our life and the world we live in. Building the foundations of a future career, a Liberal Arts Education complements specific career goals and vocations by providing students the adequate skills and knowledge that offer access to many careers.

A lot has changed in the courses and requirements comprising a liberal education over the years. However, the broad goals of liberal education have been constant even till date. In the prevalent times, a liberal education usually includes a general education curriculum that delivers broad learning in multiple disciplines in conjunction with more in-depth study in a major.

The question to be answered here is that why should an educational experience be anything less than a unified whole? Every field of study offers to be a part of a much greater whole and a Liberal Arts Education bridges existing divides by contributing a curriculum that creates coherence and veracity in one’s intellectual experience. Liberal Arts puts great emphasis on inter-disciplinary perspectives and helps us understand the fact that life is not divided into majors, though universities offer degrees in a chosen field.

Notably, what employers have been increasingly realizing is that it is the graduates with the right skills rather than the right majors who have an edge in the competitive marketplace nowadays. Also, it is largely dawning among people that a Liberal Arts Education prepares students for real life challenges in a way that vocational schools often cannot promise to deliver.

In today’s economy, employers are on a lookout for qualities like desirable transferable skills including written and verbal communication skills, the ability to solve complex problems, to adapt well in a changing workplace, among others which are the hallmark of a Liberal Arts Education. Thus, it can be understood that a Liberal Arts Education prepares students to assume positions of leadership, while being flexible in the marketplace.

Presidency College, Kolkata, now known as Presidency University, is one of the foremost institutions that introduced liberal education to Indians. The International Foundation for Research and Education (IFRE), founded by a group of prominent businessmen is already in the process of setting up a University dedicated to liberal education. Taking the concept of liberal arts even further, the new Ashoka University will not only have liberal education but will work on the idea of cross-fertilisation.

Top universities, around the world, like Stanford and Harvard are already following this system, along with MIT which is otherwise an engineering institute. Establishments providing liberal education in India include Apeejay Stya University, School of Liberal Arts at the Noida International University and Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts. Apeejay Stya University sets itself apart, being the first Liberal Arts and Meta University. The University, focussed on research and technology, provides a dynamic and unique academic system which includes key features like an innovative evaluation system; freedom to choose your degree and number of credits; a flexible graduation pace; among other things.