College credit offer for free online courses

Students may soon be able to receive college credit for the free online courses that are reshaping higher education.The American Council on Education planned to announce Thursday that it is recommending degree credit for five undergraduate courses offered by Coursera, a Palo Alto-based company that provides "massive open online courses" from leading universities.A rigorous evaluation of these courses showed that they meet ACE's standards for college credit recommendations,Molly Corbett Broad, president of the American Council on Education, whose recommendations are used by colleges and universities to determine whether to offer credit for nontraditional courses.

Over the past year, dozens of leading universities have begun offering free, digital versions of their most popular courses, allowing tens of thousands of students to take a class at the same time. But so far, few institutions have offered degree credit for them.Allowing students to get credit for massive open online courses, or MOOCs, could help make it easier to earn a college degree, said John Aubrey Douglass, a higher education researcher at the University of California, Berkeley.As long as we can assess and ensure quality, it's providing one more way that students can receive an education at an affordable cost," Douglass said.Students can also get a lot of exposure while studying in such universities and different course  Business Administration,Electrical Engineering and Materials Science.

The American Council on Education, which represents U.S. degree-granting institutions, is recommending credit for five entry-level classes: Algebra and Pre-Calculus from the University of California, Irvine; Introduction to Genetics and Evolution from Duke University; Bioelectricity: A Quantitative Approach from Duke University; and Calculus: Single Variable from the University of Pennsylvania.The courses themselves are free, but students seeking credit will need to pay between $100 and $190 to verify their identities and take exams monitored by webcam.

There are many working adults today that do not have a college degree," Andrew Ng, a Stanford University researcher who co-founded Coursera, told The Associated Press. "I hope the convenience of an online class can be a first step for many of these adults to go back to school to earn their degrees.The announcement comes less than a week after Coursera suspended an online course offered by Georgia Institute of Technology because of technical troubles. The course, which was about how to run an online course, will be offered again at later date, Ng said.

Students Receive Gilman Scholarships to Study Abroad

Applications are being accepted for scholarships that offer awards of up to $2,500 to offset the cost of Western Michigan University students participating in a select group of short-term study abroad programs this spring and summer.The Haenicke Institute for Global Education Study Abroad Scholarship provides support to enroll in 20 short-term programs that will be taught by WMU faculty members late in the spring semester or during the summer I and II sessions.

The scholarship allows students at the University to apply for need-based awards of up to $1,500. In addition, those with a 3.0 grade point average also may apply for merit-based awards worth $1,000.All programs offer rolling admissions, with a priority deadline of Thursday, Jan. 31. Enrollment is limited, so students are encouraged to apply early. A series of information sessions explaining some of the programs starts Wednesday, Jan. 16.Short-term study abroad programs run from two to eight weeks, offer varying levels of undergraduate and graduate academic credit, and are eligible for financial aid funding from the Kalamazoo Promise, Michigan Education Trust and other non-WMU sources.

Students who participate in these programs travel with WMU professors to study a wide range of subjects, such as classical roots of Western design in Greece, engineering in Spain, or courses from a variety of disciplines in Turkey.Such programs are popular with many students because they require a shorter time commitment, and the costs for some are similar to what it would cost to earn the same number of academic-credit hours on campus.

Wellesley College Boston announced on Tuesday to start free online courses

The Women’s Liberal Arts College outside Boston will offer free online classes through edX to educate people around the world, particularly women.Wellesley Provost and Dean Andy Shennan said that there might be women who may not have access to a university education but have access to a computer. Those could be benefited by this method of delivering education, he added.EdX was funded and launched by Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) jointly earlier this year to create a new online-learning experience for interactive study with a huge variety of online courses.Students can also get a lot of exposure while studying in such universities and different course Business Administration, Engineering and Internet MBA.

Wellesley will also add four liberal arts courses in online resource.Wellesley has already exchanged the program with other colleges, so it won’t be the first time male students can take a course at the college.Edx students cannot currently earn college credits or degrees through the online classes but edX president and an MIT professor Anant Agarwal said that it was up to participating schools to decide whether to grant credits or not.He said that the University of Texas which joined edX in October was planning to offer college credits.Current edX students come from nearly 200 countries and more than 300,000 students signed up for fall courses including classes from the Universities of California and Berkeley.Harvard and MIT will also use the edX platform to research how students learn and how technology influences the process.

More than 160 years ago a young man paved the way for Chinese studying abroad

Every September, Terminal 3 of Beijing Capital International Airport turns into Platform 9 3/4 of the Harry Potter series, with boys and girls running around pushing overloaded luggage carts, nodding and promising their parents to take good care of themselves over the next 10 months. But of course, they are just students going out of the country to study.China has become the leading source of overseas students, and these young Chinese are bound for schools around the world. Last year alone, 339,700 Chinese students began studying abroad, according to the Ministry of Education, and an even larger number are applying this year.

Ever since 150 years ago when Yung Wing first blazed a trail to the US, study abroad has been the trendy thing to do in various historical periods. For some time, only the best students were granted the opportunity, as well as the task, of repatriating knowledge. A sense of honor and responsibility came to be associated with studying abroad.As Chairman Mao Zedong said in a speech to Chinese students in Moscow University in 1957: The world is yours and ours, but eventually yours the future lies in your hands.A look back at the time of the first Chinese student who obtained a Western degree gives an insight of how this trend started.Students can also get a lot of exposure while studying in such universities and different course Global Production Engineering,Economics and Management Science and Business Administration.

These days, Chinese students at Yale University are a dime a dozen, but in the mid-19th century, Yung Wing was the only Asian at what was then called Yale College. In a speech at Yale in 1878, Yung's friend Joseph Twichell described how Yung dressed in a long traditional robe on his first day, his hair braided according to Manchu style. Later he took on Western fashions, and the portrait of him that still hangs at the university reveals that the man widely regarded as the first Chinese to receive a Western degree was a handsome young fellow.Born a villager's son on a small island six kilometers from Macau in 1828, Yung was one of only two male students who attended a missionary school for girls. While his male peers were trained for the imperial examination, Yung grew up learning the language of the "red-haired people", a name given to foreigners during the Qing Dynasty (1616-1911).

When he turned 19, Yung bravely accepted an offer from his headmaster, an American missionary, to continue his study in the New World. This was a destination beyond the reach of most Chinese at the time, and little did Yung know that he would go all the way to study at Yale.As to his academic life, in defiance of the common stereotype of Chinese students, Yung was a total failure in maths.In my sophomore year, from my utter aversion to mathematics, especially to differential and integral calculus, which I abhorred and detested ... I used to fizzle and flunk so often that I really thought I was going to be dropped from the class, or dismissed from college," Yung wrote in his memoir, My Life in China and America However, he was very good at composition, and won first place in school competitions two years in a row.

Yung always planned to return to China, which at the time was embroiled in civil war and border disputes with Russia, and was under constant pressure from colonial powers demanding greater trade privileges. Yung hoped the advanced ideas he had learned would help him solve some of these problems by modernizing China.After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree, he returned home to work as an interpreter and a consultant, but his biggest achievement was to initiate the first study abroad program sponsored by the government, which sent more than 100 Chinese students to the US.More than a century later, things changed greatly. In 1981, a policy allowed students to independently finance their education overseas, opening up new career paths for many students, and democratizing study abroad to include more than just an elite few selected by the government.

That same year, the TOEFL was introduced to China. Many students began to take the exam and submit their scores, along with other material, to apply for scholarships at overseas universities.Ministry of Education statistics show that from the reform and opening-up to 2011, a total of 2.25 million students went overseas. The loosening of policies and management governing their activities meant they were able to pursue careers and lives in their host countries, an appealing prospect given the poor economic and living conditions in China."Study abroad" ultimately became a way of saying "move abroad" during the 1990s, illustrated by the fact that only 26 percent of these students returned to China when they completed their studies.

The number of overseas students has risen greatly since the late 1970s, as a booming economy, frugal spending habits and family planning policies have given middle-to-upper class Chinese families the means to afford sending their only child to study abroad. Disappointment with the domestic educational experience has made parents and students all the more willing to trade a Chinese diploma for a foreign one.Today, Chinese students are found on every campus of the world's major universities, and their community is thriving. The number of those returning to China upon finishing their studies has also increased.Past or present, studying abroad is an eye-opening experience for the individuals involved, and for the country as a whole.

universities to offer Fulbright Scholarships to overseas students

Libyan university educators are to be offered fully-funded Fulbright scholarships to some of the largest and most prestigious universities in America as part of a programme supported by the US government.The scholarships, which will be ten weeks in duration, are open to any Libyan with less than five years of teaching experience with Libyan universities. This is the first time the US has ever offered the scholarship for Libyan junior faculty members.A total of 60 places are available, and the deadline for applications is 30 November 2012, with the courses due to commence in the summer of 2013.

The scholarships are open in a total of six different disciplines: Teaching English as a Foreign Language; Engineer;Business Administration, Information Technology; Public Administration; Public Health; and Natural Sciences.Other types of Fulbright Scholarship currently in Libya include the Fulbright Foreign Student Programme, the Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FTLA), and the Fulbright Visiting Scholar Programme.Established in 1946 by US Senator J. William Fulbright, the Fulbright Scholarship Programme offers competitive, merit-based grants for international educational exchange for students, teachers, professionals, scientists and artists.

It aims to take American students to universities abroad, and foreign students to universities in the United States and aspires to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.As of 2011, approximately 310,000 Fulbrighters from over 155 countries had participated in the programme since its inception. To date, a total of 44 Fulbright Alumni are recipients of Nobel Prizes.

Study abroad in India

Every year, we celebrate our country's Independence Day with flag hoisting ceremonies and cultural programmes.We sing our national anthem with great pride.Just as Indian students travel overseas for higher studies, international students are coming to India for a range of courses. Technology, culture, English skills and more are attracting them to India.Well, this year, the students at the South Asian University in Delhi, launched by SAARC in 2010, observed not one, but two Independence Day celebrations.

On August 14, 11 pm, a two-hour event was held where the students of Pakistan first presented cultural programmes and sang the Pakistani national anthem in the presence of the entire university comprising students of the eight SAARC nations -- Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh and recent entrant Afghanistan.At midnight, the function was taken over by Indian students. The university plans to make this an annual event.

On a similar note, October 1, 2012 marked a special day for Nigerian students at Manipal University's College of Allied Health Sciences (MCOAHS) and Manav Rachna International University (MRIU).Both institutes observed Nigeria's 52nd year of independence. "The national anthem of Nigeria was recited and a party was hosted.The Nigerian students appreciated the gesture, and after that there was significant warmth in the behaviour of Nigerian students towards the Indian students, and teachers in particular," shares Dr Anil Sarin, Professor & Dean, Faculty of International Programmes, MRIU.VIT University also celebrated the Chinese New Year for the benefit of Chinese students on campus, one of the largest contingents of international students at VIT.

These celebrations indicate a growing trend of international students coming to India for higher studies. It began in the 1950s with schemes like the ICCR scholarships, which offered 20-30 international students an opportunity to pursue higher studies at public universities at Pune, Delhi and Mysore.This number has now risen to around 3,000. Private universities like Symbiosis and Manipal, have also had international students on their campuses for many years. And more private institutions are following this trend.The Acharya Institute in Bangalore have around 700+ students from 35 countries.They come for all levels, right from Pre-University to Master's but mostly Bachelor level programmes. Computer applications, Business Administration,business management, pharmacy and engineering are the most popular streams," shares Dr C Vijayakumar, Director, Human Resource & International Affiliations, Acharya Institutes.

Undergraduate study abroad programs in Israel

As part of a reevaluation of the University’s risk assessment policy, Northwestern will soon offer three new undergraduate study abroad programs in Israel.Starting in January 2013, students will be able to participate in study abroad programs at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Ben-Gurion University in Beer-Sheva, as well as an exchange program through Tel Aviv University, said Greg Buchanan, program coordinator for International Program Development.

Students will be able to take credit-approved courses in a variety of fields, including Jewish and Hebrew studies, engineering,Software Engineering, Middle East studies and global health, according to a news release issued last week by International Program Development and Global Health Studies.The new programs were established after two University committees conducted a thorough health and safety review,” according to the release. Israel is included on a list of countries subject to U.S. DOS Travel Warnings, which are issued for countries considered dangerous for travel by the federal government.

Although undergraduates have previously been able to study abroad in Israel through NU’s Fiedler Hillel Center, the new programs allow students to apply for financial aid and participate in programs through University channels, said Michael Simon, executive director of NU Hillel. The undergraduate programs join graduate offerings in Israel through Kellogg School of Management and NU’s School of Law that have been established for a number of years.

More MechE students choose to design their own education

What does ketchup have to do with mechanical engineering?Well, it turns out that if you want the condiment to garnish your burger in a timely fashion, principles of mechanical engineering can speed an otherwise stubborn, slow-moving pour. The key, as MIT mechanical engineers have found, is at the interface.Faculty and students in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering (MechE) are examining these boundaries, manufacturing new textured coatings that, at the nanoscale, interact with liquids in surprising and often innovative ways. This relatively new field, called interfacial engineering, combines the study of mechanical forces, physical texture and materials chemistry to generate novel solutions to a host of problems: clearing pipelines, cooling electronics, optimizing battery efficiency, sorting cell samples, defogging windshields and, yes, unclogging ketchup bottles.

Indeed, in a broader sense, engineering at interfaces has become one emerging theme of both research and education in MechE.Traditionally, mechanical engineers worked within one of the discipline’s core areas, such as mechanics, controls, manufacturing or thermodynamics. But today, researchers are also reaching beyond MechE’s traditional boundaries. While some are enlisting ideas from materials science and chemistry to manufacture a variety of surfaces, others are building autonomous robots, exploring molecular biology for next-generation biomedical devices, or manipulating materials and optics to design solar panels and invisibility cloaks.

To be a mechanical engineer today is to work at the boundaries of many different domains, says Mary Boyce, head of MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering.We’re really working and educating at the interface of many disciplines,” says Boyce, who is the Ford Professor of Engineering. “Engineers today can study mechanical engineering and enter fields as diverse as clean energy and water; information technology; aerospace and automotive; shipping; oil and gas; security; biomedical devices  you name it. The opportunities for impact are simply incredible.”


Fun with fundamentals

Indeed, as any MechE student can attest, pursuing a mechanical engineering degree at MIT, whether Course 2, Course 2-A, or Course 2-OE (the undergraduate program in mechanical and ocean engineering), is a challenging endeavor. But the department also prides itself on observing what Boyce calls the celebratory nature of mechanical engineering. In other words, there’s a little fun to be had in studying the fundamentals.A prime example, Boyce says, is a course called 2.671 (Measurement and Instrumentation). Students in this class learn the history of standards and units, as well as the underlying physics and design of instrumentation needed to measure and analyze various phenomena. As part of the course, students are given a final assignment, dubbed “Go Forth and Measure,” where they choose their own subject and method of measurement. Presentations have included measurements of everything from the rotation of a Frisbee to the force output involved in arm wrestling.This celebratory nature also takes other forms within the department. For example, each year, 2.007 (Design and Manufacturing I) hosts a legendary end-of-semester robot competition, challenging students to conceive, design and build a robot to complete an obstacle course; on competition day, the atmosphere often rivals that of any college athletic event. The same can be said for 2.009 (The Product Engineering Process), in which students learn to design, construct and market high-quality prototypes. The course culminates in an engineering presentation and business pitch in which students present their prototypes to an often-packed auditorium.The know-how students gain from such experiences how to take a design from concept to prototype, and how to articulate the need for such a prototype to potential investors  represent real-world skills that Boyce hopes will stick with students long after they leave MIT.We attract students who want to make a difference, who realize they will need to go deep in knowledge and engineering principles and then bring these fundamentals to physical design and production,” Boyce says. “We’re looking to educate that more holistic engineer.”

A customized curriculum

It’s this diversity of options that has attracted students in recent years to pursue mechanical engineering degrees, known at MIT as Course 2. In fact, in the last decade, undergraduate enrollment has doubled, with 11 percent of MIT students now majoring in mechanical engineering. As the number of incoming MechE students has steadily increased, many are choosing to pursue what’s dubbed Course 2-A — a flexible engineering program that allows a student to design his or her own curriculum, crafted around a set of core MechE courses.In addition to studying the fundamentals of mechanical engineering, students may cast a wide net around campus for classes that augment their chosen area of study. For example, a student interested in robotics may sign up for electrical engineering courses, while a student who wants to work in energy may add chemistry and materials science, as well as an energy policy class.MechE’s students are coming in more focused on “what’s the challenge they want to solve, and not so much what’s the discipline they can learn,” Boyce says. “Instead of coming in and saying, ‘I want to be the world’s expert on thermodynamics,’ students are coming in saying, ‘What’s the next revolution in energy that I can be part of, and that I can be instrumental in inventing and engineering solutions for?’This year, for the first time ever, MechE’s customized Course 2-A program enrolled more students than the department’s traditional, core-focused Course 2 degree program. Both programs have been around for quite some time: Course 2, then named Course 1, was one of six curricula offered to the first MIT class in 1865, while Course 2-A was established in 1934.Why have students recently gravitated to Course 2-A? The answer, Boyce says, has to do with academic credibility. While Course 2-A has been an option for decades, it wasn’t until 2002 that the department sought to accredit the program — a certification that Course 2 had received years ago.MIT students want to know that their customized engineering curriculum meets every standard and challenge, and is as rigorous as any engineering degree at MIT,” Boyce says. “I think once it was really established that this is ‘MIT-hard,’ the students said, ‘I’m going to go for it.’”

A transformation in the works

A walk through MechE’s halls illustrates just how interdisciplinary the department has become. In the last few years, MechE has undergone a physical transformation, renovating its research and teaching labs to adapt to the discipline’s expanding nature.Research spaces still house the traditional workhorses, such as machine tools, drill presses and lathes  but together with rapid prototyping capabilities, including 3-D printers, water-jet machines and laser cutters. But Boyce notes that more MechE labs have been outfitted with chemical and biological ventilation hoods  necessary for the department’s growing research in microfluidics, battery and photovoltaic technologies, surface engineering and bio-inspired robotics.Ten years from now, the molecular level of engineering will just be inherently part of mechanical engineering [and] part of what it means to be a mechanical engineer,” Boyce predicts.

The transformation within MechE, both physical and philosophical, has attracted a record number of graduate students, postdocs and faculty members in recent years. In the last five years, the department has hired 13 new faculty members, and has seen its research funding increase by 50 percent. Last year, MechE received 30 percent more applications from prospective graduate students than the previous year  an increase that reflects students’ growing desire to bridge disciplines, Boyce says.
You’re starting to see a transformation throughout MechE,” Boyce says. “If you walk through the halls, you’ll see a professor who’s designing a cheetah robot next to a professor who’s engineering with bacteria. That mixture of talents and interests is going to end up leading to newer ways of doing everything.

Global e-learning is transforming higher education

 IMAGINE a university degree that is like a passport: a subject from Swinburne stamped alongside another from Sydney University, with courses from overseas colleges such as Stanford or Harvard thrown in. You could earn your degree without travelling further than your laptop, and far more cheaply than on campus.Far-fetched? The proliferation of websites offering courses from top universities - MIT and Stanford among them - and the globalisation of learning generally means this scenario may one day be possible. Higher education is in the middle of a digital revolution, and who has access to it, and how it is done, will shift dramatically in the next few years.

''The world of tertiary education is changing fundamentally, and the pace of change is greater than ever before,'' says Monash University vice-chancellor Ed Byrne, likening it to the 15th-century invention of the printing press. "People are being educated in a totally global context for the first time.Online tertiary study is not new, but what is starting to happen is the opening up of information and resources from some of the world's leading universities, often for free, which can be used anywhere, by anyone. This year the $16 million US-based outfit Coursera came online. Featuring partnerships with some of the leading universities, it joins groups such as Udacity and the edX project between MIT and Harvard. Coursera already has 1 million enrolments, including 7000 from Australia.These changes mean that potentially millions of people who otherwise may have had no opportunity to access higher education can do so for free, via institutions that charge about $50,000 a year if you enrol on campus.Students can also get a lot of exposure while studying in such universities and different course Global Production Engineering,Computer Science and Intelligent Software Systems.

The major difference is that students cannot receive degrees from those universities, which, for the moment at least, is a way for prestigious colleges to protect the cachet associated with their names.But the opportunity to learn from some of the world's leading academics is an attractive one for students like Kevin Chai, a researcher at the University of New South Wales who has completed a Stanford University course in machine learning through Coursera. The course, which used short lecture videos with integrated quiz questions, went for 10 weeks and required five to seven hours of work each week.I found these courses to be very appealing when compared to local courses because you can receive a first-class education for free and be taught by renowned professors who are leaders in their field," he says.When he finished the course, Dr Chai received a certificate of completion for no charge.Melbourne student Vishnu Chari, who is doing a master's in business law at Monash University, is also studying cryptography through Coursera, and plans to do more subjects. ''Just things that are interesting but I haven't had the time in my university course to undertake,'' he says.Coursera co-founder Andrew Ng, a Stanford professor, told The Sunday Age that although the venture has committed to not becoming a university, already some colleges are offering course credits for Coursera certificates. There are 116 courses on offer, such as Calculus from the University of Pennsylvania or Critical Thinking in Global Challenges at the University of Edinburgh. ''What we have seen also is there are a few universities that are incorporating some of our material into their own classrooms,'' he says.

In Australia, universities have been slower to embrace the digital revolution, but it is now gaining pace. Some are experimenting with the consortiums of free online university studies, known as MOOCs (the Massive Online Open Course) - or putting some of their own resources online for free. For example, La Trobe has begun offering subjects through Apple's iTunes U, joining universities such as Oxford and Yale. In second semester, students will be able to download lectures and readings from first-year subject ''The Roman World'' while it is being taught.In Australia, the biggest online tertiary outfit is Open Universities, which is owned by seven universities - Curtin, Griffith, Monash, RMIT, Swinburne, Macquarie and the University of South Australia. It has been growing at 20 per cent each year in the past five years, offering most of its 1400 online courses to anyone, regardless of educational background. It now has about 55,000, predominantly Australian, students.Chief executive Paul Wappett says global e-learning initiatives like Coursera, and edX are legitimising online education. "There's a lot of money being poured into disruptive models in education from Silicon Valley, India and China. Everyone in the sector here can't afford to be complacent about that. Any university that doesn't have an online offering in five years' time will have missed the boat."

In addition to its online degrees in business, social science, communication and technology, Swinburne has a program in which it makes some of its learning resources freely available, but if students want accreditation for that learning, they need to pay for it.Pro-vice chancellor Professor Gilly Salmon says universities might agree to allow free access to their resources because of altruism - to allow people who may not be able to afford higher education access to it - or the chance to showcase their academic work to the world.The University of Southern Queensland is a member of a global consortium that operates similarly to Coursera, involving UNESCO and universities in New Zealand and Canada. The Open Education Resource University, which is in development, will offer learning resources for free, but accreditation will need to be paid for.Deakin University is embracing "cloud" learning, which enables students to undertake work anywhere, at any time. Vice-chancellor Jane den Hollander says the university is keeping a "watching brief" on Coursera.She can foresee a time when a student who completes a Coursera or similar certificate online may then be able to use that to gain course credit towards a Deakin degree, with one caveat: the ability to authenticate that students are who they say they are, and have completed the work themselves.


Richard James, a professor of higher education at Melbourne University, believes the extent to which institutions embrace the digital world will depend on how they position themselves in the marketplace: some more research-heavy universities may stick with a more traditional model.

Director of e-learning Professor Gregor Kennedy says while technology is enabling dynamic teaching, the on-campus experience continues to be prized - the university has only three undergraduate subjects and 100 graduate subjects delivered solely online.Melbourne University has a long history as a campus-based institution that has placed a premium on students engaging in the scholarly community on campus, and we've got a strong commitment to using technology to enhance that experience.Most academics who spoke to The Sunday Age do not believe online courses, or even degrees, will wholly replace the on-campus experience, or that they should: most accept there will always be courses that need classroom time, and the value of small-group instruction and the intellectual community that higher education provides.Whatever way universities choose to embrace the new digital world, Professor James says, they will need to rethink their business models.What you're going to see in the future is a more differentiated set of universities, because universities are going to have to work out new business models that adjust to what is probably a revolution.'But he is also wary of the globalised access to information, fearing it could lead to content homogenisation.

Deakin's Professor den Hollander also cautions that not all content is equal, and just because it comes from a prestigious university, doesn't make it necessarily the best material available.Since the deregulation of Australian universities this year - effectively exposing them to market forces and making competition for students more intense - Grattan Institute higher education program director Andrew Norton says there is legitimate concern that online higher education could cannibalise universities' more mainstream offerings, especially as, unlike say, Harvard or Stanford, most Australian universities do not turn away 90 per cent of student applicants.Professor den Hollander is alive to this possibility, too."Is it a threat? Absolutely," she says. "Are we in the market? Absolutely.

Universities Offer Free Online Courses

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.Earlier this year, we reported on the growth of massive open online courses, or MOOCs. These higher education courses are mostly free and, so far, largely in technical areas like computer science. MOOCs are usually open to anyone and can have thousands of students around the world.Entrepreneurs and educators are studying the different business possibilities. One idea is to make money by offering credits or certificates to students willing to pay. Another is to charge employers for connecting them with students who get top scores on online tests.

Some top universities are starting to offer their own MOOCs. For example, this week the University of California, Berkeley, announced it has joined a nonprofit enterprise called edX. Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology started edX and have each invested thirty million dollars.This fall, Berkeley will offer two of the seven free courses on the edX platform: Artificial Intelligence and Software as a Service. Berkeley will also work with edX to get more universities involved. Schools that offer courses on the edX platform will be called "X Universities."

MIT professor Anant Agarwal is the president of edX, and he helped develop an electrical engineering course for the fall. He says the goal is to reinvent education worldwide and on campus. Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau made similar comments as he expressed a commitment to "excellence in online education." He says the goals are to bring higher education to more people and to enrich the quality of campus-based education. And he said he believes that working with the not-for-profit model of edX is the best way to do that. 

EdX faces for-profit competitors. One is Udacity, co-founded by Sebastian Thrun at Stanford University. Another is Coursera, started by two other Stanford computer scientists, Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng. In fact, some Berkeley professors have been teaching free courses through Coursera. Coursera started with four universities and last week announced a big expansion for the fall.One of the new partners is the University of Virginia. Just last month its popular president, Teresa Sullivan, had to resign. The governing board forced her out in part over suggestions that she was not moving fast enough into this new world of online education. But two weeks later, after campus protests, the board rehired her.And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Jerilyn Watson

Industrial and Nuclear Engineering Course

Sixty teenagers from across the UK have been learning how to solve some of the key challenges facing the nuclear industry in a four-day residential course, held at Lancaster University, organised by educational charity The Smallpeice Trust and sponsored by the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL).Leamington Spa, United Kingdom, July 22, 2012  From 16th to 19th July, sixty teenagers from across the UK have been learning how to solve some of the key challenges facing the nuclear industry. The four-day residential course, held at Lancaster University, was organised by educational charity The Smallpeice Trust and sponsored by the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL).

Over the four days, the 14 to 16 year old students took part in a combination of presentations, workshops, practical ‘design and make’ projects, and a final assessment which involved wearing full protective clothing. A variety of topical subjects were tackled including radiation, the environment, health and safety and decommissioning of waste.The design-and-make project challenged students to move spent nuclear fuel from a storage facility. It involved the students pitching their idea in a “Dragon’s Den” type of scenario in order to gain funding, allowing them to then go out and make their design.

As well as working on the design, build and test elements of the projects, they developed life skills such as teamwork, communication, problem solving, time management, finance and presentation. The social programme included a film night, the ‘rocket’ challenge and culminated in a formal dinner and disco where students and supporting organisations had the opportunity to socialise and share their experiences of the week.NNL Senior Fellow Dominic Rhodes commented,This is the 7th year that NNL have sponsored this course and as in previous years  the interest, enthusiasm and innovation shown by the students have been phenomenal. The nuclear industry offers great career opportunities to young people, and if some of the students who have been on the course this week were to go on to consider nuclear as a career choice  either in NNL or elsewhere in the industry then that would be an additional bonus. They have certainly displayed some of the talent and passion which we look for when we are looking for new recruits."

Spokesperson for The Smallpeice Trust, Gemma Murphy added, “Our partnership with NNL has enabled us to enthuse scientists and engineers of tomorrow and highlight the benefits of careers in the field of nuclear engineering. This year’s course has been a resounding success and we have been most impressed by the calibre of the students.The Nuclear Engineering course is organised by independent educational charity, The Smallpeice Trust, and is part of an ongoing programme of residential courses to help young people aged 13 to 18 learn and develop skills in engineering, design, technology and manufacturing. Through running residential courses and STEM enrichment days, The Trust has reached out to 18,175 students across the UK in the past year.The new course timetable for 2013 will be launched in the autumn school term.  The Smallpeice Trust is an independent charitable trust which promotes engineering as a career, primarily through the provision of residential courses for young people aged 13 to 18.The Smallpeice Trust was founded in 1966 by Dr Cosby Smallpeice, a pioneering engineer and inventor of the Smallpeice Lathe. Following the stock market flotation of his company Martonair, Dr Smallpeice invested his energy and part of his personal fortune to set up the Trust to ensure that British industry could continuously benefit from his proven design and engineering philosophies: “Simplicity in design, economy in production.The Trust is now governed by an eminent board of non-executive trustees and members from a diverse range of engineering, Industrial Engineering, educational and professional bodies.

In the past academic year, The Smallpeice Trust has reached out to 18,175 young people through 37 different subsidised 4-day residential courses and 1-day in-school STEM Days. The Smallpeice Trust has also trained 674 teachers to enhance their delivery of STEM in the classroom.A strong interface is maintained with industry, education and professional bodies that help to support, promote and develop the courses. Through these relationships the Trust is also able to provide a number of tailored or specialised courses.

The National Nuclear Laboratory:

Launched in July 2008, the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) provides a full range of research and technology services in support of the full nuclear fuel cycle. NNL has a world-leading combination of experience, facilities and technology, making it a respected international centre of nuclear research and development.With the Government concluding that NNL contains a number of critical skills and facilities essential to support the nuclear industry in the UK, NNL has a key objective to help safeguard and develop nuclear expertise and multifunctional nuclear laboratory facilities on several sites. Major objectives include a continued commitment to providing service excellence for customers and acting as a trusted provider of independent, authoritative advice on nuclear issues to Government.

First Competency-Based Online Learning Programs launched by NAU

Northern Arizona University (NAU) and Pearson today announced a partnership to create the region's first competency-based online learning degree programs, as part of NAU's new Personalized Learning Division. Pearson will collaborate closely with NAU to design more than 90 completely online competency-based courses. The courses will be offered through the Pearson LearningStudio online learning platform. Course modules will include readiness assessment and remediation, and align with degree program competencies. The programs will be available in January 2013.

Personalized Learning at NAU allows students to jump-start certain bachelor's degree programs by pre-testing to determine what they already know, allowing them to receive credits for prior learning and experience. The program then provides a variety of individualized academic resources to ensure steady progress, including extensive mentoring. Students work online at their own pace, receiving assistance based on frequent assessments of their needs and learning styles. Faculty will actively participate by advising and mentoring, using information gained from student tests and other inputs to offer customized strategies for success.

"With Personalized Learning, we are opening a new era in academic instruction at Northern Arizona University. This program is a huge step toward transforming our institution through technology. Partnering with Pearson, a proven leader in content development and delivery, has helped us to realize our vision for this next-generation learning program," said Dr. John Haeger, President of Northern Arizona University.Northern Arizona University is taking a leadership role in creating innovative approaches to learning that help drive student success with its online competency-based program. Pearson's collaboration with NAU will create a robust, efficacy-based program that will deliver a truly personalized learning experience. We anticipate seeing a growing number of institutions looking to implement similar programs," said Don Kilburn, Vice Chairman of Pearson Higher Education and CEO of Pearson Learning Solutions.

Through the partnership, NAU will work with Pearson's curriculum design team to develop courses for three fully online Baccalaureate degrees, including Computer Information Technology, Business Administration, Industrial Engineering and Liberal Studies. Courses will utilize learning outcomes to allow students to demonstrate competencies; a wide range of high quality content that includes readiness testing and remediation support; and advanced data analytics applications to monitor and analyze trends in student performance, and track their achievement of learning objectives.

About Northern Arizona University

Northern Arizona University is one of three state universities in Arizona with its main campus located in Flagstaff and dozens of statewide campuses as well as online learning options. The university is primarily a four-year, high-research, residential campus offering bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees, with additional degrees offered across the state and online.

In Andhra, you can still get admission in Engineering

courses as they belong to Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities.According to officials in the education department, despite scoring zero in EAMCET Engineering, Agriculture Sciences,Electrical Engineering and Medical Common Entrance Test), these students have qualified as they got the minimum 40 percent marks in the qualifying XII exam.While nine students will get admission into engineering colleges, 13 can pursue other courses except MBBS. Even this was possible till 2008 when the Medical Council of India (MCI) tightened the norms.The Dalit/tribal students who qualified despite scoring zero in the medical stream in EAMCET can get admissions into agriculture, veterinary and horticulture courses.The Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU), Hyderabad, conducts EAMCET every year for admission into engineering, medical, dental and agriculture courses both in government and private colleges in the state. The results of EAMCET 2012 were announced last week.Of 90,917 students who wrote EAMCET in the medicine stream, 83,686 qualified.For the general category students, the competition will be tough with only 4,950 seats available in 37 medical colleges and 1,870 seats in 21 dental colleges.

Andhra Pradesh has the highest number of engineering colleges (671) in the country.Of 283,477 students who wrote engineering entrance, 223,886 have qualified. This number has come down to about 200,000 as many students did not pass the XII exam.This means over 100,000 engineering seats would still go vacant in the academic year 2012-13. The state has 321,000 engineering seats.Academics say the number of vacant seats in engineering colleges would be even higher as the top rankers will opt for the Indian Institute of Technology.Till 2010, passing XII exam was enough to get admission into engineering college even if the students score zero in EAMCET.Last year, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) prescribed a cut off percentage of 50 in 12 Class for general category and 40 percent for the reserved quota students.

The total marks in EAMCET are 160, and for the general category and the qualifying marks are 25 percent of the total.Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan, who is the chancellor of all universities in the state, is unhappy over the state of affairs.Addressing JNTU Hyderabad convocation in May, he disapproved of the trend of giving admissions to students who don't score a single mark in EAMCET.There should be some minimum qualifying marks. What do you expect of such students, who score zero, to do in classrooms? Do you want to develop an inferiority complex among such students? he asked.Last year, 26 out of 73 students who got zero marks in EAMCET were declared qualified. Of them, 17 got admissions into engineering and nine in agriculture/veterinary colleges. IANS     

Mechanical engineering first choice of students seeking admission to diploma courses this year

Mechanical engineering seems to be the first choice of students seeking admission to diploma courses this year.Admission Committee for Professional Diploma Courses (ACPDC) said that in the first mock round of admissions, 82, 239 students out of the total 93,190 submitted their choice. The total number choices filled was 35,54,596. The students have to fill in their choice of subjects and colleges in the mock round. They can choose any number of subjects ranging from just one over 100.

The mock round is done online. Of the total 47,323 seats in nearly 96 diploma colleges, only about 100 seats remained vacant. Mechanical engineering topped the list of subjects chosen with 54,4674 choices being filled in. AS many as 394850 choices went in favor of electrical engineering, while 3,64,306 choices were for civil engineering. Computers was chosen 2,02,574 times. Textile design was the least preferred with only 140 choices.Nearly 3646 new students registered for admissions, according to a press release issued by ACPDC. Also, 2,375 forms have been distributed in the last three days.

Study Abroad in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is the starkest mix of medieval and modern of any country in the world. It is ranked seventeenth in global competitiveness by the World Economic Forum and boasts world-class skyscrapers and infrastructure; but it is ruled by an aging and sclerotic absolute monarchy that kowtows to its deeply conservative religious establishment. Just last week, Saudi Arabia beheaded a man found guilty of “witchcraft and sorcery. At least two people met a similarly grizzly end last year for sorcery. With one foot in the seventh century and one in the twenty-first, Saudi Arabia’s balancing act seems more improbable every year.

One factor that could tip the scales toward modernity is the King Abdullah Scholarship Program that has sent some 140,000 Saudi students to study abroad. Started in 2005, the scholarship program has so far cost the government more than 20 billion riyals ($5.3 billion); it covers all tuition plus living expenses. For women, who make up just over 20 percent of the scholarship recipients (and one-third of the recipients in the U.S.), the government grant also pays for a male escort (typically a husband, but sometimes a brother) who is required to travel with her. Fully half of the students are studying in the United States. That makes Saudi Arabia the third largest source of foreign students in the US, behind only China and India. Just to put that in perspective, Saudi Arabia’s population is about one-fiftieth of those Asian giants.

King Abdullah launched the scholarship program as a way of boosting the skills and capabilities of today’s large youth generation. Saudi Arabia has pursued for years an unsuccessful program of “Saudization”–replacing foreign workers with Saudi nationals to address its high unemployment rates. But for the most part, Saudis don’t want to do the menial tasks that foreigners do and are not qualified for the higher skilled jobs that go to expats. Despite Saudization efforts, the Saudi portion of the private sector workforce has actually declined in recent years and is now only about ten percent. The scholarship program was designed to address that problem. Students are steered into technical studies, with a focus on science, engineering, Business Administration and medicine.

The Saudi government is also pursuing a range of educational reform efforts at home, including opening new Saudi universities and tackling the woeful state of public education. Indeed, close to a quarter of this year’s budget (168 billion riyals) is devoted to education and manpower training, a record amount for the Saudi Arabia. But educational reforms come up against deeply entrenched resistance in many countries, and Saudi Arabia is no exception. Religious conservatives have tried to hold on to curriculum and pedagogy and have resisted efforts to introduce more STEM learning science, technology, engineering, and math and English language. In February 2009, King Abdullah replaced the Minister of Education with his reform-minded son-in-law.

The beauty of the overseas scholarship program is its immediacy and independence from any messy business of domestic reforms that can take years, if not decades. It also throws a sizable portion of today’s 20-something generation into a vastly different culture. In fact, part of the rationale of the program is to make Saudi Arabia a more open society. Scholarship recipients are chosen not just from upper middle class elites who have been privately educated, but also from small towns and poorer regions of the country. Not surprisingly, conservatives have denounced the program and blame any signs of cultural change on the youth’s exposure to the West through overseas study. On blogs and on Twitter, critics have denounced the scholarships for every vice, including increased smoking and women discarding the niqab, the traditional face covering.

Perhaps partly in response to these criticisms, the Kingdom is now expanding the scholarship program to allow young people to attend local universities for their degrees. The Ministry of Education has launched a new five year program costing 4 billion riyals to provide 10,000 scholarships for study in Saudi Arabia. While this effort will help improve the skills of young people, it misses out on the biggest benefit of the overseas scholarships, which undoubtedly is the exposure to more modern, open, and tolerant societies.

Preparing for study abroad

When I travel to China to visit family and friends, one of the questions I get asked most frequently is "when is the best time to send my children to study abroad"?I always reply: it depends on how prepared your children are.How should my children prepare?" these inquirers further probe.Should they take English classes? How about the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language)? These speculations almost always center around testing. If parents are asked what else studying abroad entails, people may mention other indicators of academic success. Simply put, academic preparations are what most Chinese families fixate on.While an outstanding academic background might be enough to gain admission into top colleges, it is far from sufficient to ensure a successful life abroad. Social and emotional preparations are integral to a successful move to a totally new environment that students often set their feet on for the first time.Students can also get a lot of exposure while studying in such universities and different course Global Production Engineering,Economics and Management and Master of Architecture.

This, however, eclipses the attention of most students and their parents in seeking to study abroad. Students are often most concerned about what schools they will apply to, what fields of study they will choose, etc. They rarely bother to think about basic life skills, ranging from cooking and driving to personal and professional networking. Once abroad, students may share a flat with roommates for the first time in their life, and their roommates may come from distinctly different cultural and social backgrounds. How to make a home in a new place may pose enormous challenges, yet is immeasurably significant for a newcomer who is away from their family and friends.Colleges and universities in the US are often the top choice for a large majority of Chinese students and their families. The lush and picturesque campuses, inspiring professors, well-equipped classrooms and labs are often the first things that come to the minds of those aspiring applicants. However, these students may have little to no awareness that most of the American universities are located in small towns or countryside, where urban amenities such as public transportation, shopping malls and familiar entertainment like karaoke might be out of reach. In fact, seasoned Chinese students in American universities have dubbed the US as a "big countryside", which might be antithetical to the images many Chinese students conjure up in their minds before going there.

If they are not prepared for this culture shock, students may feel lonely, lost, and likely homesick. That's exactly why I argue that social and psychological preparations are keys to a successful life studying abroad.I came to Johns Hopkins as a graduate student 12 years ago, and then started to teach at Syracuse University six years ago. Not surprisingly, I am familiar with the international student life at American universities. I have the following suggestions for those aiming to socially and psychologically prepare for studying abroad, particularly at American universities.First, be aware. The initial step towards getting ready is to be aware of the difference between the prospective environments that one desires to study and the home environment that one is accustomed to. The more knowledge and awareness of the differences you have, more prepared you are. Try to get connected with people already living in the new environment and get concrete information on the living and studying community there. Social media now facilitates this kind of connection. Usually major American universities have a CSSA - Chinese Student and Scholar Association, the organization that often can provide much information on living and studying from the perspective of Chinese students. Getting connected with such organizations prior to arrival is a good idea.

Second, be independent. If there is only one word to characterize life abroad, independence would be it. Independence in basic life skills and independence in studies are two pillars of life for an international student. Many Chinese students have to learn such essential skills as cooking and other household chores for the first time. That's not hard if one is open for change and learning. More challenging is gaining an independent study style. Students must recognize that the American education system distinguishes itself by encouraging students to be an independent, creative and critical thinkers and learners. Under such a system, students, college students in particular, are often required to conduct independent course projects, including identifying the topic of interest, to conducting research and writing. Independence is the bread and butter of learning at American universities.Third, be proactive. Independent ability and mentality does not mean living in isolation. Instead, being proactive and reaching out for help is integral to exerting one's independence. In this increasingly interconnected world, interdependence is integral to success. Newly arrived students essentially have to formulate their own social networks, acquaintances and friends to fulfill their basic needs, which could range from getting a ride to the store for food to spending some quality social time together. Those who are passive socially are more likely to feel lonely, upset, or even depressed. This in turn negatively impacts their ability to lead an independent life. As such, acquiring more social experience and sharpening interpersonal skills prior to studying abroad can help students be prepared.

Studying abroad is a major life decision that entails preparations on all fronts, not just academic studies. Social and psychological readiness is a key dimension to success yet it is often neglected by many students and their parents. Starting to pay attention to these factors, even if you don't have much time before you go, can still make a huge difference in your experience once you get there.Ma Yingyi is currently an Assistant Professor in Sociology at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. She is also an affiliated faculty member with the Women's Study Department and the program of Asia/Asian American. She obtained her PhD in Sociology at Johns Hopkins University in 2007. Her work explores issues of social inequality related to education, gender and migration.

Online business courses

Young B-school aspirants from the city, be it students or mid-career professionals, have found a new way to earn an MBA degree. Instead of enrolling themselves in a B-school, they are seeking online educational solutions. Online MBA, which allows students to attend classes on internet-based audio and video platforms, has become the new in-thing for business education in the city.According to students who have opted for these online courses,Business Administration,Electrical Engineering

and Economics and Management  learning through a personal computer and a handheld device can be as exciting and enriching as classroom lectures.

They say that online education actually enables students to learn from top management professionals in the country and abroad as their pre-recorded lectures are more insightful than most classroom lectures.Students who already have B-school degrees are also opting for online classes to hone their management skills. A large number of students who have taken these e-courses are already employed in various firms in the city.I wanted to join an MBA programme at one of the IIMs but also wanted to stick to my job. The online executive programme was the best option available and so I enrolled for it. I have finished the first of a two semester course and, so far, it has been a good learning experience, said Krishna Pallavi, a student from Hyderabad who has signed up for the e-MBA programme offered by myBskool.com in collaboration with IMT Ghaziabad.

Students said that the portal provides interactive features through which they can contact lecturers at IMT Ghaziabad to clear their doubts.Officials from myBskool.com said that the online portal had found many takers in Hyderabad with many more expected to join through the ongoing admission process. About 5% of its 800 seats have been taken up by students from the state.Officials running the portal said that the idea behind starting the online classroom was to offer high quality business education at a low cost. "The business programmes at most of the top B-schools are expensive with the fee ranging between Rs 7 and Rs 15 lakh.An online MBA programme is the best option for those wanting to save money and do an MBA without taking a break from their jobs," said K Swaminathan, director of myBskool.com.The online MBA degree costs a minimum of Rs 50,000. He said that his portal tied up with IMT Ghaziabad in December 2011 to rope in lecturers for online classrooms.Now, renowned names like the Harvard School of Business have decided to provide business lessons online given the demand for MBA degree holders.

Results of Maharashtra Health and Technology Common Entrance Test 2012 has been announced on Saturday

Students who want to pursue their career in medical  and engineering gave MHT-CET 2012 exams on May 12, 2011 and and 3,34,715 students appeared for the exam. The results are availble on the website of the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) and Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) on Saturday.

Students can check the results online by clicking on the link below.Out of which 2,80,042 appeared for engineering courses and 2,15,550 appeared for health sciences and pharmacy courses.A total of 58,001 students from Pune have cleared the exams, including engineering, health sciences and pharmacy. Fergusson College student Esha Agarwal is the highest scorer in the city as per the latest reports received on Friday evening.

Start an online course business

Online courses continue to be a trend. With more people go to the Internet to find out about anything and share them on social media, online courses business – in the eyes of online entrepreneurs – will always be a lucrative online business idea. Let’s explore deeper about the online courses business model using Udemy as a success story.

Online courses enable you to learn from anywhere, anytime especially when they are not as formal as taking online courses from online universities. The courses we are talking here are those helping you to get knowledge about one particular subject you want to master, such as this popular free course from Udemy, An Entrepreneur’s Checklist by Steve Blank, Serial Entrepreneur.

Of course, there are plenty of premium or paid online courses available, typically focusing on specialised topics, such as this popular online course, Raising Money for Startups by Startup University.Udemy is one of the most popular online course websites enabling anyone to teach and learn online. You can access hundreds of online courses – both free and paid – on almost any subjects you can think of. It is well known as a place to get experts insight for free. But not only free courses, Udemy also offer paid courses from well-known educational organizations and experts. You can get a good one-page intro to Udemy from this Udemy wiki.

Udemy has been featured by big time publications, such as The New York Times, TechCrunch, Fast Company, and many more, and has been touted as a platform offering great classroom-like learning experience.Udemy offers a self-serving online learning platform meaning, if you are an online course creator, you can build your course right from the inside of your Udemy account using the available tools very straightforward, with no technical skills required. You can add everything documents, videos, slideshows, etc. and package them as a course.

Regarding promotion, you – as an online instructor – can integrate your course with Facebook, as well as partnering with affiliate marketers to promote your online courses.If you are a learner, you can just choose the courses you are interested in and sign-up to access them. Plain and simple.
How to generate revenues from online courses business?So, how to make money from online courses website like Udemy? Well, as what Udemy offers is a free-to-use web-based platform, the site is making money by taking 30 percent of instructors’ paid courses revenue. It is justifiable, as the tools are powerful, and the exposure to your courses is great, via direct visits to Udemy, search engines and social media.

Alternatively, if you want to go all-out offering free online courses only, you can incorporate ad-supported courses, making money from ad impressions and/or ad clicks.
Key success factors.The monetization model is pretty simple. What’s more complex is on how to build a powerful learning platform that is simple enough for non-techie instructors and learners to use – and get the words out about it. Moreover, the ability to integrate your online courses site with Facebook and other popular social sites also detrimental to your success.

Here’s another one: Just like any online business ideas, yours are most likely not original; there are those who have done what you are going to do so, the best practice is for you to make it better and/or go niche.How to make the platform better? Well, you could offer something that can answer the needs of instructors and learners alike. While that is not easy, going niche is in my opinion – a more feasible strategy.You could offer niche online courses for example, you can start a food and beverage online courses website, focusing on courses like how to make a better truffle, how to start a restaurant business, and so on.
Takeaway

Like what I mentioned above, to enhance your chance for success, you need to observe, imitate and modify. You need to learn how Udemy and other platforms work, inside and out. Only by doing so you can see what aspects you can improve.Remember, doing the above is just part of the story. Having a better platform built and assuming you will get a definite success is a misconception; “just built it and they will come” is simply misleading.You need to buzz your online courses business to the right influencers and audiences; you need to attract business evangelists. Doing so, you can leverage your resources to focus on value adding activities.

Engineering tops as most favoured discipline

Newcastle University, UK, has introduced 19 new postgraduate courses and six Master's of research programmes in architecture, biomedicine, biosciences , business and management, finance and accounting civil and mechanical engineering and computer sciences. These courses are targeted for Indian students who have expressed interest in the subjects.

"Newcastle University is continuing to grow its portfolio of courses to appeal to an increasingly important international market. For example, the rapid development in the field of management, biosciences, biotechnology , engineering and architecture in India has resulted in a huge market demand for skilled professionals in these disciplines. The courses focus on achieving research excellence," said Preety Bansal, country manager, Newcastle University.

The new courses introduced this year include architectural design research, future landscape imaginaries, sustainable buildings and environments, diabetes, mitochondrial biology and medicine, oncology for the pharmaceutical industry, bioinformatics, neuroinformatics, computational systems biology, synthetic biology, management and business studies (research), finance and economics (research), biomedical engineering, design and manufacturing engineering, low carbon transport engineering, environmental and petroleum geochemistry, environmental consultancy and intelligent transport systems.