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Australia eases visa laws for Indian, Chinese students

[email protected] (Agencies)
March 22, 2014

Australia_visa_lawsMelbourne, Mar 22: In a significant reform of the immigration laws affecting international students, Australia has eased the financial requirements for the visa applicants from "high risk" countries like India, China and Pakistan.

International students from the so-called high risk countries would not be assessed according to the stringent Assessment Level 4 and 5 criteria now as they have been removed. The changes have been made to implement the recommendations made by the a 'Review of the Student Visa Assessment Level Framework 2013' and would come into effect from March 22.

"This is certainly good news, especially for Indian students who can now realise their dream of getting quality education in Australia," says a Melbourne-based education and immigration consultant Jag Khairra.

"The change in assessment levels for countries like India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan will help boost number of students from these countries," he opined.

The direct implication of the March 22 changes would be that the international students from countries like India, China and Pakistan would have to show lesser amount of money in order to gain entry to Australia. These students would be now be required to provide evidence of funds for 12 months' study in Australia instead of 18 months.

"Great news for students from India who will now show half the funds for diploma-level courses than before," said a Sydney-based vocational college owner, Moninder Singh, in a communique to IANS.

"This would mean students from countries like India and Pakistan would be able to apply for a student visa with up to A$20,000 (approximately Rs.1.1 million) less in the bank," Moninder Singh added.

This announcement is likely to be welcomed by the Vocational Education and Training (VET) and English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students (ELICOS) sector institutes who have been affected by a significant downturn in the number of international student enrolments.

"The VET sector, which has been struggling from the last three-four years, shall see the revival in the education industry," Khairra said while talking to IANS.

The Australian VET sector providers experienced a dramatic drop in the number of enrolments from India after the alleged racist attacks on south Asian students in 2009. The plummeting graph became much worse as the Labour government decided to tighten the visa laws for students from higher Assessment Level countries (e.g. India, China, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, etc.) studying in the VET institutes.

Even before the latest reforms, Australian has been gaining traction as a favoured destination for Indian students wishing to study overseas. The overall number of Indians applying for Australian student visa has experienced a dramatic increase (115 percent) in the past one year or so. The visa grants from India has also gone up in three figures.

Even though the number of Indian students getting Australian visa is very small compared to the pre-2009 figures, the South Asian country continues to be the second-largest source country for international student enrolments in Australia.

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News Network
August 9,2020

 

New Delhi, Aug 9: With the National Education Policy 2020 recognising the need for flexibility in choosing the subjects that a student wants to study, implementation of this policy will boost science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education in India, edtech startup SP Robotic Works has said.

The new education policy also recognised that skills like coding and scientific temper and evidence-based thinking should be learned by all students to become good, successful, innovative, adaptable and productive human beings in today's rapidly changing world.

With the semester-based pattern, there is a lot of relaxation with respect to a child's choice to select their interest in subjects, according to Sneha Priya, CEO and co-founder, SP Robotic Works.

"This will promote the kids to explore various segments which otherwise I believe was restricted to an extent," Priya told IANS in an interview.

On July 29, the Union Cabinet gave its approval to a new National Education Policy (NEP) which aims at bringing about several changes in the education system from the school to college level.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that the NEP is the foundation of a "new India" and that it will help close the gap between education and research.

It is now well recognised that in opening the door to myriad opportunities offered by STEM education, online platforms have played a pivotal role.

Coding-related courses have picked up well and the online platforms have seen a lot of kids enrol in block programming, artificial intelligence (AI) and android app development.

"As the field of STEM education gained immense popularity in India, this online learning platform has seen 80 per cent increase in the number of renewal of programmes, which implies the increase in interest and is a positive sign for the future of STEM education," she said.
The proposal to introduce coding from Class 6 and onwards is one of the best decisions of the policy, Priya added.

"With importance being given to coding in the NEP, the schools will be more open to adopting new ways to ensure their children master in what they are learning which will automatically result in better outcomes," she opined.

"Focus on these skills is crucial during the formative years for the development of the children. Hence, this new policy will prove beneficial for growing kids to gather their interest in coding at an early stage," she said.

According to Priya, it is important to deliver the coding concepts in the right manner to captivate and encourage the child to engross his/her attention towards the subject.

She also stressed that both robotics and coding courses have seen a huge upsurge this year.
In addition to what is being taught at school, the online learning platform has seen an increased number of queries from parents with regards to shaping up their child's coding skills.

"Especially with the current situation, the Covid-i9 lockdown has given more time to students to explore their interest in this field and we have seen double the demand in participation just in the previous few months from children," Priya quipped.

Even during the lockdown, SP Robotic Works said they have seen an increase of 55 per cent in the revenues.

"Additionally, we have seen around 1 lakh new enrolments during the last four months which demonstrates that Indian children are exploring their interests across segments," the CEO said.
"For the next six months, our focus is going to continue educating and engaging more students in experiential learning as we work towards building a nation that's truly 'Aatmanirbhar'," Priya noted.

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Media Release
January 8,2020

Mangaluru, Jan 8: The centenary year of St. Agnes College got off to a grand start on January 3, 2020 with a day of commemoration that involved staff, students, alumni and benefactors. The college is all set to celebrate its centenary with the community of Mangaluru on January 10, 2020 from 9.30 a.m. to 6.30 p.m with a daylong festival – Knowledge Factory. It will be held at the newly inaugurated air-conditioned auditorium with over 1000 attendees expected to be present. 

KNOWLEDGE FACTORY is the first of the five mega centenary programmes that St. Agnes College has envisaged.  The Promise Foundation and niiti Consulting – two organisations headquartered in the national capital under the mentorship of veteran journalist Madhavan Narayan are collaborating with the college to bring this event to Mangaluru for the first time.  A dozen icons will share the stage throughout the day and bring forth their thoughts and ideas enabling a culture of learning through fire-side chats and keynotes. 

The speakers include Lisa Ray, Indo-Canadian Actor and Author; Sunil Buch, Director, Live Nation; Dipannita Sharma, Actor and Supermodel; Kriti Tula, Co-Founder and Creative Director, Doodlage; Nandini Srikar, Singer and Composer; Prakash Belawadi, Movie and Theatre Actor,  Manasi Paresh Kumar, Senior Journalist; Swati Pande, Co-Founder and CEO, Arboreal; Anuradha Kedia Parekh, Co-Founder, The Better India; Arokiaswamy Velumani, Founder and Chairman, Thyrocare Technologies; Heena Sidhu, the former world  number 1 pistol shooter. The event anchor will be the celebrity news reader Rini Simon Khanna who has been anchoring the event since its first edition in 2017.

Gaurava Yadav, a well-known quiz master will conduct a quiz focussed on History.  Based on a written prelims that will take place at 8.15 am in the designated room, four teams of two members each will compete in the finals at 4.45 pm. The winning team will receive a prize of INR 30,000 and the runner up team will receive INR.20,000/-    

The event is put together by social entrepreneurs - Meena Vadiyanathan and Amith Prabhu (who is of Mangalorean origin). All who desire to attend the event and participate in the quiz may buy donor passes costing Rs 500/- per head which includes lunch.  Sale of donor passes will close on the 8th. The college cordially invites the community of Mangaluru to join hands with it in making this programme a great success. 

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Media Release
January 14,2020

Mangaluru, Jan 14: The Star Education Institute organized Talents day celebration on 14th January 2020.

This program was presided by Janab Muhammed Saleem Malar, the Director of Star Education Institute, who gave the message about the encouragement of students talent.

The Chief guest of today’s program was Sunil Kumar Bajal , Ex- President old students union Mangaluru, who gave a message about Young generation and their role in the development of the nation.

Mrs. Prabha Naveen, Principal of Star Education Institute who gave the report of the activities of the Institute.

Mohammed Fatheen SPL and Zohara Farahath Secretary were also present on the dias.

Miss. Raksha P. J Science faculty welcomed the gathering. Miss Dipthi D’silva, Commerce faculty and Miss. Thanushree Computer faculty call out the prize list. Mrs. Deepa Lokanath, Commerce faculty proposed a vote of thanks. This programme was anchored by Mrs. Mohini. S. Thereafter the cultural programme was presented by the students.

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