Anna University expands its wings to Dubai

Chennai: Anna University got approval to open up its campus in Dubai from its academic council on 4th February.

Vice-Chancellor of the university, P. Mannar Jawahar said that from the upcoming academic year four new undergraduate courses in the field of civil engineering, automobile, electrical and chemical would start in the new campus in Dubai.

Faculties from Anna University will set up the new facilities in Dubai and provide classes to the students of the university.

To culminate the initiative, the university also joined hands with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) to offer its first ever joint Ph.D degree. In the beginning, ten students from India as well as America will get admission for joint degree programme to do research in five areas of nanotechnology, biotechnology, transportation, construction engineering, information technology and telecommunications.

"Students joining the Ph.D programme will have to spend two years of research at UNL and two years at Anna University," said David Allen, Dean of the College of Engineering, UNL.

He further added that the top priority would be to work on crystal growth research as the faculties from both the institutes had built good relationship.

Indian students will be provided additional assistantship to meet their expenses.

New sex education module to stress on abstinence - NACO

New Delhi: Condom and safe sex are terms that will find no mention in the new sex education module being devised for school students in India. It will instead stress on abstinence, the National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) announced Monday.

NACO director-general Sujatha Rao said the module would be adopted after intensive consultations with all partners, including parents and teachers.

"There will be no mention of condom or safe sex in the revised module on life-skill education programme. But we will be focussing on the aspirations of the youngsters and will also talk about being faithful to one's partner and abstinence. There should be no hypocrisy on the subject," Rao told journalists at a meet on Response to HIV/AIDS: Forging Partnership with the Media.

The decision to introduce sex education in India's schools was aimed primarily at creating awareness about HIV/AIDS since 2.5 million people in the country suffer from the disease. However, the module created a furore.

One of the main objections was a flip chart prepared for teachers jointly by the UN Children's Fund (Unicef) and the government-controlled NACO.

Educationists themselves turned against the programme and after states like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka banned it, NACO formed a committee last year to make a new module.

After endless parleys, the committee managed to finalise a new tool kit that would not have any flip charts, Rao said.

NACO has undertaken a series of consultations, involving conservative as well as progressive people and groups before finalising the module.

"The youngsters need to get the right information. The children are growing in an unsafe environment. We have called a meeting of directors of NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) tomorrow (Tuesday) on the revised module," she said.

The current module would not have too many illustrations and drawings. Having burnt its hands earlier, NACO said this time it would first send the module to each state education department for a feedback.

Rao said that after the meeting with NCERT, secretaries of all states would be consulted, followed with consultations with teachers and parents.

"The youngsters need education and we should not forget that 15 percent of all pregnancies are those of teenagers," Rao added.

MGR medical university to conduct courses in Tamil

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Government-run MGR Medical University announced on Monday that from August its medium of instruction would be Tamil.

"A child hears conversation around him or her some five months before birth and has the language imprinted in the mind. Therefore, comprehension in one's mother tongue is the best for any student and more so in medicine," K. Mir Mustapha, the varsity's vice-chancellor, told reporters here.

This is the first time that medical courses will be taught in local languages in India.

New central varsity to come up in Tiruvarur

Chennai: The Government of Tamil Nadu will setup a state-of-art Central University in the Tiruvarur district. The state government has also started identifying buildings to locate the university temporarily.
The decision was taken in a two-day annual conference which was attended by Chief Minister, M. Karunanidhi along with the district collectors and police officers.
Karunanidhi urged all the collectors present at the conference to speed up the process of selecting areas for setting up government medical colleges in the state.
After reviewing the ongoing project reports, the Chief Minister ordered all concerned officials to make sure that the project runs according as per the schedule.
The state government will also start the construction of a Rs.100 crore library in October, later this year. The construction of the library is scheduled to be completed by March 2009.
It was also decided during the meeting that the construction of a 20-acre world class botanical garden on Cathedral Road will begin shortly.