Exam scamThe aspirations of tens of thousands of prospective M.B.A. students in India were thrown into confusion when the government cancelled the university-entrance examination that they were in the middle of taking, after it was learned that the questions and answers had been leaked and were being sold.
The exam was for entrance to the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management. Police arrested 42-year-old Ranjit Singh, alias Kumar Suman Singh, who is accused of selling exams in many disciplines, including medicine, over a period of many years. One source said, ,,Thanks to him, the country has thousands of undeserving doctors, engineers, MBAs and bankers.” Singh’s exam scam earned him hundreds of thousands of dollars, enabling him to buy a pharmaceutical company, car dealership, and an import/export business, through which he laundered his money. Singh had many contacts who supplied him with the exam papers, which he then sold to students. ,,He had sources in the printing presses, post offices or bank lockers at the exam centres where the exam papers were kept,” a source said.
Delft humour
The burghers of Den Haag were given a taste of Delft student ‘humor’ one evening last week, when the police received a call that a young man was taped to a lamp post. The police rushed to the scene, only to find four drunken Delft students. Apparently, as part of a student joke, the students had taped one their fellows to the lamp post. Passersby who witnessed this happening, failed to see the obvious humour of it and called the police. The police reprimanded the students, who promised not to repeat this joke
Student protests
Hundreds of Turkish students protesting against state control of the country’s universities clashed with riot police in Istanbul and the capital Ankara, leaving at least 60 people injured. The protests marked the 22nd anniversary of the creation, one year after Turkey%s 1980 military coup, of the Higher Education Council (YOK), which put formerly autonomous universities under tight state control. Before the YOK was set up universities were often the scene of violent clashes between left and right wing students, one of the reasons given by the army for staging its coup.
Hardliners
Recently, 12 TU Delft professors proposed a binding academic evaluation for first-year students. Leiden University already uses this academic evaluation system: bachelor’s degree students failing to earn enough first-year course credits are expelled from the degree course. Will Delft adopt this system? The letter the 12 professors sent to the Executive Board rekindled this debate. They propose the TU adopt this binding academic evaluation, with no more than three ‘resit’ exams allowed per subject. Concern about the academic quality of students seems to be the professors’ main motivation. ,,In the recent report about education at TU Delft you could find many excellent ideas, but the personal responsibility of students was barely mentioned,” says Professor Ian Young. But Paul Rullmann, an Executive Board member and driving force between the education report, has grave doubts about the idea. ,,One should demand a certain level of academic standard from the students, but first the education has to be good enough,” he says. ,,At this moment, intelligent and motivated students often have to cope with unnecessary barriers.” Rullmann believes binding academic evaluations would force many talented students to drop out.
Student protests II
South African students staged violent protests against a government plan to increase tuition fees and restructure the nation’s higher-education system. The plan seeks to eliminate redundancy by merging historically black institutions into historically white ones. At the University of the North West in Mafikeng, eight students were arrested by police who fired teargas and rubber bullets after students barricaded the main entrance. ,,Students have asked for an audience with the authorities, but the government and University Council seem to think students aren%t deserving of consultation,” opposition politician Bantu Holomisa said.
Exam scam
The aspirations of tens of thousands of prospective M.B.A. students in India were thrown into confusion when the government cancelled the university-entrance examination that they were in the middle of taking, after it was learned that the questions and answers had been leaked and were being sold. The exam was for entrance to the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management. Police arrested 42-year-old Ranjit Singh, alias Kumar Suman Singh, who is accused of selling exams in many disciplines, including medicine, over a period of many years. One source said, ,,Thanks to him, the country has thousands of undeserving doctors, engineers, MBAs and bankers.” Singh’s exam scam earned him hundreds of thousands of dollars, enabling him to buy a pharmaceutical company, car dealership, and an import/export business, through which he laundered his money. Singh had many contacts who supplied him with the exam papers, which he then sold to students. ,,He had sources in the printing presses, post offices or bank lockers at the exam centres where the exam papers were kept,” a source said.
Delft humour
The burghers of Den Haag were given a taste of Delft student ‘humor’ one evening last week, when the police received a call that a young man was taped to a lamp post. The police rushed to the scene, only to find four drunken Delft students. Apparently, as part of a student joke, the students had taped one their fellows to the lamp post. Passersby who witnessed this happening, failed to see the obvious humour of it and called the police. The police reprimanded the students, who promised not to repeat this joke
Student protests
Hundreds of Turkish students protesting against state control of the country’s universities clashed with riot police in Istanbul and the capital Ankara, leaving at least 60 people injured. The protests marked the 22nd anniversary of the creation, one year after Turkey%s 1980 military coup, of the Higher Education Council (YOK), which put formerly autonomous universities under tight state control. Before the YOK was set up universities were often the scene of violent clashes between left and right wing students, one of the reasons given by the army for staging its coup.
Hardliners
Recently, 12 TU Delft professors proposed a binding academic evaluation for first-year students. Leiden University already uses this academic evaluation system: bachelor’s degree students failing to earn enough first-year course credits are expelled from the degree course. Will Delft adopt this system? The letter the 12 professors sent to the Executive Board rekindled this debate. They propose the TU adopt this binding academic evaluation, with no more than three ‘resit’ exams allowed per subject. Concern about the academic quality of students seems to be the professors’ main motivation. ,,In the recent report about education at TU Delft you could find many excellent ideas, but the personal responsibility of students was barely mentioned,” says Professor Ian Young. But Paul Rullmann, an Executive Board member and driving force between the education report, has grave doubts about the idea. ,,One should demand a certain level of academic standard from the students, but first the education has to be good enough,” he says. ,,At this moment, intelligent and motivated students often have to cope with unnecessary barriers.” Rullmann believes binding academic evaluations would force many talented students to drop out.
Student protests II
South African students staged violent protests against a government plan to increase tuition fees and restructure the nation’s higher-education system. The plan seeks to eliminate redundancy by merging historically black institutions into historically white ones. At the University of the North West in Mafikeng, eight students were arrested by police who fired teargas and rubber bullets after students barricaded the main entrance. ,,Students have asked for an audience with the authorities, but the government and University Council seem to think students aren%t deserving of consultation,” opposition politician Bantu Holomisa said.
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