Vocational Gurukul

Apar India is being touted as a new age Gurukul by its founder Mr. Raj Kumar Jain. He claims to have floated the concept of providing free professional education and thus, established Apar India. It facilitates students who want to pursue professional education but are handicapped due to limited seats in the Government Institutions and exhorbitant fees charged by renowned private Institutions. He shares his cocept of propagating valuable professional education at low cost but high on values with CNNe Interview with Mr. Jain highlighting his views:

What is your view on Higher Education?

Every year, lakhs and lakhs of students are vying for Higher Education though there are only 234 University Institutions and 11,000 colleges in the country, which cater to only 6% of the relevant age groups. These facts should frighten us and make alert to think in terms of what should be done to improve and make vocational education available to more and more people.

What steps should be taken for improvement?

Privatization of Education is one good option. Privatization of Education reduces the burden on Government, which in turn would be able to concentrate more on Primary and Secondary Education. In addition, Government should always welcome more and more people who are ready to shoulder the responsibility of providing Higher Education to such exaggerating number of eligible and relevant age groups. The UGC, AICTE, DEC should help and not put unnecessary hurdles to those Private concerns who have come forward to lend a helping hand to render quality education to one and all because it is only education that would ultimately make India the world leaders.

Certain regulations like the fact that only Education Society should handle education also needs retrospection and amendments should be made to the effect so as to welcome corporate sector to put in constructive efforts in promoting higher education in the same way as they have entered the field of Health which has proved beneficial.

What is the concept behind Apar India?

Apar India was established in 1998, with a view of providing quality education to masse~ and it provides University Degrees duly affiliated to Sikkim Manipal University in the field of Management, IT and Journalism. At present about 700 students are doing MBA, BBA, MCA. BCA. BSc.IT, BA and MA in Journalism and Mass Communication.

What is the background of Sikkim Manipal University?

The Sikkim Manipal University was established in 1995. It was set up in partnership between the Government of Sikkim and the Manipal Education and Medical Group. The University is offering Distance Education Prosrams in association with Manipal Academy of Higher Education and Manipal Universal Learning as a part of its efforts to bring education to masses and fulfill the growing demand for professional education.

What is Manipal Group?

The Manipal Education and Medical Group is one of India's premier education and health care services provider and has been providing quality education for over 50 years. It is the nucleus of 53 educational Institutions with over 1,00,000 admissions. It has two Universities (MAHE and SMU), 8 campuses, 24 Professional Colleges, 70,000 students, 1,60,000 alumni and students from 49 countries. So you see the main aim of Manipal group is to support and provide a great quality education and enhance the equity of access.

Is this University recognized by UGC?

The Sikkim Manipal University of Health, Medical and Technological Sciences, Gangtok is incorporated under the State Legislative Act (Act IX of 1995) of the Government of Sikkim. It is recognized by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development and also by the University Grants Commission (U. G. C.). The Sikkim Manipal University's Degrees/Diplomas/Certificates are recognized by all members of the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) and are at par with Degrees/Diplomas/Certificates of all Indian Universities/Deemed Universities/Institutions vide UGC Circular no. FI-B/92 (CPP) dt. February 1992 and AIU Circular no. EV/B (449)/94/176915-177115 dated January 1994.
As a result, our students are able to pursue higher education from India's Premier Institutions like JNU, IIT, Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology, IP University etc.

What kind of Degree courses are available?

The University offers career-oriented courses in the field of Management, Information Technology and Journalism.

Courses in the field of Management:

• MBA with Dual Electives (Marketing + Finance/HRM/Systems), MBA- IT, MBA - Banking, MBA - Health Care Services [(Duration . 2 years; 4 semesters), (University Fees: RS.9500/- per sem)]

• BBA [(Duration - 3 years; 6 semesters), (University Fees:RS.8500/• per sem)]

Courses in the field of Information Technology:

• BCA [(Duration - 3 years; 6 semesters), (University Fees:RS.8500/- per sem)]
• BSc.IT [(Duration - 3 years; 6 semesters), (University Fees: RS.8500/- per sem)]
  
• MCA [(Duration • 3 years; 6 semesters), (University Fees:RS.9500/- for I & II sem; Rs. 10,500/- from III sem onwards)]
  
• MSc. CS. [(Duration - 2 years; 4 semesters), (University Fees :RS.9500/- for I & II sem ; Rs. 10,500/- from III sem onwards)]

Courses in the field of Journalism:

• BA-JM [(Duration - 3 years; 6 semesters), (University Fees: RS.8000/- per sem)]
• MA-JM [(Duration • 2 years; 4 semesters), (University Fees: RS.9000/- per sem)]

How to get admission?

The students get a direct admission in these courses. There are no entrance examinations. For Undergraduate courses, the students should have cleared their 12th Std. in any stream and for Postgraduate courses; the students should have cleared their graduation in
any stream. The students have to pay the above mentioned fees in the form of Demand Draft issued in the name of "Sikkim Manipal University" payable at Manipal or Udupi, and no additional charges are levied for any of services provided by Apar India. The course books are provided free of cost to all the students and reference books are available at the Institute's well-stocked Library.

What prompted you to provide Full time classes to the students without any extra charge?

In India students who wish to pursue higher education are often posed with the hurdles of limited availability of seats in premiers Institutions like 23,000 seats in IITs and 10,000 seats in IIMs, What will the rest of the students do? Does it mean that students should be deprived of Professional Education? Distance Education is the next option that is available to such students and just because they are pursuing the courses through distance education it is not justi¬fied that they be termed the poor cousins of the regular colleges. Therefore, we came up with the concept of Full time classes for the students who seriously aspire to do something big in their lives.
Ours is an Institution that is working on the concept of "Social Entrepreneurship" and therefore, we are offering free classes to all the students as the inability to pay exorbitant fee for pursuing Higher Education should not serve as a detriment to the students who wish to pursue Higher Education.

What are the facilities for the working Professionals?

The working Professionals can take the benefit of classes that are being conducted on weekends i.e. on Sundays.
Apart from the full time classes, what are the other facilities? The Institute is striving for the overall development of the students, so that after the completion of their Higher Education they are able to present themselves as a complete package in the job market with knowledge• both theoretical and practical, excellent commu¬nication skills, pleasing personality and the winning attitude.

The Institute organizes regular workshops and seminars on Personality Development, Yoga, Presentation skills and Group Discussions conducted by eminent and experienced faculty. In addition, the students are taken to Industrial visits to give first hand knowledge to students.

Apart from these, certain job oriented cer¬tificate courses are also provided that would enable the students to get the cutting edge that is required in today's job market. We are offering Free Certificate Courses in Communication Skills, Foreign languages - German and French, Basics of Financial Accounting, Basics of Hardware and Networking, Personality Development.

Hostel facilities for boys and girls?

Yes, we have separate hostel/ PG accommMation facilities for boys and girls. As a matter of fact, even to this date we have students who have come from as far as Assam, Bihar, Varanasi, Aligarh, Meerut, Calcutta, Thailand, Abu Dhabi etc to name a few. We have been providing lodging facilities to these students and serve as local guardians to these students

The Placement?

The Institute has a full-fledged Training & Placement Cell. The Cell is actively involved in continuously studying the market forces. A vibrant placement cell pro¬vides the necessary linkage between the students and the Industry. We also counsel our students for better career prospects. Some of the Aparians are placed in companies like GAil, Mother Dairy, Indian Oil Corporation Limited, IBM, Birla Soft, MTNl, HDFC Bank Ltd., Indian Air Force, Eureka Forbes and Seimens etc.

How to contact Apar India for admission?

Detailed information about the courses and application forms for admission is given in the Prospectus, which can be obtained against cash payment of Rs. 300/- from the Institute's office at "APAR INDIA HOUSE", C-9 / 111, Sector-8, Rohini, (Near Rohini East Metro Station), New Delhi - 110 085. Ph.: 27940626, 27949365, and 27948578.

Apar Weblink:http://www.aparindiacollege.com/index.htm