The world renowned Cranfield School of Management in the UK will present a scholarship to any member of the three leading IFAC accountancy bodies in Sri Lanka, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), the Institute of Chartered Accountants Sri Lanka (ICASL) or the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants Sri Lanka Branch (CIMA). Full Time MBA Programme Director Sean Rickard who informed Sri Lanka of the scholarship said, “We hope the scholarship attracts candidates who will benefit from this initiative and that, with the help of the accounting bodies in Sri Lanka, it will raise Cranfield’s profile. We are extremely grateful for the support of the institutes in this. We will be reviewing the success of the programme after two years.”

ACCA Sri Lanka’s Immediate Past President, Dilshan Rodrigo, himself an alumni of the Cranfield School of Management extends his best wishes to all candidates and says, “I hope most sincerely that this initiative will signal the birth of a new generation of professional skilled managers who will add value to the corporate boardrooms of Sri Lanka.” Stating that this is truly a world class MBA ranked consistently as one of the top MBAs in Europe, he adds, “This one year full time programme is ideally suited for members in middle and senior management positions with ambitious career goals.” Rodrigo, who has continued to maintain ties with Cranfield, further reinforced the relationship once he became President of ACCA Sri Lanka, sourcing resource speakers for the ACCA National Conferences in the last two years. “Two people who played significant roles in mooting this scholarship from the Cranfield end are the former Director of the MBA Programme Professor Leo Murray who was the Keynote Speaker at our conference in 2006 and has a soft spot for Sri Lankans and Sri Sriskanthan, a Sri Lankan faculty member on the MBA programme.”

Cranfield has produced a distinguished honour roll of MBA alumni from Sri Lanka over the last two decades including Managing Director of Hatton National Bank Rajendra Theagarajah, Senior Vice President of WNS Arul Sivagananathan and Group Financial Controller of Stretchline Hasantha de Silva. Members of ICASL, ACCA and CIMA must apply directly to Cranfield School of Management, for which instructions are available on the Cranfield website ww.som.cranfield.ac.uk/som/mba/, marking the application ‘Sri Lanka Scholarship’.

More : dailymirror.lk

A report has suggested that it is likely that British students considering taking MBA courses in the UK will find it increasingly hard to find loans to cover the cost of their post-graduate studies.

According to a report in the Financial Times, the appeal of MBA courses in the US had recently been increasing among British students, thanks to the weak dollar.

However, the paper has now learnt that the credit crunch has dramatically reduced the number of student loans available for those considering such post-graduate courses.

It pointed to research carried out by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators that showed that 50 lenders have suspended their post-graduate student loan deals.

“The cost of loan repayment is particularly high for students from outside the US who apply for loans from US institutions,” the paper explained.

“This is because credit references are not required and also the lenders find it harder to track down students on graduation if they return to their home countries.”

As a result, a British student looking for a post-graduate student loan in the US can expect to have to pay interest of around seven per cent.

With US MBA courses typically costing around $150,000 (£75,000) to complete, the rising price of loans could put many British students off, even though they know they will be able to secure high-paying jobs after graduation.

Source : gaapweb.com

There were 22 MBA Vietnamese graduates and eight BA Vietnamese graduates in these first classes receiving the degrees of the University of Bolton. The degrees are recognized by the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony, Deborah Clarke, British consul general in HCMC, said there would be plenty of opportunities for Vietnamese graduates as Vietnam’s economic success and integration into the global economy is fuelling demand for well-educated managers who are able to operate in a global market-place.

She added education is one of the five key pillars of the UK’s relationship with Vietnam and that the collaborative partnership between the two universities will help to create a critical mass of skilled professionals with an international outlook in Vietnam as well as further strengthen educational links between the UK and Vietnam and promote understanding between the two countries.

Working in partnership with HCMC University of Banking, the University of Bolton has delivered the programs in HCMC since 2006. The programs include Bachelor of Accounting, Bachelor of Business Administration, and transfer program for Bachelor of Business Administration and Master of Business Administration.

An enrolment seminar for these programs will be held at 8:30 a.m. on July 19 at Kim Do Hotel, 133 Nguyen Hue Boulevard, District 1, HCMC. For details, contact the Center for International Cooperation of the HCMC University of Banking (2nd floor, 39 Ham Nghi Boulevard, District 1, tel: (08) 821 4660, ext: 101).

More : english.vietnamnet.vn

ZEE Network has announced an in-house reorganisation possibly in the wake of Zee TV President, Ms Apurva Purohit’s plan to quit.

The company says the move is aimed at job enrichment and offering higher responsibilities.

Mr Sunil Khanna, CEO, Zee Turner, would take over from Ms Purohit. Mr Khanna has been with the Zee Network for 10 years, occupying various positions, and has a track record in distribution and marketing. Mr Khanna, an engineering graduate from IIT Kharagpur and management graduate from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, is a marketing professional having worked in various marketing positions before joining Zee.

Mr Ashwini Yardi, Business Head, Zee MGM and Zee English, will assist Mr Khanna as head of programming for Zee TV.

Mr Khanna is expected to take over formally at Zee TV in Mumbai after Ms Purohit’s service period ends on 31 January.

Mr Dheeraj Kapuria, at present heading operations of Zee in the US, will take over as CEO of Zee Turner from Mr Khanna. Mr Kapuria’s deputy in the US, Mr S. Venkatasubramanian, will take over from him.

Mr Sunil Rohra, head of the UK operations and Mr Pushpinder Singh, head of the Africa operations, will report to Mr Kapuria, a press release said.

“This re-organisation is a result of our learning from an in depth internal communications exercise in which I met most of the managers within the network to assess the width of in-house talent. It was truly satisfying to reaffirm that we have an extremely talented pool of people in-house. I believe by enriching their portfolios, they will lead Zee Network into the New Year with greater vigour and effect,” the release said quoting Mr Subhash Chandra, Chairman, Zee Network.

Some of the executives have been given additional responsibilities. Mr Abhijit Saxena, currently handling international business (Asia-Pacific) and syndication of programming, will handle Zee English, Zee MGM, Trendz, Smile TV and FX Channel as business head. Mr Yogesh Radhakrishnan, in addition to his current portfolio of Zee Cinema and Zee Music, will also handle Premier Cinema, Action Cinema and Classic Cinema.

The National Textile Corporation (NTC) South Maharashtra Limited, regulates the 18 mills proposes Maharashtra, the modernization of nine of its mills to offer high quality products to its customers, “said the director of NTC-UK Tripathi .

Speaking at an interactive session-cum-Finlay products of the workshop here on Friday, he said that the SRG SSR that Tie-up for the manufacture and sale of the product Finlay Mills, come from different varieties of dhotis, sarees, my Tops very honourable Members, bracelets, T-shirts and other materials market demand.

The NTC, the renovation of the mill is located in Mumbai, Aurangabad, Nanded, Barshi, Dhule and Chalisgaon modern equipment in a short period and issue certificates to distributors to reduce the double Finlay manufacturers mark.

The direction is also considering franchise with local companies to Hyderabad for the development of the market. Instead of rebates, it is company loyalty cards and rewards to customers, “said Tripathi.

The company has a target of RS 2 crore this year, he added. NTC Chief General Manager (Marketing) JK Baweja, Mumbai Education Trust (MET) Institute for Management representatives of the PP and distribution Mhetros officers.

The International Institute for Management and Technology, Kolkata (IIMT Bengal) has selected 16 students for training a year in hotels in the UK and Malaysia. Employment placements in the second year is a course for its management of the hotel degrees. IIMT Bengal was adopted in 2002 by GGL Hotel and Resort Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Gujarat Ambuja Cement Ltd.

It has a technical cooperation with Carlson Hospitality World Wide of the USA, Edwardian Group of United Kingdom, India and Unitech AG of the International Institute for Management and Technology, Gurgaon (IIMT-Gurgaon). IIMT-Gurgaon IIMT is the first in India. IIMT Bengal has a scientific partnership with Oxford Brookes University of the UK. It is also applying for listing of the All India Council for Technical Education, Ministry of Human Resources Development, Government of India.

New Delhi: A post-graduate of the London School of Economics dismissal of several young and more pay, as RS 2 lakh for the plum job of the United Kingdom - Computers for professionals British Railways.

The Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police has arrested Maharukh Javat, LSE holds a diploma in computer science. A case of fraud, breach of criminal law and trust was a criminal conspiracy, a few days back on the complaint of several persons who claimed they were misled by a Mumbai company, Mazda Information & Systems Technologies, which also took place at a branch Civil Lines, New Delhi.

The complaint, the company had declared an advertisement in the newspaper in November 2003, which seeks professionals 40-45 British Railways. The company, by Javat with Rakesh Grover argued that it had signed a contract with the British Railways may computers professionals a monthly salary of £ 3,000 (about Rs 2.4 lakh) with accommodation and meals free of charge.

The selected candidates were then trained in computer operations for about four months in New Delhi. During training””, they were available in different forms. Each candidate was asked to pay RS 2 lakh for training, tickets for the United Kingdom, visa and job placement.

They were later told British Railway staff would be given specialized training. After training, it was said, they wait until their employment policy a letter that companies would mail home. Many candidates have also resigned jobs in call centers and sales organizations so that they can operate in the United Kingdom. Most of them came from New Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida.

After a few months, when the letter was nowhere in sight, candidates began to put pressure on companies officials said their accession appointment had only been postponed. In April 2004, the company has stopped his Civil Lines. Surveys Brit Rail was a subsidiary of ACP Marketing Ltd, Canada based on a sale of railway, which had nothing to do, Javat. If candidates have made them, some have received cheques to be returned.

Javat, lives in Mumbai, has landed on the network of police, as they have come to New Delhi a business venture. A student of Sophia University, she also had a master’s degree in management from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Sciences.

The Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program (IFP) announced today the selection of 401 new Ford Foundation International Fellows from among nearly 22,000 applicants worldwide. IFP accepts applications from people in 22 countries and territories throughout the developing world.

“IFP Fellows are thriving in their diverse academic settings, distinguishing themselves as excellent scholars and bringing valuable new perspectives to the universities where they are studying,” said Susan V. Berresford, president of the Ford Foundation.

Award winners in this fifth round of IFP competitions were selected on the basis of IFP’s three core criteria of academic achievement, strong leadership skills and potential, and commitment to the development of their communities and countries. IFP especially seeks candidates from groups and communities with little access to higher education.

“IFP’s strategic university partners know that IFP Fellows bring their strong cultural attachments and passion for social justice to their studies,” added Donald McHenry, chairman of the Board of Directors of the International Fellowships Fund, IFP’s parent organization, and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. “Their diverse experiences, and their diversity itself, is a boon to any academic community.”

IFP Fellows receive support for up to three years of post-baccalaureate study in an appropriate university program anywhere in the world. Currently, more than 1,000 IFP Fellows have enrolled at 385 different universities in 41 countries. IFP is expanding its network of “strategic university partnerships” with leading institutions around the world that provide language training, mentoring, and academic support for clusters of IFP Fellows. IFP now has formal agreements and clusters of Fellows at over 30 universities in a dozen countries. Among IFP’s university partners are the Asian Institute of Management in Manila, the Australian National University, the Center for Tropical Agronomy Research and Education in Costa Rica, Columbia University in New York, the East-West Center at the University of Hawaii, and the Universities of Sussex and Birmingham, UK.

“Grouping Fellows at excellent institutions has real benefits for Fellows,” said IFP Executive Director Joan Dassin. “The universities provide increased language training and academic support and mentoring, and our Fellows are able to quickly begin building a network among their IFP colleagues that aids their studies and their professional development.”

Over the past year, numerous IFP Fellows have been recognized for outstanding work in both academic and professional spheres, winning prestigious awards from their host universities, development agencies and national governments. Their extraordinary success is an important indicator that candidates chosen from groups and communities traditionally excluded from higher education can excel in competitive graduate programs. Several universities have offered outstanding IFP Fellows additional support to pursue doctoral studies after the term of their IFP Fellowship.

IFP continues to sponsor networking and leadership activities that complement formal graduate-level studies and aim to build an enduring cohort of IFP Fellows who can gain from each other’s learning and experience. IFP conducted four Leadership for Social Justice Institutes in 2004, in Mexico, the Netherlands, Thailand, and the USA.

Over 3,300 IFP Fellows will be chosen through 2012. The new IFP Fellows were chosen from among 21,684 applications received in Chile, China, Egypt, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Mozambique, Nigeria, Palestine, Peru, Senegal, South Africa, Thailand, and Vietnam. A total of 1,509 IFP Fellows have been selected since the program’s first Fellows were chosen in June 2001. Brazil, Kenya, Russia, Tanzania, and Uganda will rejoin the selection cycle in 2005.

As part of its efforts to bridge the digital divide, TeX Users Group (TUG) has decided to tackle the geographical divide. For the first time, the annual meeting of the TUG is to be held at a venue outside Europe or North America. The 23rd annual conference of this free software users association will be held in Thiruvananthapuram Technopark this week, Mr Dominik Wujastyk, Director, Welcom Centre of Medicine, University College, London told a press conference, here. Mr Wujastyk, a Sanskrit scholar and a member of the programme committee of TUG-2000 said the three-day meet starting September 4 will be chaired by Mr Sebastian Rahtz, Information Manager, Oxford University Computing Services. The conference will have 32 delegates from Australia, Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Iran, the Netherlands, the UK and the USA. There will be 32 Indian delegates too. In India, TeX is widely used in institutions like the IITs, the Indian Institute of Science, Saha Institute of Theoretical Physics, and the Indian Statistical Institute. In Thiruvananthapuram, the Centre for Mathematical Sciences has long used TeX, as has Focal Image Pvt Ltd, an Indo-UK joint venture that has been using TeX for over a decade to run a profitable text processing venture. Mr Satheesh Babu, chairperson of the TUG-2002 organising committee said the meet would give a fillip to the wider utilisation of TeX in India. The organisers of the meet in India are Indian TeX Users Group, department of IT of the Kerala government and Thiruvananthapuram Technopark. The conference will be preceded by three days of tutorials, said Dr Srivatsan, Director, IIITM-K (Indian Insitute of Information Technology and Management, Kerala). Around 22 Indians have registered for the tutorials. Apart from the more specialized talks devoted to technical aspects of TeX, TUG 2002 will feature talks on typesetting traditions in India, an overview of TeX usage in India, an Indian perspective of new horizons in free software, fonts and packages to typeset Bengali script using TeX, and typesetting in Hindi, Sanskrit and Persian. TeX (derived from the Greek letters “tau”, “epsilon” and “chi” and pronounced “tech”, also alludes to “techne”, the Greek root meaning art as well as technology) is a computer program written and designed by famed computer scientist Donald Ervin Knuth of Stanford University for preparing publishable documents, especially those of a technical or mathematical nature. TUG, the TeX Users Group, is an international association of individual and institutional members who promote TeX, and discuss issues and problems related to TeX, principally through TUGboat, the quarterly publication of TUG.

Students of the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad are set to give the IIMs a run for their money if the placement pattern for the current year is any indication. Barely three weeks after an IIM Ahmedabad student set a record by bagging an annual salary package of Rs 67 lakh, an ISB graduate broke the record by accepting a package from an international company for Rs 80 lakh.

The five-year-old ISB did not release the name of the student.

Its deputy dean Ajit Rangnekar said in a statement, “The placement results for 2005 have been phenomenal. The number of offers our students received this year jumped by 26%, with the number of international offers increasing by 55%. Consultancies were the biggest recruiters followed by information technology and financial services.”

Of the 273 students in the 2005 batch, 251 participated in the placement process. They received 344 offers, of which 333 were lateral and 31 international.

While there was a growth in international offers, the number of Indian companies offering international assignments too has gone up. Companies like Birlasoft, ITC Infotech, Satyam, Mindtree Consulting and RPG offered international positions to ISB students in countries like the UK, Australia, US and Singapore.

With a representation of 19%, ISB’s Class of 2005 had the highest number of women students across B-schools in the country. Out of the 52 women students in the class, 48 participated in the placement. The highest offer made to a woman this year was Rs 20 lakh, an increase of 53% compared to Rs 13 lakh in 2004.