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As the Director of the EdTech Lab at Imperial College in London, I’ve been working at the interface between education and technology for 20 years and my company Insendi has supported academic and professional colleagues at leading business schools around the world in their efforts to build high-quality technology-enhanced online programmes. Yes – IT infrastructure and support systems need to be reliable and robust, but we need to pay as much, if not more,  attention to helping teachers and students adopt these technologies to best effect. Online learning at the top table of university strategy For this to work best, online learning will need to be where it always really belonged – at the heart of teaching and learning strategy. Teaching strategy, quality assurance,  accreditation, teaching evaluations and other teaching related matters will also need to adapt Over time, a teacher who becomes adept at adopting a range of technologies – including the emerging learning experience platforms such as Insendi – will be able to move beyond webinars and lecture recordings to create dynamic, multi-faceted online learning experiences comprising sequences of experiential activities, labs, rehearsal exercises, presentations and ‘real world’ assignments.

Held in August at the Grand Hyatt Mumbai, this year’s IC3 conference had a special emphasis on inclusion and took place over two full days charged with collaborative dialogues and insightful sessions delivered by over 130 presenters comprising of school leaders, principals, counsellors, university directors, chancellors, deans, and admissions officers. During his welcome address, Ganesh Kohli, founding president, IC3 Movement & chair of the 2019 IC3 Conference, addressed a common misconception by explaining that counselling is not only for the elite or the top 2% of students, or students who want to study abroad, but it’s for every student out there who needs guidance. The 3rd edition of the IC3 Awards also felicitated career and college counsellors and university representatives for their outstanding contributions, including Geeta Jayanth, the principal of Legacy School, Bangalore, who was awarded the ‘Molly Abraham Lifetime Achievement Award’ for transforming young lives with her work. “Counselling is not only for the top 2% students, or students who want to study abroad” With a goal of bringing counselling to every school and for every student, Kohli explained that the solution to a world full of students without career and college counselling is not just to help individual students, but to empower every school to help their students.

According to reports, the ministry has prepared a proposal for granting “limited work permit” to international students “in selected areas/segments” to increase their enrollment in higher education institutions in India. The proposal follows a series of recent measures to revamp international education in the country, including a new online application portal for overseas students and an increase in universities offering courses on Indian languages and culture. This issue will be relooked to allow limited work permit in selected areas/segments where there is an imbalance in demand and supply and shortage of trained or highly skilled human resources in India,” a ministry official said. Earlier in July, India’s finance minister proposed to allocate Rs 400 crore (£46.6 million) to create “world-class institutions” to attract a greater number of international students.

It is systemic, and it is absolutely appalling” In an interview with The PIE News, Burst Learning chief executive Danny Bielik warned international students to be wary of an increasing number of under-skilled practitioners setting up English centres in India to take advantage of the lucrative $2 billion market. Their business model is to charge people $200 or $300 or $400 for weeks of instruction, but that instruction is just watching YouTube videos and reading from photocopied, pirated notes. According to Bielik, whose company offers online English preparation, some centres in India have also looked to provide fast instruction aimed at passing formal English tests without language comprehension, a development that could have significant consequences for destination countries. ” Bielik said there was a business model for centres to push through students, and increasing reliability on international students had also made providers vulnerable to accepting students without the English proficiency needed to succeed at their studies.