Centralized Admission: A Novel Student-Centric E-Governance Process

e-governance initiative has helped many governmental organizations to carry out their services transparently, efficiently, and democratically. The admission process in many of the universities in Karnataka is usually manual. The process suffers from redundancy of data and workforce and the process itself is expensive. For the first time in any University in Karnataka, in 2009, an automated system for Post Graduate admissions was designed, developed and implemented for Bangalore University. This e-governance admission system has been in use in the University for the last four years. The process was started as a skeleton model and more services were added later in subsequent academic years during admission. It was found that the system was foolproof. It transformed the whole admission process into a single-window system. Admission Approval, Fee Payment, Hostel Admissions, and Issue of Library Cards were thus brought under a single-window system. This paper compares the novel e-governance initiative with that of the pervious system of admission. It also compares the Bangalore University model with other automated admission models in Karnataka. It investigates the performance of the e-governance initiative in reducing workforce and redundancy. It records the find that the e-governance process has helped the University and its stakeholders in rendering the admission system transparent. Many other Universities in Karnataka are now following this model for their admission

College admissions as a market design problem

Opiskelijavalintojen suunnittelu on herättänyt Suomessa paljon keskustelua, kun viimeaikaiset poliittiset päätökset ovat muuttaneet valintajärjestelmää keskitetympään suuntaan. Jotkut antaisivat korkeakoulujen itse päättää opiskelijavalinnoistaan, kun taas toiset uskovat keskitetyn ja ylioppilastutkinnon arvosanoja hyödyntävän valintajärjestelmän olevan entistä, hajautettua järjestelmää kustannustehokkaampi. Tarkastellen sekä keskitettyjen että hajautettujen pariutumismarkkinoiden teoriaa että myös kouluvalintoja ja pääsykokeita koskevaa empiiristä kirjallisuutta, tämä tutkielma pyrkii kuvaamaan niitä lukuisia tekijöitä, joita politiikantekijän täytyy huomioida opiskelijavalintoja kehittäessä. Todellisten mekanismien suunnitteluun hyvin soveltuvana kaksisuuntaisten pariutumismarkkinoiden kirjallisuuteen perehdytään syvällisesti. Niin sanottu student-proposing deferred acceptance –algoritmi osoittautuu parhaaksi valinnaksi, jos politiikantekijä kokee erityisen tärkeäksi, että mekanismi kannustaa hakijoita totuudenpuhumiseen, ja toisaalta valintakriteerinä käytettävää pisteytystä noudatetaan. Näin ainakin, jos korkeakoulujen ei uskota manipuloivan mekanismia. Käytännön mekanismit kuitenkin usein jättävät hakijoille joitain kannustimia raportoida todellisista eroavia preferensseja, hakijat saattavat raportoida epätosia preferensseja itselleen epäedullisesti, ja student-proposing deferred acceptance –algoritmissakin kaikkien mahdollisten hakukohteiden asettaminen preferenssijärjestykseen on vain heikosti dominanttia. Siksi ilmoitettuja preferenssejä ei tulisi ajatella suoraksi todistusaineistoksi hakijoiden preferensseistä. Korkeakouluille yhteiset pääsykokeet ylioppilastutkinnon muodossa voivat olla hajautettua järjestelmää kustannustehokkaampia, kun korkeakoulujen ei tarvitse kuluttaa resursseja erillisten pääsykokeiden järjestämiseen. Opiskelijoilla on kuitenkin sitten korkeammat kannustimet menestyä ylioppilaskokeissa, ja on jo näyttöä siitä, että ylioppilastutkinnon arvosanoja pyritään korottamaan entistä enemmän. Kokonaisvaikutus kustannuksiin jää siis epävarmaksi empiiriseksi kysymykseksi. Valmennuskurssien tärkeys vähentynee, mikä säästää yhteiskunnan resursseja ja lisää sosioekonomista tasa-arvoa. Toisaalta aikaisemmin elämässä tehtyjen valintojen merkitys korostuu, mikä saattaa heikentää sosioekonomista tasa-arvoa. Ylioppilastutkinnon tärkeyden korostuminen parantaa kannustimia ahkeraan opiskeluun jo lukio-opintojen aikana, minkä politiikantekijä voi nähdä hyödylliseksi. Vaikka yhteisiin pääsykokeisiin perustuva valintajärjestelmä parantaa huomattavasti opiskelijan mahdollisuuksia tulla valituksi toissijaiseen hakukohteeseen tultuaan hylätyksi ensisijaisesta hakukohteesta, jää empiiriseksi kysymykseksi, kuinka paljolti tämä vähentää uudelleenhakemista kilpailtuihin opiskelupaikkoihin. Tiettyihin korkeakouluihin kohdistuva ylikysyntä on suora seuraus hakijoiden preferensseistä, eikä ratkaistavissa millään mekanismilla, mikä antaa korkean arvon hakijoiden preferenssien tyydyttämiselle.The design of college admissions has been a heatedly discussed topic in Finland, as recent government initiatives have led to a more centralized system. Some argue for letting colleges decide on their admissions procedures, while others believe that a centralized matchmaking procedure with priorities determined by the matriculation examination would be more cost-effective. This thesis aims to characterize various factors that the policy maker must take into account when designing a college admissions procedure, in light of existing theoretical research on both centralized and decentralized matching markets and empirical studies on social determinants of college choice and the capacity of entrance examinations to elicit information on student ability and motivation. The two-sided matching literature is discussed extensively because of its usefulness for designing centralized clearinghouses for matching markets. The student-proposing deferred acceptance algorithm emerges as the best choice for a policy maker who regards strategy-proofness and respecting of priorities as especially important, at least if manipulation by colleges is implausible. However, strategy-proofness is fragile in practical applications, applicants may try to manipulate also strategy-proof mechanisms and reporting the whole preference relation is still only weakly dominant. Consequently, satisfaction of reported preferences should not be taken as evidence of welfare properties of a matching without qualifications. The use of a common entrance examination may be more cost effective than a system based on college-specific entrance examinations, as colleges do not then need to spend resources on organizing the examinations. However, students have then stronger incentives to perform in the common entrance examination, and there is already evidence that more students retake the matriculation examination in Finland. The overall effect on the costs of organizing entrance examinations is an uncertain empirical matter. The importance of preparation courses is likely to decrease, which saves resources and contributes to socioeconomic equity. On the other hand, making students choose on their study paths earlier in life may erode socioeconomic equity. A larger role for the matriculation examination provides stronger incentives for showing effort in high school, which the policy maker may see as beneficial. While a system with a common entrance examination makes it possible for a student to get admitted to a second preference when she is rejected by her first preference, it remains an empirical question to what extent this reduces the propensity to apply again to competitive colleges. The excess demand for certain colleges is a result of student preferences and is not solvable by any mechanism that gives a strong priority to satisfying student preferences

Corruption: it’s silent penetration into the Indian education system

There was a time when corruption was only in Government offices, private institutions, police stations etc. But, now a days corruption has spread its roots in education system also. Today, modern educational institutions have their primary emphasis on moneymaking and materialism instead on the concept of complete human development. In this paper we are discussing about how corruption penetrate into the Indian education system and what are the most important means through corruption is clutching the education system and their impacts on society. Privatization of education, Teacher appointments, posting, transfer and stay at choice place, Teachers absenteeism form classes and Up-down, Private tutoring, Midday meal, Admission process, Examination process-cheating, unfair means act, practical examinations, result, Affiliation of institute, Student scholarship, fellowship, Purchasing and maintenances in institutes etc are many important means through corruption is clutching the Indian education system. Keywords: Indian Education System, Corruption, Teachers absenteeis

Technology Supported University Evaluation System for an Affiliated University Administration

Any affiliating university in India has a number of teaching and research departments as well as a number of affiliating institutions offering undergraduate and/or postgraduate programs with some of them having research centers approved by the university. Universities may have a number of non-teaching departments offering different types of services to the university community. An affiliated University in Kerala state has teaching departments both in the regular and self-financing streams and affiliated colleges including professional colleges in the aided and unaided sectors

Essays in educational and intergenerational inequality

In this dissertation, I study different dimensions of socioeconomic inequality. My objective is to produce empirical evidence to help governments design better policies in the fields of education and the labor market. The two first chapters are focused on educational inequality and the effect of policies that aim to tacke this issue, while the third chapter aims to present useful solutions to an important conceptual issue for measuring intergenerational mobility. In the first chapter, ‘Affirmative Action, Centralized Admissions and Inequality in Access to Higher Education: Evidence from Brazil’, I analyze how two major reforms, introduced to democratize access to public higher education in Brazil, impacted enrollments of students from a low-socioeconomic status. The first policy centralized applications in a nationwide platform and the second expanded affirmative action quotas to a uniform share of fifty percent of all vacancies offered by each major and institution. Their progressive adoption generates cross-sectional and time variation, allowing the separate identification of their causal effects. Results show that the affirmative action reform increases enrollments of public school, black and low-income students, while the centralized admission system acts in the opposite direction, decreasing their participation. Moreover, the interaction between both policies has a positive and significant effect on enrollments of the vulnerable groups. I then shed light on some mechanisms behind these results. I find that centralization disproportionately increases enrollments of high-SES out-of-state students in the least prestigious degrees, crowding-out low-SES students with mobility constraints. On the other hand, the expansion of affirmative action does not only mechanically improve equity, but also changes application behavior. In the second chapter, ‘Does Affirmative Action in Undergraduate Education Impact High Schools? ’, I delve into the analysis of unintended consequences of affirmative action initiatives in higher education, which have been implemented in different countries to improve access of vulnerable groups and to reduce inequality in educational attainment. A growing empirical literature has investigated how such policies impact college students’ outcomes and pre-college human capital accumulation. Yet, little is known about how they affect students’ choice of high school and, consequently, school quality and peer interaction. I study this question in the context of Brazil, one of the most unequal countries in the world, and where the government approved, in 2012, the "Quota Law (QL)”. It established that fifty percent of all vacancies in each major and federal higher education institution, including some of the best universities in the country, has to be reserved to students that attended secondary education integrally in a public school. I show that the adoption of QL increases strategic mobility from private to public schools by 29 percent and that the movers come disproportionately from low-SES and low-quality private schools. Nevertheless, this exogenous influx of private school students increases public school quality, while it also raises inequality within the public school system. Finally, in the third chapter, ‘Correction Methods for Intergenerational Mobility Estimates’, co-authored with Martin Nybom and Jan Stuhler, we study another dimension of socioeconomic inequality: the transmission of economic status between generations. The estimation of standard measures of intergenerational mobility ideally requires the complete income history for two generations to determine their lifetime incomes. However, empirical applications are typically based on snapshots of income over a limited number of observations in the life cycle. If those snapshots do not mimic lifetime outcomes, the estimates are subject to attenuation and lifecycle bias. The literature has followed two different strategies to address this problem. The first models the income processes itself, the second the relation between annual and lifetime incomes over the life cycle. In this paper, we use uniquely long income series from Sweden to study how well these methods approximate the intergenerational elasticity of income. All methods are biased to some degree, because neither accounts for three key components of the income process: (i) income growth explained by observable characteristics, (ii) transitory noise, and (iii) unexplained income growth that correlates within families. We propose a lifecycle estimator that addresses all three components, and which can improve estimates of the intergenerational elasticity in a wide range of settings.Programa de Doctorado en Economía por la Universidad Carlos III de MadridPresidente: Marco Daniele Paserman; Secretario: Luigi Minale; Vocal: Fernanda Estevan Gonçalve

Power, Knowledge and Management Information Systems Education: The Case of the Indian Learner

This paper considers the challenges that arise for Indian students who undertake postgraduate Management Information Systems programmes outside India. We discuss how the educational practices in India differ from those that are required by MIS postgraduate programmes in the UK. Drawing on empirical work that has been conducted in India between November 2005 and January 2006, we highlight some of the key features of the Indian undergraduate education experience before suggesting that these are in contrast to those that Indian students encounter while studying at the postgraduate level in the UK. We argue that MIS programmes also pose significant challenges due to the diverse subject matter that is typically taught and assessed. Drawing on the work of Michel Foucault, we argue that education processes in both India and the UK are inextricably interlinked to claims about what constitutes legitimate knowledge and the practices that produce and reproduce such claims. Suggestions for change to MIS programmes derive from our analysis