Wednesday, July 27, 2011, Chandigarh, India

Guest Column
Make an informed choice

A lot many students fall prey to the marketing gimmicks of private colleges. “It is unfortunate as marketing gimmicks, style and drama rather than quality education easily attracts the students. There are many colleges whose focus is mostly on creative advertisements with huge spends on all media luring students from even far flung area like Bihar and Jharkhand which are considered catchment areas. They are solely concerned about admissions and pay scant attention to recruitment of qualified faculty, good labs, skill development trainings, placements or academic excellence”, says Manav Singla, CEO of Indo Global Colleges at Abhipur, near Chandigarh. Here he lists the points that should be kept in mind while selecting a private institution:

Affiliation and Accreditation
First and foremost concern of a student and parents is to check the affiliation and accreditation. It is always beneficial to find out at the outset if the college is affiliated to a recognised university and is it approved by AICTE?

Standing & Reputation
How old and well reputed is the college?

Infrastructure
Good quality labs, Studen-Faculty Ratio, well qualified faculty with strong academic and industry exposure, good hostels, sports facilities, health & medical facilities, transportation facilities, wi-fi campus etc are some of the facilities that a good institution should be having. Now with many integrated campuses, it is also wise to check on the sharing of facilities.

Faculty
It is very important to have well qualified faculty conforming to the desired student faculty ratio as per AICTE norms.

Skills Training
Since soft skills training has become very essential to get good placements, it is very important to have such training programs as a regular feature on the Campus.

Industry Interface
A good institution must have strong industry interface with various opportunities for students, faculty and industry experts to meet and interact.
n Academic Activities like Seminars, Conferences, Workshops Seminars, Conferences and Workshops should be conducted by each Department from time to time for updating knowledge &exchange of ideas as well as to inculcate research work.

Location
The location of the campus must have pleasant natural setting and also not be too far from the City.

Sports and Events
Campus life must be vibrant with many activities to include sports, cultural as well as Academic which is important for overall development of the student.