10 Common Baits used by Colleges to trap students

 

The admission season is going to start and you will be bombarded with too much information on what course and college to choose. I would like to go on a different angle and share 10 common baits used by Indian colleges to trap students.

1. Additional Degree from foreign universities:

   This is a very common tactic used by many colleges in India, they will say at the end of the course your kid will get two degrees, one from Indian University and another from Foreign University. Don't fall for this trick. Most of the times the Foreign University will be established by the same college in a country which allows digital universities and the degrees will be equivalent to diplomas and might not be recognized by many countries. When the college says XYZ University in this country, don't simply see the brochure and website, go dig a bit deeper and see who founded the university and use google maps street view to find the campus. One college which i searched was having a PO box as their campus.

2. Gallery Type Classes and fully airconditioned campus:

Every college will have an admission tour, they will take you to their most fancy classroom which has gallery type classes and  Audio Visual setup, believe me most classes will not even have a functioning AC . When looking at campus look for a spacious campus with trees and good ventilation, make a point to visit the students restrooms and have food in the canteen. Also if possible visit the campus in a normal day and check how much students are there for a classroom. There are many colleges which plays musical chairs with classroom as there is more students than the classroom can accommodate.

3. International Journals and magazines in Library :

I once worked in a college which said they have more than 50 international journals and magazines. But the truth is there were 3 different institutions registered in one address and the magazines outnumbered the journals. To people who are new to academics, Journals is much costlier than magazines and most magazines is of no use to academics . Also AICTE and UGC norms stipulate the minimum no of journals for each course and most colleges prepare fake lists for the inspection and never bother to get quality journals. So when going for a college visit, check the library specifically the journal rack and ask for the latest issue, it will tell how much the college prioritizes academic pursuit.

4. International Industrial Visit:

Industrial Visit is another name for fun trip, when a college says free international visit means, they are getting extra fees other than what is required, and mostly it will be tour packages for 25-40 thousand rupees. Believe me there is very little learning opportunity in these international Industrial visits.

5.  Earn while you learn :

In the past few years many colleges have started to offer internships while learning, some colleges have even started to reduce college days to 3 and 3 days to internships, there are some colleges which says earn while you learn and say you can earn 10000 rupees per month during internship. Always keep away from colleges saying these ridiculous schemes, if you want to earn money during college, there are many jobs in Retail industry which specifically asks for college students and you can actually use these experience when you join the workforce.

6. Degrees with specializations focussing on trending topics:

There are many colleges which create courses based on trending topics, BSc Machine Learning, BSc Analytics , Bcom CA  etc .. if you read the syllabus copy you will find by replacing 3 papers thy will claim it has huge placement opportunities. most of the time the same faculty will be teaching both degrees and many faculty does not even have a clue on what they are teaching. I have seen a lot of faculty who don't even know the basics of Analytics teach Business Analytics paper.

7. Sweet talking frontline staff :

Some colleges even use this nasty trick of having good looking faculty and staff members act as frontline staff. There are some colleges which even give mandate of  male staff members talk with female candidates and vice versa . they sweet talk the students promising them a very friendly environment which has a hip crowd and modern campus. If you are looking for just getting a degree, then these type of colleges is for you. If you are looking for a place to develop your skills and get a job, run away from these type of colleges.

8 Equivalent degrees and Integrated courses :

If you attend an education expo you will come across some colleges which advertise that they have courses to cover every type of career choice; if you come across a college like that run away from that stall. There is one college which is basically an arts and science college but claims it can give a course equivalent to engineering , which is nothing but a BBA  degree together with an MBA and a diploma from foreign university in 5 years (Their logic is we are covering most of the subjects in BE degree so it is equivalent to Engineering) This package they rebrand it differently and  their marketing staff claims it is superior to engineering. Similarly there are colleges which packages 7 year medical courses UG in India and medical degree in Caribbean or African Universities. Always avoid these traps as it has too much grey areas and you might need to  clear a lot of regulatory hurdles for your degree to be recognized.

9.  360  degree performance appraisal of students:

There is a current trend among colleges in India which promise the parents they will do a transformation of students and will send in updated 360 degree report cards regularly. This is not something which is bad, but most colleges goes about this in a wrong way, they get periodic quizzes and activities and assign fancy terminologies for each activity and score them and send monthly reports. The students after some time game the system and get high scores without any real transformation. SO it is a waste of resources and money with no real benefit.

10.  Customized Text books:

Some colleges goes even further to distinguish them, they advertise that their students have exclusive textbook , which no one has and this is a unique feature. In reality, it is very easy to get customized books as many leading publishers give the option of building your own book , like adding or deleting modules to a common text book frame and printing them in special batches.

these are the top 10 ways colleges try to catch unsuspecting students, always do a complete research of the colleges before you make a decision. Please be careful and always take the promises made my the frontline staff with a pinch of salt. 

Happy College Hunting....  

Mission Lead Marketing - The Indian way

I came across this article about how Brands can drive across social change in Harvard Business review Marketing meets mission , it talks about how some brands were able to bring in behavioural change among people in the society. This is very vital in this situation of pandemic and fear. India is not new to these types of marketing , especially during festive seasons we can see plenty of brands rushing to give public interest awareness videos.

One great example is the campaign carried out during the Kumbh Mela in India , this was done by heat stamping a simple message in Hindi “Lifebuoy se haath dhoye kya?” (Did you wash your hands with Lifebuoy?).

You can read this at the campaign here Roti Reminder. 

Another such great campaign is by TATA TEA which ran this #JaggoRe campaign . It talks about the various social ills in India. They are also running a campaign website and facebook page JaagoRe FB . It talks about bribery in election , Gender bias , Plastic waste, and it's recent campaign talks about elder care during #Covid19 

Mission Lead Marketing is very useful for most developing countries, as they help people change their behaviour and also contributes to a positive image for the brands among its customers and general public. 

Indian brands do it all the time, there is this one advertisement where a joint family was having dinner, a little boy was angry with his mother for scolding him for taking 10 Rupees from his fathers purse and pushed away his plate, everyone was supporting the little boy, making snide remarks at the daughter-in-law , the Father-In-Law , finally snaps and says "If i was his mother i would have starved him for two days, today he is stealing 10 Rs what will he do tomorrow? " finally the ad ends with the FIL telling his DIL you  did the right thing. This is an Advertisement campaign by All-Out  mosquito repellent  #StandByToughMoms .  

There was a lot of controversy with this advertisement that it promotes patriarchy and how it is toxic, but i believe this advertisement depicts how a typical family  discussion runs , and nothing is wrong. The advertisement made it clear that a mother is right in disciplining a child and it clearly linked the being tough part with its product.

Tata Tanishq is another brand which constantly pushes this idea of a modern society and it positions itself as a modern jewellery for the modern woman. This particular advertisement of Tanishq stands out for its portrayal of a bride who is remarrying with a kid. In India there is a large scrutiny over the skin tone of a bride, and remarrying is a taboo, this advertisement broke all these taboos by showing the bride to be of dusky skin tone and having a small kid. 

These kinds of advertisement are what which will push through social change. And I fully agree that Mission Lead Marketing is a great concept and it will serve both the Brand and the society very much. Do share your thoughts on this in the comment section.

Entrepreneurship as a career option

One frequently referenced definition comes from Harvard Business School professor Howard Stevenson: “Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled.” What this means, according to Dave Valliere, professor of entrepreneurship at Ryerson University, is that you see an opportunity that’s “so compelling,” you have no other choice but to pursue it—even if you don’t have the necessary resources. You simply assume that you’ll find a way to get it done, he says.

If you have graduated from college before 2000 in India and and have said that you are going to pursue Entrepreneurship as a career, chances of people laughing at you is very high. They are not to blame as during that period people got into business if their family is in business.

What changed this perception towards entrepreneurship and why is it so attractive?

• India is growing and people are more demanding this fueled many business opportunity
• Many organisations are promoting entrepreneurship and government is actively wooing people to start new ventures
• Banks and financial institutions are more open to provide loans and there are many agencies available for support
• Attitude and aspirations of the people have changed as the economic growth emboldened people and increased their confidence level
• Indian families have become richer and they are able to bear and support their loved ones in their ventures

This being the change in mentality of people can entrepreneurship really become a career option?

i personally believe that entrepreneurship can be a career option because
- It is an really great time to be in India, people are being exposed to various modern lifestyles and are demanding new and better services and products and there is a general lack of good service providers.
-Increasing urbanisation contributes to a lot of opportunities for more service oriented business.
- The government is encouraging a lot with various subsidy schemes and it is very easy to get loans.
- The new payment gateways and online market places have increased the choices for people to buy and sell

At the end of the day, having that drive and passion will be your most important key to success as an entrepreneur. If you’re doing what you love, and doing it on your own terms, you can achieve what many are striving for: being your own boss.