Bangalore, August 19. In association with HackerU, Israel’s premier cyber security training provider, Jigsaw Academy, a Manipal Global investee company, announced the launch of a new Masters certificate in cyber security (Blue Team) study programme.

According to Jigsaw Academy spokespersons, cyber security has become an important subject since most organisations have started functioning remotely. There are over 3 million job openings for cyber security experts worldwide, they say.

“Defensive cyber security is one of the most secure and high-income professions of the cyber world. 85 percent of the job openings in the cyber security domain are for cyber defenders, also known as Blue Team professionals. Our Masters certificate in cyber security programme will help learners build and protect the infrastructure of companies while also helping them thwart cyber predators,” said Ariel Cohen, CEO, HackerU Global Education, speaking on the occasion.

Kido Home launch

Mumbai, August 5. The London-based global preschool chain Kido Schools announced the launch of its online learning initiative, Kido Home. This home-based learning programme is for children aged 2-6 years who will be administered age-appropriate programmes curated by experienced early education experts.

“The coronavirus pandemic has altered education. While there is no substitute for learning in enriched physical preschool environments, we have created a programme tailor made for online delivery, for youngest children. Our curriculum is a holistic balance of interactive personalised interaction between children and teachers,” says Aniruddh Gupta, founder-promoter of Kido Schools, a global network of preschools in London, Austin, Houston, Hong Kong and Dubai with centres in Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune and Gurgaon in India.

UN Millennium fellowships

New Delhi, August 26. Twelve students of Ashoka University, Sonipat (Gurgaon) have been awarded the prestigious UN Millennium Fellowship programme, a collaborative initiative of United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) and the Millennium Campus Network (MCN), a Boston-based global non-profit. The objective of the one semester on-campus programme is to develop young leaders worldwide.

“Under the fellowship programme, our students will be working in diverse projects such as educating visually challenged people through audio calls during the pandemic; developing a telemedicine platform that connects volunteer doctors with at-risk migrant workers; cleansing water bodies; writing a policy framework for instituting waste paper recycling units in Indian universities, etc,” says Ali Imran, vice president (external engagement) of Ashoka University.

For the 2020 programme, 15,000 students from 1,400 campuses in 135 countries applied for fellowships. Of them, 1,438 from 80 campuses were awarded fellowships for this year.

Pearl Academy-IED agrrement

Bangalore, August 1. The Delhi-based Pearl Academy has entered into an exclusive academic collaboration with the Milan-based Istituto Europeo di Design (IED), a highly reputed creative education institute with nine campuses across Europe. Under the collaboration agreement, IED will provide a 50-contact hours international module programme to Pearl Academy’s postgrad students who will be assessed by IED faculty prior to being awarded certification.

“We are proud of this exclusive collaboration with IED, which has more than 50 years of experience in design, fashion and visual communication education, and campuses in Milan, Rome, Barcelona, Madrid, Turin, Florence, Venice, Como and Cagliari. This module, which will be included in our two-year postgrad programmes, will enhance the skills of our students and provide them a wider global experience,” said Prof. Nandita Abraham, president, Pearl Academy, speaking on the occasion.

MeritTrac’s proctored MET 2020

Bangalore, August 18. The Bangalore-based MeritTrac Services which provides end-to-end exam administration solutions for governments, education institutions and job-readiness testing services to corporates around the world, partnered with the topranked Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) and successfully concluded remote proctoring of MET 2020, the academy’s annual entrance examination. The exams were held for MAHE’s undergraduate and Ph D courses from August 1-13.

For the first time in India, over 100,000 candidates writing MET 2020 were proctored remotely and seamlessly without any disruption. “With the technology and tools available today, we saw no reason to cancel our entrance exams. The entire process was meticulously designed, planned, and executed without any interruptions. Apart from advanced AI-based tools, it was also the exceptional quality of Merit Track proctoring professionals who made the exams a success,” says Dr. Narayana Sabhahit, registrar of MAHE.

Adds Ambrish Sinha, CEO of MeritTrac Services: “We believe remote and online proctoring will be used extensively in the future in higher education institutions for entrance as well as semester exams. It is satisfying to have partnered with India’s top-ranked private university to conduct the first MET 2020 remote proctored high stakes entrance exam of India.”