Third rate open unis popular choice among foreign pmets in s'pore

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

http://therealsingapore.com/content/...gn-pmets-spore

THIRD RATE OPEN UNIS POPULAR CHOICE AMONG FOREIGN PMETS IN S'PORE




Post date:
30 Apr 2015 - 9:57am












Heard of the Karnataka State Open University (KSOU)?

Most of you, we are sure, have not.

Neither have we...until a reader alerted us amidst the outcry over foreign PMETs working in S'pore with dubious degrees.

Located in the state of Mysore, India, KSOU is a distance learning open university.

Founded in 1996, it offers distance or online degree programmes targeted at "working professionals" who cannot attend full-time or part-time educational courses offered by universities.
In other words, KSOU is a notch below full-time universities in India including the now-famous Mumbai University which IDA employee Nisha Padmanabhan from India attended.
Apart from its low ranking, KSOU is also fraught with problems. In the past years, it has appeared in the news for the wrong reasons.

1. Degrees for Sale
It was subject of an investigative report on how some universities franchised out their degree programmes without controlling the franchisees who then offered these degrees for sale:
http://www.university.careers360.com/articles/students-beware-degrees-for-sale

2. Mass cheating at exams
In 2013, it was implicated in a case of mass cheating and copying at exams held for its programmes at exam centres outside its home state:
http://m.indiatoday.in/story/mass-co.../1/285577.html

3. Financial irregularities and corruption
More recently in Dec 2014, The Hindu reported that the Governor of Karnataka had ordered an inquiry into allegations of financial irregularities, and corruption in appointments to key posts at the University.
http://m.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/two-panels-to-probe-allegations-against-ksou-vtu/article6716793.ece/

Now why should we care about a third rate university?

The reason is: KSOU appears to be the university of choice for many PMETs from India working in Singapore.
We did a search in LinkedIn and found a dozen of such PMETs citing KSOU under their degree qualifications.







This includes one service engineer at Otis Elevator Company whose lifts and escalators are widely used in Singapore.

Now should we be concerned?

You bet we should!

First, why are companies favouring these people over our local graduates who spend 3 to 4 years slogging to get their degree - not to mention S'porean males who have to do another 2 years of national service?

Secondly, why is the MOM not exerting control over the the quality of foreign PMETs when granting Employment Passes?

Thirdly, are these PMETs really qualified to do the job given the quality of their university degree?

Shouldn't we be worried with Lee Hsien Loong promising to open the doors of this country - under the CECA - to Indian nationals in 127 professions which incidentally include lift engineers?

The Alternative View
*Article first appeared on https://www.facebook.com/358759327518739/photos/a.598097686918234.107374...


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