GLOBAL
EDUCATION MARKET

DEGREE STRUCTURE

IThere are three principle levels of qualifications within the higher education system in the country. These are:
Bachelor / Undergraduate level Master's / Post-graduate level Doctoral / Pre-doctoral level

Diploma courses are also available at the undergraduate and postgraduate level. At the undergraduate level, it varies between one to three years in length; postgraduate diplomas are normally awarded after one year's study.

Bachelor's degree in arts, commerce and sciences is three years of education (after 12 years of school education). In some places there are honors and special courses available. These are not necessarily longer in duration but indicate greater depth of study. Bachelor degree in professional field of study in agriculture, dentistry, engineering, pharmacy, technology and veterinary medicine generally take four years, while architecture and medicine, it takes five and five and a half years respectively. There are other bachelor degrees in education, journalism and librarian­ship that are second degrees. Bachelor's degree in law can either be taken as an integrated degree lasting five years or three-year course as a second degree.

Master's degree is normally of two-year duration. It could be coursework based without thesis or research alone. Admission to postgraduate programmes in engineering and technology is done on the basis of Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering or Combined Medical Test respectively.

A pre-doctoral programme - Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) is taken after completion of the Master's Degree. This can either be completely research based or can include course work as well. Ph.D. is awarded two year after the M.Phil. Or three years after the Master's degree.

SYSTEM OF GOVERNANCE OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
The Universities are various kinds: with a single faculty, or multi-faculties; teaching or affiliating, or teaching cum affiliating, single campus or multiple campuses. Most of the Universities are affiliating universities, which prescribe to the affiliated colleges the course of study, hold examinations and award degrees, while undergraduate and to some extent post the colleges affiliated to them impart graduate instruction. Many of the universities along with their affiliated colleges have grown rapidly to the extent of becoming unmanageable. Therefore, as per National Policy on Education, 1986, a scheme of autonomous colleges was promoted. In the autonomous colleges, whereas the degree continues to be awarded by the University, the name of the college is 'also included. The colleges develop and propose new courses of study to the University for Approval. They are also fully responsible for conduct of examination. There are at present 276 autonomous colleges in the country.

A BOON FOR THE YOUTH  
On a global level, for any country let us assume that 2.5% of the world’s GDP is attributed to the software industry while the balance 97.5% is attributed to the rest of the economy. While Trading and retail is about 1.5 times bigger in size compared to IT, manufacturing is 11 times bigger than IT sector. Compared this to Tourism industry which is 6 times bigger to IT, whereas Health care is about 4 times bigger than IT, not to mention about Education which is 4 times bigger than the core IT sector. This means the employment opportunities are spread everywhere but what is needed is to enhance the “employability quotient” of every individual.