Different Strokes - Shopping for the right college

Updated on: Wednesday, December 07, 2011

It is widely believed that though the Indian education system is witnessing an unprecedented growth, the one thing it lacks is the essence of quality education. It so happens that when institutions wish to impart higher educational opportunities they don't have a suitable audience. In order to overcome such myriad problems, the recent approach these universities have discovered to recruit students is participation in education fairs.

These fairs are conducted annually and aim at helping students decide what to choose and from where to choose. The fairs comprise group discussions, one-on-one conversations, and a thorough session of career counselling. They almost resemble a shopping fair, only they have a long-term goal.

While there are a few students who are not excited about such fairs, a majority feel that the fairs serve the purpose to a large extent. They attract students, teachers, parents, the media and the NRI crowd, who seem the most curious of the lot. Here is what these students have to say about the fairs.

Ishwarya, second year B.Com, MES College

According to me, education fairs provide a large forum for students to communicate with many educationalists and help them find their way into a college that suits them the best. They are unlike the usual university interviews, where there is only one option to choose from. Here, there is a variety.

Anisha Peter, second year Communication, Mount Carmel College

Given a chance, I would rather sit at home and research on various universities, their ranking, take part in forum discussions and then decide if the university is good enough, rather than have people convince me.

Vivek Y. Shah, final year B.Com, Sri Bhagwan Mahaveer Jain College

I would never be convinced if people I don't even know at the fair, who are only trying to promote their institution, insist on me joining their institute. I would prefer going to the institute and checking the place and then decide if I should join it or not.

Suraj Sachin P.N., final year engineering, Atria Institute of Technology

It is a unique agenda, where students get an opportunity to understand and realise their goals and decide which college or university will offer them the best future.

Keerthi Raghu, graduate from Reva Institute of Technology

What I like about education fairs is that one has the opportunity to meet a wide range of people and interact with them. It is a place where you can detect your capabilities and work towards what suits you the best.

Nikitha Hegde, final year, National Institute of Creative Communication

I have always liked education fairs and I agree that they serve the purpose to a certain extent. But everything has a dark side to it and I think these fairs pave way for a lot of business more than actually serving the purpose.

Different Strokes - Shopping for the right college

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