When it comes to managing time for study, women are better than men. Not just that, when compared to Austrian or German counterparts, Indian students are less bound to subject syllabus and more to their own approach to study.

THESE are some of the conclusions of a study conducted by a leading Austrian agency, FH JOANNEUM. Funded by European Union (EU) as part of an ongoing project on inter-cultural learning styles under the EU-India Economic Cross Cultural Programme, the survey was conducted on 3,450 students from institutes FH Joanneum, Austria; FH Gelsenkirchen, Germany; Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; Birla Institute of Technology, Noida and Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Findings of this project was presented on Thursday at the 3rd International Conference on International Cultural Competency held at IIM-A. Among other things, the survey came up with the following findings: that advanced students — those with a higher learning levels — usually tend to lack purpose; that students willing to study abroad tend to approach things more deeply and sincerely; that business students have the inclination to memorise without establishing relations between the reading stuff; that relating ideas are more important to students from private universities in India than elsewhere; that students from applied sciences in Europe tend to learn deeper.

Gerhard Apfelthaler from FH Joanneum, Austria, who presented the findings from the project — Cross-Cultural Learning Styles — said the study threw up the conclusion that not all students were alike in their approach to study. ‘‘It is clear from the findings that approaches to learning depended less on country or culture. What actually matters are factors like gender, type of programme a student is enrolled and the type of university s/he studies,’’ said Gerhard.

On the first day of the two-day conference, different scholars, teachers, trainers and practioners in the field of education gathered to share their ideas on themes like conducting research in cross-cultural settings and implications of inter-culturally different learning styles in higher education among other things. ‘‘The first project was a comparative study on different learning styles between students of Austria and Germany from those of Thailand and Singapore,’’ explained S Manikutty in his inaugural speech.

The inaugural session was also addressed by IIM-A Director Bakul Dholakia and Shekhar Chaudhury, Director, IIM, Kolkatta. Anil Khandelwal, Chairman and Managing Director of Bank of Baroda also shared experiences and challenges of the bank’s progress on international level. A number of delegates presented papers on psychological and sociological perspectives in cross cultural barriers and cross cultural issues in education.

Findings
* Not all students were alike in their approach to study
* Female students can manage time better then their male counterparts
* Indian students apply their own approach to study
* Higher level students lack purpose
* Students willing to study abroad are sincere
* European applied sciences students tend to learn deeper

Source: Expressindia.com

GoAir on Thursday entered into a tieup with SBI Cards to launch, "a feature packed co-branded GoAir SBI credit card" in association with Visa international, a global payments industry leader.

The two companies jointly announced the tieup which coincides with the first anniversary of the low fare GoAir taking to the skies. SBI Cards chief executive officer Roopam Asthana and GoAir’s managing director Jeh Wadia said that the new product targeted the value conscious smart fliers and the card also offered a rewards programme that entitles the cardholders to four reward points on every Rs 100 spent on GoAir tickets.

The benefits of the new card include a 10 per cent incremental benefit on tickets booked on the GoAir site www.goair.in using SBI GoAir card within 30 days of receiving the card; a complimentary air accident insurance cover worth Rs 24 lakhs and no transaction fee on fuel purchase at select IOC and IBP petrol pumps.

The card will be provided to the GoAir’s distributors and travel agents country-wide, so that travellers can book the tickets using the card. Mr Jeh Wadia said his airline has so far flown one million passengers "with the lowest fare", since its launch on November 4, 2005, and now it has a fleet of seven A320 aircraft with a single class 180 seat configuration, and also plans to add 33 aircraft in three years.

SBI Cards CEO Roopam Asthana said that in less than a year of launching its services, GoAir has created a vast set of loyal and value conscious customers. Bookings via credit card in the airline category have shown a phenomenal rise of 80 per cent over the last year and the SBI cards portfolio has recorded a 77 per cent increase in this category, Mr Asthana said.