Melbourne, Sept. 3 : Australia''s 12.5 billion dollar education export industry is likely to take a major hit with the country’s immigration authorities deciding to tighten laws for the recruitment of Indian students.

According to The Australian, all universities are likely to urge their foreign students, including Indian students to get their visa applications lodged and processed as per the new rules.

A spokesman of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, however, said: "Gnuine applicants had nothing to fear from the changes.”

London, Sept 2 : Ofqual, the new regulator of qualifications, exams and tests in England has outlined the structure of five new diplomas to be introduced in 2009.

The five diplomas include business, administration and finance; environmental and land-based studies; hair and beauty studies; hospitality; and manufacturing and product design.

According to the new guidelines released by the regulator, in the first level of hair and beauty studies, taken instead of or alongside GCSEs, teenagers will be taught a “range of basic techniques to straighten, smooth, curl and finger-dry hair”, reports Times Online.

Pune, Sep. 2 : A unique international competition was organised in Maharashtra Institute of Technology (MIT) recently where robotics ‘Govindas’ enacted the traditional Dahi-Handi (curd pitcher) breaking scene, usually performed on the occasion of Gokulashtami.

Seventeen teams from 16 different countries participated in the international competition of robots, which has a distinct theme every year. This year the theme was the famed Dahi-Handi with resonating Govinda Ala Re song being played in the background.

Melbourne, Sept. 2: A Sikh student has received an apology from an exclusive private school after he was denied admission for violating strict uniform rules.

Scott McDougall, the lawyer representing the Sikh boy’s family in court, was quoted by news. com. au, as saying that Brisbane's Ormiston College had told 12-year-old that he could only attend school if he cut his hair and did not wear his turban.

Uncut hair and turbans are both strict requirements of the Sikh religion.

The boy’s family, which cannot be named for legal reasons, thereafter lodged a claim with the Anti-Discrimination Commission Queensland against the college and its headmaster Brett Webster.

Wellington, Aug 30: Schools in Christchurch, New Zealand are teaching their children with the help of movies – a move that they believe would raise their reading levels.

During the Audio-visual Achievement in Literacy, Language and Learning (Availll) programme, pupils watch films with subtitles, based on popular children's books. They watch for about 10 minutes each period and do exercises such as checking words in dictionaries and reading the novel.

New Delhi, Aug 29 : Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology awarded the fifth “Computer Literacy Excellence Awards for Schools” for the year
2007 to Amity International School, Gurgaon.

Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Jyotiraditya M Scindia was also present on the occasion.

The award includes a cash prize of Rs. 1.5 lakh along with a trophy and a certificate of excellence presented at a function to school principal Neetii C Kaoshik at Vigyan Bhavan on August 28.