Indian Professors Clear Outsourcing Test

Online, December 11, 2009 (Newswire.com) - Pankaj Sarma (name changed), associate professor with an Indian business school, earns Rs 1 lakh every month for evaluating papers written by students in the US. This is apart from his salary of Rs 60,000 as per University Grants Commission scale.
Like Sarma, many are reaping the benefits of outsourcing to India by many US management institutes and universities.
A year ago, India attracted around 10,000 essays for evaluation. That number has grown three-fold, to 30,000 essays. Typically, a professor in India gets paid around $20 per assessment and checks on an average 120 essays per month.
A US-based academic advisory firm, Edumetry, liaises with two US universities - Butler University College of Business and University of Northern Iowa College of Business Administration to outsource the services to India. Butler University's business programme requires two, 300-hour cooperative internships. During summer, students are required to complete a number of essays, each focusing on a different aspect of the internship. The essays are then compiled into a 150-250 page portfolio, which needs to be assessed.
"The concept is gaining popularity in India as it not only allows the professors to make some extra money but also helps them get indepth knowledge on a particular subject," said Madan Padaki, Co-Founder and CEO, MeritTrac, a Bangalore-based testing firm. Accounting, engineering and medical institutes are also looking at similar arrangement. Experts say outsourcing of such assignments to India is part of technical communication, which is a $100-million market today and is expected to reach $800 million by 2012, and over a billion in five-six years. This growth is backed by a surge in outsourcing demand, improved human capital and larger domestic customer bench.

More details: http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=379226