Now, students can choose subjects not related to stream of study in UG Courses
The choice based credit system will soon see a partial rollout
in undergraduate courses as per a decision of the State’s apex education body, the
Karnataka State Higher Education Council (KSHEC) on Thursday, 21st July 2011. The
credit-based system is already in place in PG courses.
Announcing the decision, KSHEC Chairman and Higher Education Minister S Acharya
said students in undergraduate courses would be able to choose additional subjects
not related to their core courses.
“For instance, a student in Arts stream can choose some Science subjects if he or
she is interested,” said Acharya.
The system is likely to be introduced only in the next academic year. In the meantime,
universities have been asked to submit details of expected demand for various courses
within the next two months.
KSHEC has proposed Mysore as the location for the University for Innovation. This
is part of a proposal to establish 14 innovation universities Centre under public
private partnership. The proposal will now be placed before the cabinet for a final
decision. Distance education
On the recent controversy with regard to the Karnataka State Open University offering
distance education programmes in technical courses, Acharya said AICTE guidelines
clearly stated that technical courses need to have a fixed amount of classroom time.
“According to Supreme Court judgments, distance education courses in technical education
cannot be offered.” He said this would also be applicable to general universities
offering these courses. Centres of Excellence
KSHEC has approved the proposal to establish centres of excellence in all universities
of the State.
A few centres of excellence will be established in frontier areas of science and
technology such as bio-technology, bio-informatics, nano-materials, high performance
computing, industrial design and chaos complexity self organising system.
Vice-chancellors have been asked to bring proposals to the next meeting of KSHEC
in two months.
A programme for rejuvenating UG and PG programmes at various universities in the
State was also approved Council.
The programme includes skill development components, establishment of career guidance
and counseling centres, introduction of community colleges and integration of co-curricular
and extra-curricular performance with academic performance. Amicable settlement
On the conflict between Economics and Commerce department lecturers over jurisdiction
of subjects in many universities, Acharya said he had asked the heads of these departments
to settle the issue amicably through talks.
Courtesy: Deccan Heralde paper
