Semester tussle - DU teachers to hold classes in VC's lawn

Teachers at the Delhi University have decided to protest against the implementation of thesemester system in colleges, not by conducting strikes, but by holding classes outside in the lawns.

Members of the Joint Action body (JAB) ofteachers will on Thursday and Friday, conduct classes in the lawns outside the office of the vice chancellor to draw his attention to the matter of implementing the semesters for undergraduatecourses.

Karen Gabriel, associate professor at St. Stephen's College and a member of JAB said that JAB currently had around 100 members. Out of these, around 20 are expected to take their classes out in the open. 

"The classes will be taught on the two days like any normal day and the students have been told about them. The classes would start at around 8:30am and students will only have to come out in the open and then can walk back to the campus for other classes," she said.

She further added that the administration of theuniversity had never consulted the teachers before the decision to implemented the semester system was taken.

The university has already implemented the semester system for 13 undergraduatescience courses and there are now plans to completely shift all courses to thesemester system mode from the upcoming academic session.

Teachers from several departments such as economics, English, history and philosophy have already expressed their disapproval during their general body meetings at the switch to the semester system.

Teachers have alleged that the content of the courses is being diluted in order to accommodate the new semester system.

source: http://indiaedunews.net/Delhi/Semester_tussle_-_DU_teachers_to_hold_classes_in_VC's_lawn_13669/

Global design competition for Nalanda University

New Delhi: As the historic Nalanda University is set to be rebuilt, Vice Chancellor Gopa Sabharwal said on Monday that a global design competition for the building's architecture will be announced in three to four months.

Talking to reporters in Delhi at a press conference, the newly appointed vice chancellor said that the new university will be built on an area of 446 acres, 10 km from the site of the ancient university of Nalanda in Bihar. 

"The university will be built in Rajgir, which is 10 km from the site of the historic Nalanda University. A global designing competition will be announced in coming three or four months for finalizing the architecture," Sabharwal said.

The Nalanda University Bill was passed by the parliament during the monsoon session in August 2010 and a notification for its creation was issued in November.

While the work for creation of infrastructure has already begun, the construction of the building and other details will start once the designs are finalized.

"The design must get ready by next year. We will try to built it as soon as possible but it is difficult to give a time frame," she said. 

The university, which will be an international state-of-the-art institution, will have post graduate courses in six disciplines.

The course include Buddhist studies, philosophy and comparative religions, historical studies, international relations and peace studies, business management in relation to public policy and development studies, languages and literature and ecology and environmental studies. 

Talking about the courses, Nalanda mentor group chairman and Nobel laureateAmartya Sen said that the courses like Buddhist philosophy and religious studies aimed at connecting the modern university to its historic past when Nalanda was the centre of learning that attracted students from all over the world.

"Courses like Buddhist studies, comparative religion, literature and history will connect it to its past. I hope some day we can also include astronomy in the courses as it was taught in the ancient Nalanda University," Sen said.

Asked about the absence of science related courses, Sen said that creation of infrastructure was one of the main reasons for this.

"You cannot teach science without a lab, so infrastructure was one of the main reasons why we have stressed on humanities. In the course of time, science courses will get included," he said.

While the government of India has created an endowment fund for the creation of the university, the project has also attracted contributions from many other countries including Singapore, Australia and China.

"We got $7 million from Singapore, $1 million from China, Australia is funding a chair, while Laos has given $50,000," Sabharwal said. 

Speaking on the occasion, Foreign Minister of Singapore George Yeo said that the aim was to create a university to facilitate exchange of ideas. 

"It will be a place where human beings gather and each contribute to development of others," Yeo said.

source:http://indiaedunews.net/Universities/Global_design_competition_for_Nalanda_University_13563/

Making progress in academic reform

Despite many odds, the University of Calicut has made gains on the academic and administrative fronts during the last four years under the stewardship of its Vice-Chancellor Anwar Jahan Zuberi, reports ABDUL LATHEEF NAHA.

Making progress: In the last four years, the university sanctioned 65 new affiliated colleges as well as 161 courses; a view of the university's administration block.

The University of Calicut is set to launch some prestigious and ambitious initiatives, even as its Vice-Chancellor Anwar Jahan Zuberi is preparing to pack her bags. She will complete her tenure on February 25.

Prof. Zuberi led the university to newer heights of academic excellence in the last four years. According to her, the last four years have been a time of unparalleled progress for the university. The university saw many academic, infrastructural, administrative and social initiatives. But seldom did the university succeed in cashing in on the good work it did.

When only two of the universities in Kerala went for NAAC re-accreditation in 2010, Calicut University got top score, pushing Mahatma Gandhi University to the second position.

In the Budget presented by Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac last week, the State government allotted Rs.15 crore for Calicut University — an increase of more than 50 per cent from last year. The university is all set to introduce a ‘school system' which will convert various disciplines and departments into cohesive units and bring them together under an academic roof. “This reorganisation is designed to facilitate inter-departmental cooperation, inter-disciplinary teaching and research, and the pooling of resources and expertise for greater academic effectiveness,” Prof. Zuberi said.

All teaching departments of the university are being restructured into 12 schools. They are the School of Bio-Sciences, the School of Business Studies, the School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, the School of Information and Communication Studies, the School of Education, the School of Language and Literature, the School of Mathematical and Computational Sciences, the School of Performing Arts, the School of Legal Studies, the School of Social Sciences, the School of Engineering and Technology, and the School of Earth Sciences.

When the university introduced the new Departments of Nano-Technology, Environmental Studies, Computer Science and Political Science last year, it is going to open three new centres such as Inter-University Centre for Plant Biotechnology, Institute of Tribal Studies and Research, and Centre for Classical and Traditional Studies. “Some of them will be the first of its kind in the country,” said Prof. Zuberi.

Some of the new courses the university launched this year include Master of Hospital Administration, MA in functional Hindi, M.Sc. aquaculture (Lakshadweep), M.A. in Arabic (Lakshadweep), and M.Sc. in mathematics (Lakshadweep).

In the last four years, the university sanctioned 65 new affiliated colleges as well as 161 courses. It opened overseas centres in countries such as Kuwait, Ras-al-Khaima, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Above all , the university takes pride in the introduction of choice-based credit semester system (CCSS) in a time-bound manner. “It is sure to bring greater academic choice and curricular flexibility. Thus it will be an immense benefit for students,” Prof. Zuberi said.

First, the university introduced CCSS for postgraduate programmes in the university teaching departments in 2008. In the next year, the university introduced CCSS for undergraduate programmes in affiliated colleges. The following year saw the introduction of credit semester system (CSS) for postgraduate programmes in colleges.

And the coming academic year will see lakhs of private and distance education students taking CCSS — an achievement no other university in the country can boast of. According to the Vice-Chancellor, we got to wait for some more time to gauge the results of the academic reforms.

Even when the university filled almost all teaching vacancies by hiring 75 new teachers and promoting 50 teachers to higher posts, three new Chairs of study and research are being opened up on the campus. The Vaikkom Mohammed Basheer Chair is sponsored by the State government. The UGC sanctioned Moulana Abul Kalam Azad Chair. And the

C.H. Mohammed Koya Trust has sponsored the C.H. Mohammed Koya Chair for the Study of Developing Societies.

Prof. Zuberi was fortunate to sign the Ph.D. certificates of 613 scholars as well as to host some major international lectures and seminars. When Frontier Lecture series crossed 90, the recently introduced Erudite Scholars in Residence Programme did 10 in a row.

The Departments of History, Education, Philosophy and Chemistry have won the Special Assistance Programme (SAP) funding from the UGC for their research and developmental activities.

The Vice-Chancellor was happy that she could set up a Board for student grievances, providing a platform for students for redressal of their problems. Student grievance cells too have been set up in all departments.

The university will soon have a renovated guest house and a refurbished Senate House. The State government has sanctioned enough funds for it.

The opening of a large multi-purpose building at the entrance of the university on February 25 by Education Minister M.A. Baby will be yet another feather in the cap of the current administration. It will be a building exclusively meant for the well being and comfort of the students.

The ongoing modernisation of the Examination Wing has already had encouraging results for the university. Registration for examination has been made online. Distribution of hall-tickets is also online. Calicut has become the first university in the State to introduce bar-coded answer scripts, greatly reducing the delay in the publication of results.

“Examination results are now available to our students through SMS,” Prof. Zuberi said, explaining how the modern technology was used for the benefit of the students. Similarly, the university is making use of the mobile technology to inform employees of their monthly salary details.

The C.H. Mohammed Koya Library of the university has undergone a facelift in recent months. The library has an ICT centre for the visually-challenged. Among the other reforms the library underwent were the beginning of a digital resource centre with UGC funds, and introduction of a master catalogue system.

All teaching departments on the campus have smart classrooms with laptops, projectors, large LED screens and teacher interface. The University Botanical Garden has grown to newer fames in recent years, especially with the setting up of a Ginger Villa and Poly House.

The university campus saw Wi-Max communication even before BSNL introduced it in Kerala. “Extensive digitization of palm leaf manuscripts collected in the Thunchan Manuscript Repository is under way with the expertise of Keltron,” Prof. Zuberi said. The university is on a mission to preserve 60,000-odd ‘taliyola' records for posterity.

“We have made great strides in international academic collaboration too,” Prof. Zuberi said. MoUs have been signed with Charles University of Prague and Tubingen University of Germany.