UT Adviser Vijay Dev inaugurates school for social sciences at PU

PU-ISSER would function from Guru Teg Bahadur Bhawan, near the PU market. The course will be a multi-disciplinary course offering choice-based credit electives in other disciplines in the under-graduate part of the course.

The three-year BA Honours and two-year MA Honours programme would have an exit option after three years.

[related-post]

Addressing the inaugural address, Vijay Dev appreciated the setting up of PU-ISSER and said the “academic need of the society” had been fulfilled. He said, “This is the age of convergence, and we need to converge science and humanities.”

He added, “The need of the hour is to nurture students who will have a sound understanding of all subjects, and I am sure this institute would serve the great purpose in this regard.”

PU Vice-Chancellor Professor Arun Kumar Grover, who was present on the occasion, recalled the genesis and evolution of PU-ISSER. Referring to ‘A History of University of Panjab’, which has been authored by Professor J F Bruce, he said that a serious attempt was made to commence broad-based integrated Bachelor and Master programmes on behalf of the Faculty of Arts in 1925 at PU in Lahore, on the lines of what IISERs practice in Natural Sciences today. He added that former PU V-C Professor R P Bambah had also informed him that the idea of broad-based curriculum in basic sciences, encompassing and synthesising different honours schools in science subjects at PU, was first articulated during his term and Professor Yash Pal’s tenure as UGC chairman.

Chancellor of Central University of Punjab, Professor S S Johl, former PU VCs Professor M M Puri and Professor K N Pathak, Director of IISER, Mohali, Professor N Sathyamurthy, Director, PGIMER, Dr Yogesh Chawla, and PU DUI, Professor A K Bhandari, among others, addressed the gathering.

UT Finance Secretary Sarvjit Singh, Director, PEC University of Technology, Professor Manoj Arora, and many PU fellows, senior scientists and faculty members attended the function.

Later, Dev and Sarvjit Singh visited PU south campus to oversee the ongoing projects such as an alumni house, international students’ hostel, boys’ and girls’ hostels and an auditoria complex.