College Watch | Among new skill & vocational courses at Fergusson College: translation and popular culture

“It was easier for science than it was for arts to design concrete skill-based and vocational courses,” said Radhika Jadhav, vice-principal of the Faculty of Arts. “For language courses, for example, we will have translation. So we are teaching basic skills that will make the student employable immediately after the first year.”

Another example, Jadhav said, is the course on popular culture that has been introduced in the History department.
“It will introduce students to various aspects of Indian culture, folk cultures, festivals, arts and crafts from a historical perspective and their current relevance,” said Santosh Ghuge, who heads the history department.

“Such a course will help cultivate several crucial skills like intercultural sensitivity, community engagement, preserving oral histories, cultural event planning and so on,” said Ghuge.

“Introduction to Archaeology and Archives and Museums will be some of the other skill-enhancement courses in the coming semesters. Such courses will teach students some very concrete skills like how to collect and preserve important documents, curation and how to manage a museum,” said Ghuge.

These courses will have a project and viva as final assessment instead of a written examination. Field trips will also be part of the curriculum.

Subhash Shinde, vice-principal of the Faculty of Science, said that a course on MS Excel had been introduced in physics and one on R Packages in statistics. “Our papers are designed in such a way that whatever is not included in the theory part, we can include in hands-on training through vocational or skill enhancement courses,” he said.

According to principal Nitin Kulkarni, psychology, economics and politics have been some of the popular choices in the arts faculty. “In the science department, applied science subjects like biotechnology or microbiology have found many takers,” he said.