UoP likely to start sustainable development course next session

While science graduates from any discipline will be eligible to apply for this one year post-graduate degree course,details including intake capacity or selection process are yet to be finalised. The course has been informally approved by the acting vice-chancellor Sanjay Chahande but is yet to go through the usual protocol of it being passed by the board of studies,faculties and the academic council of the varsity.

“At present though the course will be jointly conducted by the three institutions,in the later stages a joint degree by all the three bodies can be expected if we get the go ahead from the University Grants Commission (UGC). As per the Indian legislation,so far such joint degrees have not yet been started in India,” said Pandit Vidyasagar,head,Physics department of UoP and member of the co-ordinating committee for the course.

He further added the course will be based on a hybrid model and classes will be conducted partly through physical classroom teaching and partly through video-conferencing with faculty from Japan and Thailand.

“As the time zones in all the three countries is different,we will have to look into issues surrounding real time video-conferences. Students will get to work on various projects at all three campuses. The basic idea behind such a course is to be able to give students a wider perspective of issues and best practices elsewhere in the world as a course like sustainable development requires the expertise that has been developed in other countries so that a comparative and cross-cultural evaluation is required,” said Vidyasagar.

Till now UoP has courses on environmental science but not a separate course on sustainable management.