UGC clears SGU proposal PG course

SURAT, May 25: The University Grants Commission has cleared a proposal by the South Gujarat University for starting a post-graduate course in Environment Science. Though the university authorities are interested in starting the course from this academic year, it appears highly unlikely given the fact that very little time is left for the new session to begin.Vice-Chancellor Dr Ashwin Kapadia, who is all for starting the new course from this academic year, is out of station and is expected to resume duty only on June 2.

Appointment of lecturers for the new Environment department, that will function under the Science faculty, will also take some time. A source in the university, however, claimed it was still possible to start the course, though the session would be delayed, if the vice-chancellor so wished.The course will run on grants from the UGC. Incidentally, this will be the first new department to be started in the last couple of years, a period that saw closure of two departments; the department of Linguistics and the department of Continuing Education and Extension.

While, the first one was closed when the university contended that not a single student enrolled during the last five years, the second was closed when the state government refused to given concurrence to run it once the UGC grant period expired. Both the decisions were challenged in the court.