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Indraprastha University lines up new focus areas, courses
New Delhi:
New Delhi:
Specialised centres, introduction to popular undergraduate and integrated courses, a robust placement cell and perception management—these are some of the new focus areas for Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU)
Mainly known for its professional courses, the university now plans to foray into liberal arts education. “Most of the courses are postgraduate level at the university campus. Since undergraduate courses are the need of the hour, we are planning to introduce popular courses like BA (Hons) in English, B. Com(Hons), Bachelor of Journalism and Mass Communication, BA (Hons) in Economics, B.Ed etc in the campus school as well,” said newly appointed vice-chancellor Mahesh Verma at a press conference on Friday.
“We plan to introduce more integrated courses such as M.Tech in Environment Engineering, courses in Nano Sciences, PhD in emerging areas such as pharmaceutical sciences,” said Verma, who had earlier served as director of Maulana Azad Medical Institute of Dental Sciences (MAIDS), and was appointed GGSIPU’s VC three weeks ago.
The university has 129 affiliated institutions across Delhi-NCR. While there are 70 self-financing institutes in Delhi, 35 are government colleges in Delhi. Verma said the varsity would work towards increasing the number of seats in the campus in order to “ensure that affordable public-funded education is available to all.”
“For the last four to five years, the public perception and visibility of the university has declined. We will be working towards improving that,” he said, adding renewing NAAC accreditation is also one of his focus areas.
In addition, the university plans to set up a “world-class health centre with maximum facilities” and an incubation centre. Verma said the university would begin the second phase of development such as construction of six new blocks in the Dwarka campus and development of the East Delhi campus at Surajmal Vihar.
Speaking about the litigations faced by the university, Verma said, “We are trying to mitigate this trend and resolve conflict wherever possible.” When questioned on the protests led by current and former students on fee arrears, he said, “We are just following the court’s orders on the matter.”
The fee arrear notifications were sent by colleges after a Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by students was dismissed in the Supreme Court on 22 April. The SLP was filed after the Delhi High Court passed the revised fee judgement on 28 January allowing colleges to hike fee.
