PU panel for social sciences centre

CHANDIGARH: In an effort to make integrated education a reality, the Panjab University’s committee has recommended the creation of Centre for Integrated and Applied Studies in the Social Sciences (CIASISS) to promote excellence in teaching, research, consultancy and training for the faculty of social sciences.
The concept of starting the centre is linked with accommodating the three year’s integrated course of BA social sciences, which PU is planning to introduce from the session of 2004-05.
The committee headed by Prof S L Sharma has recommended that the main programmes for the centre would be teaching, training, research and consultancy, with its initial responsibility being the introduction of the new BA honours course. The subsequent activities of the centre include starting a course in research methodology, joint supervision of Phd and MPhil cases and preparation of inter-disciplinary readers in Hindi and Punjabi for undergraduate and postgraduate courses.
The course content for BA honours is designed not only to train and motivate students into becoming reflective and independent learners but also to prepare students for employment in teaching, particularly social studies, at the school level.
Another objective chalked out by the committee is preparing students for research work in NGOs, civil services and a strong foundation for pursuing postgraduation in social sciences. The training ground for students would be an entry into print and electronic media as course curriculum would also have related subjects.
"It will be a demanding professional course where classes would be from 9 am to 5 pm, and classroom teaching would be held from 9 a to 11 am and from 3 pm to 5 pm. The interim period would be utilised for supervised library reading and project work," said Prof S P Gautam, the member of the committee that finalised the syllabi for the new course.