Autonomous colleges roll out tailor-made courses

Mumbai: A honours programme in BCom aimed at chartered accountancy aspirants, a master’s in psychology with a specialization in lifespan counselling, certificate

courses

in wine tourism, destination management, film appreciation, social media marketing, artificial intelligence... These are just some of the many interesting courses on offer at top autonomous

colleges

this admission season for Class XII passouts.

As

autonomous

colleges have multiplied this year, degree college aspirants have plenty of add-on courses to choose from. Bhavyaa Srivastav, the humanities topper in Class XII CBSE, said, “In Mumbai, St Xavier’s is one of my top choices because of the certificate courses they offer in psychology.” Her top choices are based on the rankings of institutes in the national ranking framework. She intends to combine psychology with adventure.

St Xavier’s College will introduce an MA Psychology in lifespan counselling. Ruby Pavri, head of the college’s psychology department, said even as mental health issues are on the rise, “there are no opportunities to gain a high-quality education in mental health. We are trying to bridge this gap with our new course in psychology”.

Autonomous colleges in the city are able to provide flexible learning opportunities in the interdisciplinary environment for Class XII passouts. Many of these colleges have sought feedback from multiple stakeholders to redesign their curriculum and offer new industry- oriented programmes to bring in a complete overhaul. Some of the certificate programmes launched by these colleges are initiatives taken by the faculty too, said Anushree Lokur, principal of Ruia College. The college plans a PG diploma in pharmacovigilance, medical writing and clinical data management —one of the fastest growing streams in health sciences industry. Pharmacovigilance is the practice of monitoring the effects of medical drugs.

Principal Rajendra Shinde said, “Autonomy allows colleges to explore options that they are unable to take up in the university framework. Colleges are expected to send their proposals to the university to inform them before starting the programme,” said Shinde.

Mithibai

College plans a first-of-its-kind honours programme in BCom in Mumbai University-affiliated colleges; it is designed for students who are keen on pursuing CA. The college also plans green evaluation as part of exam reforms. “We plan to bar code answer books to prevent human intervention, send admit cards via mail and declare results on mail,” said principal Rajpal Hande.

Among the courses planned at

RA Podar

College are two mandatory credit-based non-academic programmes—life enrichment programme which will include yoga, stress and conflict management, and civic sense management to train students in disaster and environment management, said principal Shobana Vasudevan.

RJ College

in Ghatkopar and

Birla

College in Kalyan, too, plan a host of new courses. Usha Mukundan, principal, RJ College, listed courses in artificial intelligence, machine learning, computational biology. Naresh Chandra, principal, Birla College, said apart from courses in biomedical and environmental sciences, they also plan a double-blind system of evaluation where papers will be assessed by internal and external examiners.