Symbiosis varsity to launch school of liberal arts in June

PUNE: The Symbiosis International University (SIU) announced here on Wednesday its plan to start a school of liberal arts at its model colony campus from June 2011.
Liberal arts refers to a study that puts greater thrust on general knowledge and developing students' rational though and intellectual capabilities. This is different from the professional, vocation and technical courses, which emphasise on specialisation.
With an element of flexible interdisciplinary learning, liberal arts provide scope for study of a plethora of subjects, ranging from literature, languages, philosophy, history, mathematics and science, among others.
During his maiden interaction with the press since taking charge as the new SIU vice-chancellor (VC), Bhushan Patwardhan said, "The proposed school will offer a four-year degree course in liberal arts, which will have a weightage of 150 credits and will cover a wide range of 40 to 50 subjects as electives, to go along with the main subject of study."
He added: "The school also forms part of the SIU's bigger objective of promoting interdisciplinary studies. At the same time, expand its base of foreign students by drawing students from Europe, US and Australia." Patwardhan pointed out, "Students from countries in Afro-Asia and the Pacific Rim have long accounted for the majority of foreign students at SIU. We are now looking beyond."
"We are starting with a student intake of 60 seats for the liberal arts course for which admissions will open in a couple of weeks time by way of an online form submission process," he said, adding, the final selection will be based on personal interview and group discussion. The course is open for students from all universities, he added.
Patwardhan touched upon a slew of priorities. This included internationalisation of SIU activities; expansion of student base; promoting new collaborations, both inter- and intra-institutes; creating an academic credit bank to enable students select a part of their course component from any other institution at national and international level.
The Symbiosis Institute of International Business has got into a tie-up with the Berlin School of Applied Sciences to facilitate a two-year MBA-MA dual degree programme under which students from either institutions will get a year to study in India and Germany, he said. "We also plan to start with chair and adjunct professorship in collaboration with the industry, voluntary organisations and learnt individuals from different walks of life," he added.
According to SIU principal director Vidya Yeravdekar, the school of liberal arts comes as an extension of the Centre for Liberal Arts, which the Symbiosis had started in 2006 with an idea to provide value added programmes to its regular students. "We are starting with the school from our model colony campus and eventually the school will move to a campus of its own at the Lavasa lake city," said Yeravdekar.