The 42 teaching departments and 37 centres of the University of Kerala would be grouped into 11 schools of learning.
On Tuesday, the Governor had given his assent for introducing the school system in the university.
The departments of Commerce and Law and the Institute of Management in Kerala would be grouped to become the School of Business Management and Legal Studies, the first school which would become functional in 2012 itself, a press note issued by the university said. The School of Distance Education too would be constituted this year.
The departments of Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Zoology, and Aquatic Biology would be grouped together as the School of Life Sciences; the departments of Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Statistics, and Demography would become the School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences; Geology and Environmental Science would be put together to crate the School of Earth System Science; and the departments of English, German, Russian, and Arabic would come under the School of English and Foreign Languages; Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, Sanskrit, Linguistics, and the Oriental Research Institute and Manuscripts Library would come together to form the School of Indian Languages.
The School of Communication and Library Science would comprise the departments of Journalism and Library Science. The departments of Computer Science, Futures Studies and Opto-Electronics would come together to constitute the School of Technology. Sociology, Economics, History, Political Science, Islamic Studies, Archaeology, Philosophy, Psychology, and Education would form the School of Social Sciences. There would also be a School of Fine Arts.
Three-year term
Each school would be headed by a director with a three-year term. The Vice-Chancellor, in consultation with the heads of the department concerned would appoint the directors.
An academic could not be the director and the head of a department at the same time, the press note said. The school council headed by the director would determine the work allocation, the formation of the syllabus, matters relating to the library, and the functioning of the doctoral committee, the press note added.
