An MBA programme in disaster management, a postgraduate programme in international business, and M.Sc. programmes in water resources management and in actuarial science are among the new courses the University of Kerala plans to institute in the year 2012-13.
These were among the proposals laid out in the Rs.236.64-crore budget presented by Syndicate member B.S. Jyothikumar at a meeting of the University Senate here on Wednesday. There will also be a new LLM programme with cyber law, intellectual property rights, and constitutional law as the optional subjects.
Diploma courses
The varsity will offer diploma programmes in maritime studies under the school of life sciences; in technical writing under the school of communication and library sciences; in communication engineering under the school of technology, in collaboration with BSNL; and in translation studies. Certificate courses will be offered in music therapy and in film appreciation. The Centre for Nano science and Nanotechnology and the Centre for Geo Information Science and Technology will be elevated as full-fledged departments.
Five new study centres will be set up, two of which are tourism studies centre under the School of Business, Management and Legal Studies and an International Arabic Translation Centre under the School of English and Foreign Languages. A Centre for Chinese Studies will be set up in collaboration with Hinan University, China, as will a Centre for Venom Informatics under the Department of Computational Biology at an outlay of Rs.3.35 crore. An International Centre for Malayalam Studies will be set up under the Department of Malayalam at an outlay of Rs.3 crore.
An amount of Rs.10 lakh has been set apart for instituting a Centre for International Academics designed to attract foreign students to the varsity. A Centre for Administrative Reforms Training and Research aimed at enhancing the administrative capacity of employees in government, quasi-government institutions and in universities will be set up, for which Rs.50 lakh had been set apart.
The budget estimates an income of Rs.16 crore for the Institute of Distance Education through the activities of the Learner Support Centres in the State and in the Gulf countries.
In 2012-13 University Institute of Technology (UITs) will be set up at Haripad, Sasthamcotta, and Thenmala. Courses in BLiSc and BA Communicative English will be started at the UIT, Kottarakara, and a B.Com in Cooperation will be offered in UIT Pirappancode. For this, Rs.9 lakh will be provided.
An action plan titled ‘Gurupoornatha' will be rolled out this financial year to set right the shortage of permanent teaching staff in the university's departments.
Research portal
The varsity budget has allocated Rs.1 crore each for setting up a Geological Museum and Marine Museum. In order to ensure transparency in the research sector a research portal will be started. Among other research-related information, the portal will also host recordings of open defences by research scholars. The grant given to research centres will be raised from Rs.2 lakh to Rs.5 lakh.
A Centre for Student Placements will be set up to facilitate campus placements.
