The Academic Council of Jawaharlal Nehru University on Thursday announced the decision to establish a special centre for systems medicine (SCSM) at the university and deliberated on the possibility of converting the existing three-year BA programmes into four-year courses in accordance with the National Education Policy, 2020.
National hub
Vice-Chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar said, “The proposed centre would serve as a national hub for the development of India’s specific clinical and molecular data and its application in the area of systems medicine”.
He added that this is in tune with the global trends and Indian universities have great opportunity to develop systems medicine for efficient and customised healthcare in the country.
The university said that systems medicine is an approach to understand the complexity of the interactions of all the molecular and cellular determinants involved in the patho-physiology of a disease.
Course period
The 155th Academic Council meeting also formed an apex committee consisting of representatives from different schools and centres to deliberate and come up with its recommendations in how to implement the NEP.
Rector 1 Chintamani Mahapatra said that some of the major issues that came under focus at the meeting were the possibility of converting the existing three-year BA courses into four-year programmes and starting new four-year undergraduate programmes.
The council also deliberated offering master’s level programmes in online mode on subjects which do not require lab or experimental work, he added.
On intake of students, the council discussed how to strengthen its inclusive policy to provide better opportunities for students coming from socially and economically disadvantaged sections as well as increasing the intake of international students.
