Institute of social sciences to open at Panjab varsity today

Tribune News Service

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Chandigarh, August 10

Punjab’s first Institute of Social Sciences Education and Research is coming up at Panjab University for humanities students. UT Adviser Vijay Kumar Dev will inaugurate the institute at the university tomorrow.

The institute will provide an integrated five-year honours programme for 10+2 pass students having 55 per cent marks.

PU Dean Social Science Ronki Ram said the course would provide a multi-disciplinary foundation for an overall perspective on polity, economy and society - at the undergraduate level - with further specialisation at the MA level, to inculcate a holistic and interdisciplinary orientation to social sciences.

He said this initiative was taken on the recommendation of NAAC and the UGC, which suggested constituting a department under which all humanities courses students could conduct research under one umbrella. The three-year BA Honours and two-year MA Honours programme has an exit option after 3 years.

The programme would provide foundational knowledge in geography, history, economics, political science, sociology and public administration, along with an introduction to main concepts in psychology, philosophy and natural sciences, among other themes.

The course would follow choice-based credit system and comprises of discipline specific electives, generic electives, skill enhancement courses and ability enhancement courses, as per latest stipulation by the UGC. The programme envisages a focus on logical reasoning, use of classical and development of writing skills to analyse and present evidence.