New Delhi: Delhi University (DU) affiliated Ramjas Collegehas declared to open four new centers of excellence from July onwards this year. This idea has been introduced to provide the students global exposure while going beyond the regular curriculum.
The four new upcoming centers will be the South Asia Centre, Centre for Public Policy and Governance, Centre for Media Convergence and the Centre for Multicultural Studies. These centers will be headed by the Ramjas College Principal Rajendra Prasad as their Chairman.
In the context of the new centers, the principal of Ramjas College, Rajendra Prasad said that these centers will be highly critical and relevant to today’s world. Each of the course and center would deal with the issues that affect our daily lives directly or indirectly.
He also added that whether it is media ethics, politics of South-Asian countries or various scam happening in the government that they hear of everyday, these are important issues and require a closer look. The courses at these centres will be of duration of three months and they will be open to both students as well as professionals.
Furthermore, he quoted that the introduction of these centres and courses would help in broadening the perspectives of students and in enhancing the careers of professionals. The centres will also encourage student exchange programmes between South Asian countries apart from interaction with scholars through lectures, seminars and cultural activities related to the region.
As per the sources, aim of the South Asia Centre would be to coordinate and promote the study of South Asian cultures, religions, languages, history, economy, politics and contemporary challenges of development of the subcontinent.
Although, the areas which will be taken up at the Centre for Public Policy and Governance would include research entrepreneurship, policy formulation, knowledge dissemination, capacity building and grass root initiatives.
However, the study of media in its numerous and diverse forms will be included at the Center for Media Convergence, providing a platform to students for discussing the relationship between journalism, media and socio-political governance issues.
At the Centre for Multicultural Studies, students will be encouraged to pursue projects on issues related to multiculturalism. This practice would help them in creating awareness about different alternative visions of the society.
Sources also said that the modalities for the centres such as the strength of classrooms and the fee structure are still being reviewed, whereas the college is looking at various sources of funding.
Later, in the session, Rajendra Prasad intimidated that apart from approaching the University for funding, the college had also approached various government agencies such as University Grants Commission (UGC), Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), Indian Council of Historical research (ICHR), Indian Council of Philosophical Research (ICPR), Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) as well as several corporate houses. In the end he said that if the college gets enough amount of funds through this source, then they might consider operating the courses for free.
