UGC plumps for courses in disaster management

Thiruvananthapuram: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has issued a letter to all universities urging them to introduce courses on disaster management and financial emergencies. These courses should cover topics like bomb threats, earthquakes, explosions, hazardous material spills and release, campus shootings and terrorist incidents. Every university in the country will be required to offer these courses, according to the UGC’s letter. Universities can play an important role in this regard and can act as focal points for providing employable expertise spreading knowledge in the sphere of disaster management, the letter pointed out.

The courses also cover financial emergencies such as sudden health emergencies, unexpected loss of income, deaths, risk of eviction and damages from natural disasters. Vice chancellors of all universities have been asked to issue instructions to all affiliated colleges to include this course in their curriculum in the next academic year. The UGC had constituted an Expert Committee to suggest measures to promote disaster management education in the university system. The Commission, while considering the report of the Expert Committee on Disaster Management approved the introduction of an optional paper on Disaster Management at UG level across universities/colleges.