KOCHI: The Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, has evinced interest in running its blended BSc course at the autonomous Maharaja’s College, Ernakulam, to provide students interested in pure sciences with a valuable degree. The course lays equal importance on physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics in the first two years, which are must subjects in the two years. In the final year, the students can opt for specialisation. Botany and zoology will not be separate in this course.
“IISER, Pune, has come out with the proposal after identifying that many Keralites aspiring to pursue pure sciences courses at IISER are not able to get admission. They have identified that Keralites form half of the total student population in IISERs across the country which point to their interest in pure sciences. They are learnt to have also approached CMS College, Kottayam, in this regard,” said Dr N. Shaji, head of the department of physics, Maharaja’s College.
He said that the academic council and governing council of Maharaja’s College have given in- principle approval for the proposal and they are now waiting for the consent of the government. “New posts have to be created for starting the course and government approval is needed for it. We are against starting self-financing courses. We are also awaiting Rs 30 crore from the government under KIIFB after being granted the centre of excellence status with four other colleges in the state. The lab and hostel facilities have to be augmented for launching the course and we hope to do it in the coming academic year after setting up the infrastructure,” said Dr Shaji. Maharaja’s already has a healthy research output which attracted IISER.
The University of Melbourne, which is among the top 50 universities across the world, has also evinced interest in helping Maharaja’s to form the syllabus of the course. “Both IISER and University of Melbourne have offered accreditation for the course if the standards stipulated by them are met. The students who pass the course can look for PG with Melbourne University while IISER, which is offering only BS-MS combined course, has avenues for research after PG,” Dr Shaji said.
