GU will offer PG course in ayurveda, BE in bioengg: VC
24-Aug-23 05:03:02
Panaji: Goa University’s vice-chancellor Harilal B Menon said plans are afoot to introduce PG programmes in ayurveda and sports.
He was speaking at the 34th convocation ceremony of the university on Wednesday.
He also said a BE degree will be introduced in bioengineering.
Menon said that the new courses will broaden the canvas of academic learning and make the university further socially relevant to the state and the nation.
The vice-chancellor said that to foster innovations and leverage entrepreneurial instincts, Goa University is already pioneering the concept of a research park on its campus.
“The university will chaperone an ecosystem that forges collaborations between innovators, startups, and industries across the state,” said Menon.
“The research park will be a forum for innovators in bioengineering and related fields, health, and IT. Ideas will be validated and scaled up for commercialisation.
Health, IT, and social bio-incubator systems will focus on domains such as biotechnology, biomaterials, bioinformatics, and healthcare and diagnostics, Menon said.
The other areas, he said, include drug research and therapeutics, bioenergy, and nanotechnologies.
The research park will act as a link between industry and academia and a platform for companies to join the university to build on the intellectual capital, Menon said. He said the ultimate aim is to help achieve the primary objectives of the Goa government’s startup policy.
Menon said that the university has received financial assistance of Rs 9.8 crore under the Goa department of science's Promotion of University Research and Scientific Excellence (PURSE).
“This grant will help the university augment its high-end research facilities,” Menon said. “These facilities will not only help Goan students complete their PG/PhD degrees but also encourage them to incubate their ideas into startups.”
Menon said that Goa University will focus on a few key param in the coming years, which include radical internal restructuring, scaling up the number of students and faculty and boosting core strengths in various disciplines by adding new branches of learning.
The university recognises that it needs to do much more in terms of being of greater relevance to society, said Menon.
He said that the university therefore wants to focus on research clusters to offer practical, grassroots solutions to problems.
More community outreach programmes have been planned, Menon said.
SOURCE & CREDIT: TIMES OF INDIA