EDUCATION

City colleges introduce new courses
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 12
With admission time in the city reaching a crescendo, the race is on to bag a seat in one of the latest courses being offered by the city colleges from this session. Almost every college in the city is offering two or more new courses from this session and for the city students the choices are countless.

“Students don’t want to follow the beaten track. They want to do something different and we try to offer them with a myriad of possibilities to choose from. Also, the endeavour is to keep an eye on the job market and offer relevant courses,” pointed Dr AC Vaid, Principal GGDSD College Sector 32 here.

From this session, the college has introduced 40 seats in B.Sc (Industrial Microbiology). The college will start the Masters in Business Economics course from this session.

Another 30 seats have been made available for those interested in doing a post-graduate diploma in travel management.

Students who take up a humanities or social science degree course in the college can from this session also enroll for add-on courses in fashion designing, journalism and child psychology. For commerce students, the college has introduced an add-on course in hospitality and tourism management.

DAV College, Sector 10, will start the Masters in Business Economics course from this session. Students thinking of doing a BA from the college can, from this year, opt for computer applications and statistics as an elective subject.

“Traditionally, these are considered to be science and commerce subjects but keeping the demand in mind, we are offering these courses in BA also,” said college Principal Prof S. Marriya. The college has also started two evening courses— Post-graduate diploma in insurance management and Post graduate diploma in business management.

MCM DAV College for Girls, Sector 36, has introduced French as an elective subject in BA. “Other than this, we would be offering French as an add-on course. The other add-on courses which we have introduced this year, include Interior decoration and design and Webs designing and multimedia,” said Mrs Puneet Bedi, the college principal.

Dev Samaj College for Women, Sector 45, is starting the Business Economics (Honours) course which can be taken up in the second year of the regular B.Com degree course. “We have also started, from this year, a Post-graduate diploma in computer applications. Our BA students can now take up fine arts and psychology as elective subjects from this session. The add-on courses introduced this year include Basics in computers, e-marketing and advertising.”

Among the government colleges, Government College, Sector 11, has started MA History course from this session. The college has also introduced French, Physical Education and Fine Arts as elective subjects in BA. Government College for Girls, Sector 42, has introduced 40 seats in BCA from this year. The college would also offer functional Hindi as an add-on course to humanities students.

The SGGS College for Women, Sector 26, is introducing a one-year post graduate course in Physical Education called the B.P.Ed course. It would be offered to graduates of any subject. The college has 50 seats for this course and is open to girls only.

This year, the college is offering three new add-on courses including computer based accounting, event management and data care management.

With an eye on the bio-technology boom in the city’s periphery, the SGGS College for Men has introduced B.Sc (Honours) in Biotechnology and B.Sc (Honours) in bioinformatics from this session.

The college has also started an M.Sc Mathematics course and would admit students to MA (English) II year also. Among the new add-on courses started by the college, this year, are insurance and banking and entrepreneurship in small businesses.

AIDS clearance not required by foreign students
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 12
The Education Department of the Chandigarh Administration today allowed foreign students vying for admission to various government colleges in the city to apply without handing over the AIDS clearance certificate from PGI.

The Education Department's prospectus for admission to Government College Sector 11, Government College Sector 42, Government College Sector 46 and Government College for Girls Sector 11, however, had stated that foreign students who wanted admission to any of these colleges would have to procure an AIDS clearance certificate from PGI. However, the said condition would be reportedly reviewed by the administration in wake of a Government of India circular that stated no one could be denied a job or admission for being HIV positive.

Confirming that the administration had communicated orders to this effect, college Principals added that this condition had however not been done away with or withdrawn. "We have just been asked to accept admission forms from these candidates even if they do not have an AIDS clearance certificate from the PGI. The final admission would however be subject to a final decision on the matter," said a college Principal.

Sources added that the Chandigarh Administration followed the Panjab University rules for admission of foreign students and this condition was a part of these rules. However, reportedly the university had revoked this condition from this session and the administration was likely to follow suit. In the last session, there were a total of 29 students admitted to various government colleges in the city, mostly from Nepal.

Over 8,500 students appear for CET
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 12
Over 8,500 students from the region appeared for the Common Entrance Test (CET) conducted by Panjab University here today. The test scheduled to be held on May 20 was cancelled and postponed when question papers for the test failed to arrive in time at the university.

Even as university officials kept their fingers crossed through the day, candidates heaved a sigh of relief when the series of tests that began at 8.30 this morning ended at 6 pm without any problem what so ever.

Giving mixed reactions to the postponement of the test, candidates, however, appealed to the university to declare the results of the test in time.

“We have been delayed in all our admission by a fortnight. By now we would have known where to join but since the test was postponed, we are still surrounded by uncertainty,” said Manpreet, who came for the test from Panchkula.

The students appeared for the entrance exam across 30 centers in the city for admission to various courses of MBBS, BAMS, BHMS, BDS, BSc Honours, B Pharmacy and BA LLB (five year) courses being taught at various colleges and teaching departments of the university.