One-time arrangement but candidates must attend exams in person

Mysore/Mysuru: The Academic Council of University of Mysore (UoM) gave its consent to conduct Ph.D course work classes online following the suspension of offline classes owing to COVID-19 pandemic.

Announcing this at the Academic Council meeting here yesterday, UoM Vice-Chancellor Prof. G. Hemantha Kumar  said that consequent to suspension of offline Ph.D course work classes due to COVID pandemic, several candidates had presented memorandum seeking conducting the course work classes online. Based on their request, the Varsity had decided to conduct classes online only for the year 2020-21. 

Over 200 candidates have taken Ph.D courses and they will be benefited. 

“This special arrangement is only for this year; students must appear for examination in person,” he clarified.

Buddhist Studies

The VC said that Prof. G. Somashekar, Director, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Research and Extension Centre, Manasagangothri, had submitted a proposal for the establishment of Centre for Buddhist Studies to the Registrar in 2020. This will be sent to the State Government approval. 

At this juncture, Prof. Muzaffar H. Assadi, Professor, Department of Political Science, opined to incorporate the word ‘Buddha Dhamma’ instead of ‘Buddha Dharma’ while sending the proposal to the Government. 

MLC R. Dharmasena urged the University authorities to start the Centre for Hinduism Studies with a view to clear the doubts about the meaning of Hinduism. 

Prof. Hemantha Kumar said the proposal on Buddhist Studies will be sent to the Government after the experts vet it. The Varsity will not start the Centre immediately owing to fund crunch. It will be done once the financial condition improves, he added.

Online classes

The Academic Council also ratified a subject on conducting online classes for two candidates of M.Sc in Clinical Embryology and Pre-Implantation Genetics, as ‘special case’ due to prevailing Corona crisis. The examination of 2nd and 4th semester of this course with regard to Asia Pacific Institute of Embryology, Mysuru, for the students of the academic year 2018-20 was scheduled from Sept. 22, 2020. 

But due to COVID-19 pandemic, two students could not write the examinations as they were in other countries and also the international flights were ceased during that period. 

On May 29, 2021, the Institute authorities had requested to conduct the examinations of two semesters on online basis. As the students were from foreign countries, they could not come and write the examinations in person.

The meeting also decided to keep on hold the re-christening of B.Sc and M.Sc courses in Speech & Hearing following objections from the Department of Higher Education. 

The VC informed the members that the Varsity had planned to change B.Sc course as Bachelor in Audio and Speech Language Pathology (BASLP) and M.Sc course as Masters in Audio and Speech Language Pathology (MASLP). 

The Department has suggested the Varsity to change certain regulations without which re-naming of the courses was not possible. So, the fresh proposal will be forwarded to the Government only after making necessary changes in regulations, he added.

Prof. R. Shivappa, Registrar (Administration) and Prof A.C. Jnana Prakash, Registrar (Evaluation), Gundlupet MLA C.S. Niranjankumar, MLC R. Dharmasena and others attended.