JK News Today
Jammu July 03:
Prof. R.D.Sharma , Vice Chancellor, University of Jammu today inaugurated three weeks refresher course of Inter Disciplinary Summer School in Social Sciences, being organised by the Department of History. The course is being attended by the college and university teachers of various parts of the country.
Speaking on the occasion, Prof. Sharma dwelt upon the challenges faced by the institution of higher leaning in the age of globalization and said that our universities have been subject to sweeping change – in the way they are funded, to the rules and constraints that apply to them and to the competitive landscape.
He added, “The conventional role of the University has changed drastically and also the expectations of students. The competition is also intense. In such a situation courses such as this becomes extremely crucial as they are designed to refresh the critical learning elements with an aim to increase overall effectiveness and professionalism among the teaching community. It also helps achieve excellence in its performance”.
The Vice Chancellor also underlined the need to develop and maintain a balance between the pursuit of knowledge per se and vocational relevance.
Prior to inauguration, the Course Coordinator, Prof. Shyam Narayan Lal, Head, Department of History, welcomed the participants and said how the paradigm of knowledge has drastically changed over and the domain of higher education become contesting and challenging at the same time.
“Higher Education today, demands an altogether different approach as compared to the earlier times”, he said, adding that in such a situation the charting of a successful path requires the dedicated efforts of everyone involved in the scholastic profession. It is no longer enough to be good at the craft of your own discipline, he said, observing what is required is a through awareness of what is happening in your neighbouring disciplines and how insight thrown by them can be brought to bear upon the development of your own discipline. He said efforts would be made to invite eminent scholars in different fields to share their knowledge and expertise with the participants, enabling them to develop an understanding of various challenges before academics in the present globalized world while upgrading their competence and knowledge base in different fields of learning.
Ranjit Kalra, Assistant Director of HRDC , University of Jammu, extended the vote of thanks
The other prominent speakers on the occasion were Prof. Jigar Mohammed, Dean Research, University of Jammu, Prof. Anita Billawaria, Dean, Social Sciences.
Prof. Suman Jamwal , conducted the entire inaugural proceeding. She also chaired the post lunch session of the course.
In this session, Prof. Suman Jamwal briefed participants about the possible structure and the objective of the refresher course. She also underlined the fact that in terms of resource persons and the academic contents of the course an attempt would be made to create a judicious balance between the theory and practice of social sciences.
