GUWAHATI, July 26 � A communication gap is doubted to have been at the root of a confusion leading to a University Grants Commission (UGC) letter to Gauhati University (GU) authorities to withdraw the courses on BBA and MBA the university had introduced last year as regular ones.
Meanwhile, it is learnt that the UGC authorities have ordered removal of the said letter from the UGC website and asked the GU authorities to submit a detailed report on the courses for consideration, said the GU sources.
The BBA and MBA courses were introduced by the GU authorities after their being approved by several committees of the university�s teachers. The syllabi for the courses were approved by the Academic Council of the university and the Executive Council of the university then approved the courses.
The approval to the courses was obtained from the UGC on May 7, 2009 {No- F 82-3/2009 (SU-II)}. Now the UGC has said through a letter on July 14 that since the courses have been run outside the State of Assam, contrary to its rule, they should be withdrawn from outside the State.
GU sources told this correspondent that the UGC directive appears to be in contradiction with the approval it had granted to the courses. Moreover, this is also found to be in contradiction with the UGC�s approach towards the other universities which are located outside the State and running their centres in Assam and several other States of the country, sources said.
The courses were launched in line with the recommendations of the Knowledge Commission and the recent vision document of the Union Human Resources Development (HRD) Ministry.
Collaboration of industrial/corporate houses and academic institutions in different parts of the country has been obtained to run these innovative courses, which were basically the products of the hard work of teachers of the Management department of the university. These courses could emerge as the most sought after ones for the students and hundreds of students in different parts of the country have enrolled themselves as regular students of the courses, sources said.
Sources also pointed out the latest approach in the academia towards bringing closer the industries and the academia to create synergies. A productive interface between academia and industry in the present times of knowledge economy is a critical requirement, said the sources, referring to the latest approach of the academia on the issue.
In the two GU courses, students have to undergo four days a week on-the-job training in corporate/industrial houses and two days a week classroom learning in some reputed academic institutes in a semester. The courses are in the areas of sales and marketing, finance and banking, information technology and human resources management and retail management.
Since most of the industrial houses are located outside Assam, GU has to run the courses mostly outside the State.
The courses received tremendous response from the industries as well as the student community. The students have found the courses specially beneficial in view of the combination of theoretical learning with on-the-job practical experience. Students would be awarded the degrees by GU after completion of their courses, while the corporate/industrial houses concerned would issue experience certificates to them. The courses have made the GU presence felt at the national level, said the sources.
