Department frames new flexible syllabus offering students the opportunity to study topics based on their college's location as well as geographical conditions existing at the time
A college in a coastal region will get to focus on marine biology, as per the zoology department's new syllabus, offering flexibility to students on learning topics. Representation Pic/Thinkstock
At a time when even parents of children studying in a Bandra school don't have the choice of wearing what they want, the Mumbai university has decided to let zoology students decide what they want to study.
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How it will work
This first-of-its-kind initiative will work like this: a college in a coastal region will get to focus on marine biology, whereas one located near the hills will have syllabus focusing on that region’s bio-diversity. Local case studies will be added to the syllabus as and when required.
This is thanks to the framing of a new syllabus of the zoology department, offering a lot of flexibility. Instead of four units, the fifth semester will have eight, out of which students can decide which four they want to study, following a discussion with their teacher. Also, an open unit added in the sixth semester will give them complete freedom to decide what to learn depending on real time, geographical and environmental situation of the location of the college. A workshop was held at Khalsa College on Saturday to brainstorm and educate zoology professors of affiliated colleges.
Students have welcomed the changes. "This is exciting because it will make learning more interesting for us," said Rupesh Sangode, a second-year student at MD college.
Expert speak
Convener of the syllabus committee Vinayak Dalvi said, "The flexibility is designed in a way that teachers and professors can together decide on topics to learn on need-based principle. Nobody has to wait for five years for the varsity to revamp the syllabus to study relevant topics. While basic science is taught to students in initial semesters, in the fifth one, they will have the opportunity to select four topics from the given eight. In the sixth semester, with the help of the open unit, students can decide on one topic of their interest as per relevant conditions and appear for a paper on that. Need of the area in which the college is located, resources available in the area and in that zone, and teachers' expertise will be the basic criteria on which students and teachers can come to a decision on which topic to study."
"It will give a lot of scope to colleges to explore and experiment and move ahead with research work. If a college is near a coastal area and has a functioning research wing, it will be a great opportunity for learning, as academia and industry will go hand in hand," said Nilima Prabhu, a co-convener of the syllabus committee and faculty member at Patkar College.
"In today's world, the current information flow may be redundant in a year. The open unit will allow students to study topics that are relevant at that time," said Swapnil Pathare, founder-member and strategy analyst at KKEL Innovation Hub, who was part of the syllabus committee for applied components.
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