Central University of Bihar’s former vice-chancellor Janak Pandey (centre) and other officials take part in a discussion in Gaya on Wednesday. Picture by Suman

Central University of Bihar will start courses in several disciplines, including science and political science, at the Gaya campus this academic session.

Acting vice-chancellor Devdas Banerjee on Wednesday said a postgraduate course in arts and craft would be launched in the new session starting July. An integrated course in MPhil and PhD in political science and MEd at the school of education would also start at the Gaya campus.

Admission forms for courses in the new session would be available from March 28. At present, the Gaya campus is functioning from a rented building in the town.

On Wednesday, Banerjee and former vice-chancellor Janak Pandey spoke on the challenges and possibilities at the university. The discussion came at a farewell ceremony organised for Pandey.

Banerjee took over from Pandey after he retired from his post on March 1. Banerjee added that consolidation of the ongoing academic programmes is among his top priorities. The academic council of the university earlier passed a proposal to start postgraduate courses in physics and chemistry. These are likely to start from the current session too. Sources said the practical problem standing in way of starting the courses was the lack of space. The courses require laboratories to be set up on the Gaya campus.

Ever since the central university came into existence in May 2009 and the first batch of students took admission in the course of development studies, the institution has faced several challenges. Among the problems was the lack of a permanent campus, which in turn hampered the start of several courses. The defence ministry has finally provided 300 acres at Panchanpur, around 15km west of the Gaya district headquarters. The new campus is likely to be completed by 2016 to ensure full-fledged functioning of the university.

A faculty member in charge of the Gaya campus, Alok Kumar Gupta, said four postgraduate courses and four undergraduate courses are on at present. The undergraduate courses include five-year integrated courses in law at the school of law and governance and four-year integrated courses in BA-BEd and BSc-BEd under the school of education.

The postgraduate courses include masters in sociology and political science at the school of social science and policy, masters in Hindi and English and an integrated course in MPhil and PhD at the school of language.

Outgoing vice-chancellor Pandey said he wants the university to be developed into a leading revolutionary centre for scientific research that could contribute something to society.