Gaya: Central University of South Bihar (CUSB) in Panchanpur village, 12km northwest of Gaya town, will introduce a two-year postgraduate course in social work, commerce, physics, chemistry and history.

University public relations officer Mudassir Alam confirmed it.

Classes in the new session will now begin on August 1. Earlier, classes were to begin on July 20. The 10-day delay is attributed to campus relocation. Till now, the 9-year-old university was functioning from makeshift campuses in Patna and Gaya. Now that the first phase of construction involving administrative building, state-of-the-art lecture theatres and boys and girls' hostel is ready, the university shifts to its 300-acre permanent campus in what was a military air field during World War II.

Though the university came into existence in 2009 through a parliamentary legislation, prolonged dispute over location (Gaya or Motihari) delayed its foundation-laying. Two foundation stones were laid - then Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar laid one on February 27, 2014, and then human resources development minister Smriti Irani laid another on August 30, 2015.

CUSB, which has grade accreditation of A from the National Accreditation and Assessment Council, imparts post-graduate teaching in 16 subjects offered by the Schools of Earth, Biological and Environmental sciences, Human Sciences, Language and Literature, Media, Arts and Aesthetics, Social Science and Policy, Education, Law and Governance, Physical and Chemical Sciences and Vocational Studies.

Provision for small water bodies and fountains have been made in the new campus to add to its serenity. Facilities for rain-water harvesting, ground-water recharge, water recycling and sewage treatment plant among others has been made. Solar/bio mass energy will be used for street-lighting and water-heating. Waste management figures high on the university's priority list.

Asked about in-campus staff quarters, vice-chancellor Prof Harish Chandra Singh Rathore said construction of staff quarters could get delayed. "The staff members were given conveyance allowance and, as such, they will have to make their own arrangements to commute from their residence to work," said the VC.

The VC also made it clear that CUSB was not a residential university and as such the university authorities were under no obligation to provide hostel accommodation to each and every student. Seats available in the two hostels of the university will strictly be allotted on the basis of merit, Rathore said.