Bhubaneswar, April 23: Gangadhar Meher University is going to start MPhil course in five more subjects from the 2017-18 academic session.

The five new departments that will run the course are economics, political science, geography, education and Odia.

Now, the varsity offers MPhil in seven subjects - commerce, English, psychology, history, Sanskrit, botany and zoology. With the new additions, each of the 12 departments will have eight seats in MPhil.

Varsity's deputy registrar U.C. Pati said the decision to begin MPhil courses in five new departments was taken in an academic council meeting.

"We will open PhD nodal centres in all the 12 departments. A research eligibility test will be conducted shortly to select students for MPhil and PhD," said Pati.

"We are trying to begin MPhil courses in all the postgraduate departments from the ensuing academic session," he said.

"Most of us have to depend on Sambalpur University to pursue higher studies in these courses. Now, we can pursue it at Gangadhar Meher University," said Monalisa Mishra, a student. The Gangadhar Meher College had been upgraded to a university in 2015. Now, it has 5,300 students in 24 undergraduate courses and 20 postgraduate courses.

The varsity will also offer postgraduate course in Hindi from the 2017-18 academic session. The number of seats for Plus Three Hindi honours will be doubled from 16 and that of Plus Three Odia honours to 48 from 32 from the ensuing academic session.

The number of postgraduate seats for Odia will be increased to 32 from 16. Besides, the economics department will offer a self-financing course in public policy and e-governance from the coming session.