Jadavpur: The Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS) has become a deemed university, a status that will enable the 142-year-old institute to offer courses such as Bachelor of Science (BS) and Master of Science from the 2018-19 academic year.
The institute has so far focused on research in basic sciences.
"The ministry of human resource development had sent us a letter in May announcing that IACS had been granted the status of deemed university," said Santanu Bhattacharya, director of the Jadavpur institute.
The new status has empowered the institute to award degrees.
Earlier, the institute would offer integrated PhD (MS and PhD) courses in various subjects but the degrees would be be awarded by Calcutta University, Jadavpur University or IIT Kharagpur.
In its new avatar, IACS will independently offer the integrated PhD programme, along with the BS and MS courses.
"Earlier, the institute did not have the autonomy to frame a curriculum and had to follow the syllabus of Calcutta or Jadavpur university. As deemed university, we are now free to frame our syllabus," Bhattacharya said.
The institute will introduce its BS courses, the classes for which are set to start in August, with around 40 seats. The eligibility criteria for the courses will be announced soon.
"We would like to make it clear that the courses are for top-notch students. The applicants who will meet the initial criteria will have to face an interview to be selected for any of the courses," Bhattacharya said.
"Students being admitted to a BS course can leave the institute with a PhD if they maintain a certain CGPA (cumulative grade point average). Those who won't be able to cope with the academic rigour of the institute will leave after three years with the BS degree," he said.
"Similarly, someone joining the institute at the MS level will have the option of doing PhD here if his or her grades are good."
The institute is creating six schools with 30 seats each for the integrated MS-PhD programme. These are the schools of chemical sciences, physical sciences, biological sciences, mathematical and computational sciences, applied and interdisciplinary sciences and materials sciences.
"The integrated MS-PhD programme, which will be introduced along with the BS and MS courses in the 2018-19 academic year, will have 180 seats," Bhattacharya said.
Asked how a BS programme will be different from a BSc course offered by a Calcutta University-affiliated college, the director said: "I don't think the colleges have the infrastructure to match IACS. A BS student in the third year will be exposed to the state-of-the-art laboratory facilities. Our aim is to create unique undergraduate and postgraduate programmes that will be comparable with the ones offered by the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore."
Date extended
Jadavpur University has extended the last date for online submission of application for admission to two-year (four-semester) MA (Day & Evening) and MPEd courses (2018-2019 session) till June 3. The last date for paying application fees through SBI-Collect Online system is June 5.
