A NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT FOR DE-NOVO DEEMED UNIVERSITY
The Bhaktivedanta Research Centre is putting its humble attempts to establish a University that will focus exclusively on preserving, researching, studying and disseminating India’s history, spirituality and culture for the benefit of the contemporary society both in India and the world at large. The BRC is proposing to establish this University as a DE-NOVO DEEMED UNIVERSITY as per the norms of the University Grants Commission. By this, it hopes to contribute to the social, cultural, scientific, economic and ecological wealth of the nation through this offering in the education field.
A critical part of this is to develop a scientific & systematic curriculum based on the philosophy described above. In this backdrop, a one-day conference was organized on 16th Novemeber to design the curriculum content based on the well thought framework. The conference enlisted the (i) Avenues for professional development & career opportunities (ii) Job functions and competencies, (iii) Course level abilities to be developed along with (iv) Course framework and (v) learning-teaching-evaluation.
On November 16th, 2019, several experts from various fields gathered together in a meeting hall near ISKCON Chowpatty to participate in the conference.
Chief Guest for the program is Professor Dr. S.B.Nimse Former Vice Chancellor, Lucknow University & SRTM University Nanded (MH). Other special guests include HG Gauranga prabhu (Chairman, BRC), Nitin K. Patil (IAS, Managing Director, Maharastra State Co-op. Tribal Dev. Corporation Ltd., Nashik), Dr. Ajit Thete (Director, Centre for Development of Leadership in Education), Dr. Sharmishtha L. Matkar (Principal, Patkar – Varde College), Dr. Dhumal (Senior Professor, Department of Botany, University of Pune)
Dr. Nimse spoke about the topic ‘internationalization’, how the university that is going to develop should have Universal appeal. HG Gauranga prabhu talked about how the university that is going to establish will solve many problems of the world currently facing due to ecological and sociological problems.
More than 40 experts who are from academic institutions as well as from industry, gathered to participate in it. Dr. Ajit Thete, who is expert in guiding these educational activities, guided the whole event. Govardhan Eco Village is famous for its unique concept of spirituality in connection with the environmental friendly initiatives. De-novo University aims at unique novel concept and the philosophy of Govardhan Eco Village is suitable for that.
The curriculum for the following courses were developed during the conference- Green infrastructure, Vocational Education, Organic Farming, Natural Resource Management, Waste Management, Rural Eco Tourism, Cultural Studies, Public health, Yoga and Applied philosophy. Govardhan Eco Village is already doing several projects in these areas. So experts who guided Govardhan Eco Village as well as other experts in these areas from academic circles and from industry gave their valuable inputs to develop the curriculum.
The conference concluded with the participants giving presentation of their work in the presence of HH Radhanath Swami.
Finally HH Radhanath Swami spoke briefly about how dedicated efforts will lead to results. The program concluded with certificate ceremony and group photo.
