THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The proposed Sree Narayanaguru Open University will offer science courses and will be the first institute in the state to do so, Higher Education Minister KT Jaleel told the Assembly on Monday. Presenting the bill on the university, Jaleel said graduate and post-graduate science programmes will be offered under the School of Science.
The university will have four regional centres, of which three will be in the Malabar region. The Malabar regional centres will come up at Pattambi, Kozhikode and Thalassery, said the minister. Unveiling the operational model of the science programmes, the minister said reputed colleges in the state will be made study centres and their laboratory facilities will be used for open learners.
Countering the opposition charge that Guru’s philosophy was not made a subject, the minister said the institution will offer degree and post-graduate programmes on Guru’s philosophy. “The university is being set up not for commercial reasons, but to provide an exclusive entity for the distance learners. There are sections who are deprived of higher education. The institution will offer them conventional and new generation subjects,” he said.