Now coming up with a four-credit Secular Ethics, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) strives to build its students with the bricks of empathy. Director S Parasuraman said that August 14 this year will be marking the inauguration of the new course commencing with a lecture by His Holiness the Dalai Lama himself. The director continued saying that Buddhist and Sanskrit Scholars will be giving other lectures. He clarified, “This is not a religious course, but a spiritual one. The course will include yoga and meditation. Lectures will constitute only 30 hours of a semester. The students will have to engage in 60 hours of field work where they pass on their knowledge to the society.The subject will teach students how to relate to fellow beings, listen to people. The first lecture will be delivered by the Dalai Lama.”
For the first prestigious lecture, around 30 vice-chancellors have been invited. The first batch of the course will cater to 500 students. Parasuraman notified, “We want to extend the course to educational institutes across the country. We have invited vice-chancellors of universities, principals of colleges and schools for the lectures. It will also be extended to MPs, MLAs. The aim is to take the course forward to as many institutes in the country as possible.”
Four credits have been accorded to the course. In the form of massive open online courses (MOOCs), lectures will be imparted to other institutes in the digital format. The students were notified of the course during the orientation programme to which, the responded with great enthusiasm.
Having raised great alumni like the comedian Gursimran Khamba, actor Akash Khurana and social activist Medha Patkar, the institute has build up its name to a good stature. Although currently, due to sudden UGC orders, the institute has been having trouble catering well to its students lately.
READ: UGC again keeps TISS’s neck on a sharp blade
READ: UGC (Online education) Regulations’17: Aadhaar must for e-courses