LAHORE: Master of Laws in Forensic Justice and MS in Child Guidance and Educational Counseling are among the seven new postgraduate programmes the Government College University, Lahore, will be initiating from next academic session starting in June this year.

The other courses would be MSc chemistry, MA Islamic Studies, certificate for professionals in hypnosis, postgraduate diploma in child and adult psychotherapy besides one-year MS Top-Up in child guidance and educational counseling for students who already have post-graduate diploma in child guidance and educational counseling, said GCU Academic Council Secretary and Registrar Dr Akhyar Farrukh on Saturday.

Courses, admission eligibility criteria, credit hours, number of seats, fee structure and other relevant rules and regulations for new programmes were approved by the GCU Academic Council in its 15th annual meeting, said the registrar.

There were detailed deliberations on new programmes in the Academic Council meeting though relevant board of studies and board of faculties had approved the same, he said.

The Academic Council also approved amendments and additions to the courses of various academic programmes, including MPhil environmental sciences, MPhil applied physics, BSc (Hons) biotechnology, BSc (Hons) microbiology, BSc (Hons) physics, BA (Hons) Punjabi and MS pharmaceutical chemistry.

Prof Rahman pledged that GCU would provide best faculty to teach the new programmes and courses.

GCU Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Khaleequr Rahman, who presided over the meeting, said that all arrangements and planning were completed and new programmes would be initiated this year after a final approval by the university’s Syndicate.

He said the GAT would be mandatory for admission to LLM in Forensic Justice programme. Approval from the Pakistan Bar Council would also be sought for initiating the LLM course which would be an evening programme so that professional practicing lawyers could easily join it.

To a question, Dr Rehman said the modern education had become complex and multi-disciplinary and it was not possible for a single department of a university to possess all the knowledge, equipment and techniques required to initiate a new specialized course at post-graduate level.

He said that the GCU’s political science and law departments had collaborated with the chemistry department, which was already offering MS Forensic Science, for launching a highly competitive, qualitative and international standard LLM in Forensic Justice programme.

The vice-chancellor said the university had already successfully initiated 27 new programmes in three years, including PhD computer sciences, PhD applied physics, PhD Islamic Studies, MPhil applied physics, MS industrial psychology, MSc physical education and MS geography.

He said that scholarships, hostel accommodations, transport, laboratories, libraries, footpaths, classrooms, lecture theatres, meeting rooms, examination centres and other facilities were also increased and upgraded keeping in view the increasing number of students in wake of these new programmes.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2015

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