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Science subjects’ curricula revised
Punjab Governor Khalid Maqbool has approved the curricula of microbiology and molecular genetics, mycology and plant pathology, botany and zoology.
Chairing a meeting of the Inter-University Faculty Board at the Governor's House, he said the revised curricula should be circulated among universities, colleges and institutions for adoption.
Earlier, PU's mycology and plant pathology department chairperson Prof Dr Rukhsana Bajwa presented the revised curricula of the MPP and the MMG. Giving details about the MPP curricula, she said the PU's department was currently offering three-year BSc (Honours), two-year MSc (Honours) and two to three-year PhD regular programmes.
Prof Bajwa said the syllabus of three-year BSc (Honours) programme, which started only two years ago, was designed on modern lines after thorough examination by national and international universities.
While the syllabi of MSc (Honours) and PhD were designed to offer specialized courses involving both basic and applied fields of mycology. She said research projects were evolved keeping in view the national economy, growth and conservation of natural resources, and the international standards.
Prof Bajwa said the courses were designed to provide the best learning opportunities to the prospective mycologists and plant pathologists to ensure crop protection, plant health care and agriculture-based industrial development.
She said the global environment was changing and excessive use of agro-chemicals had greatly enhanced the multifarious disease problems in crops and tree species. In this context, she said, lack of expertise in the field of pathology at the national level highly desired the production of skilled manpower to fight diseases.
Presenting the revised MMG curriculum, she said the department was established in March 2002 to teach traditional and advance concepts, and perform basic and applied research in the field. It also aimed at providing trained manpower to educational, research and industrial organizations.
She said the department was offering four-year BSc (Honours), two-year MSc and PhD based on new scheme (regular) and traditional and old scheme (informal). She explained the course contents, duration, objectives, teaching methodologies, learning and evaluation methods.
Lab project for Bahria varsity
The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has decided to establish a "Computer Controlled Flexible Manufacturing Lab" at Bahria University in the capital.
An official statement issued said the HEC would provide an amount of about Rs20 million to the university for this purpose. It has been envisaged that establishment of this lab would provide a boost to the industrial sector in several areas and make important contribution towards establishing a sustainable IT structure in the country. The statement said it was hoped that the lab would be an indigenous facility and most probably one of its kinds in Pakistan.
Solar-drying technology
A project to introduce solar-drying technology for preservation of apricots will soon be launched in Northern Areas by the Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF) in collaboration with the Council of Renewable Energy Technologies (PCRET).
Apricot is one of the fruits abundantly produced in all of the Northern Areas, a spokesman for the PSF said. While it is difficult to sell fresh fruit in urban markets away from the region, sun-dried apricots and other fruits are quite popular in Pakistan.
The dried apricots of Hunza are sold as health products in the UK and other European countries.
The total production of apricots in the area is about 4,500 tons per year. But a huge quantity of these goes to waste due to lack of adequate facilities to preserve them.
The products also suffer deterioration of quality due to the traditional methods of drying and lack of proper storage facilities.
A large part of its production is, therefore, used as fodder.
The Pakistan Science Foundation has decided to disseminate the technology in the area with the participation of Dry Fruit Project of the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme as an end-user and the technical support of PCRET. — Sci-tech World Report
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