Coimbatore, Jan 22 : UGC Vice Chairman, Bhushan Patwardhan Wednesday said that University campuses should not no be used for any political purposes and only meant for academic ones.

Replying to a specific question on the ongoing agitations in the University campuses, Patwardhan said that the campuses should be protected and used only for academic purposes. The campuses should be used for innovations,
research, which can benefit the society at large, Patwardhan said.

” The students, as citizens of the country, are free to do whatever they like outside the campuses, which are their right. It cannot be converted into battle grounds to settle the scores,” he said. Patwardhan, here to inaugurate the 33rd Biennial conference on +trade for futuristic development of Home science research and Innovation
organised at Avinashilingam Univeresity for Women, gave details of various initiatives taken by the UGC for the benefit of teachers and the Students for better employment opportunities.

The initiatives include six month induction programme for teachers, National Academic Credit Bank for Students, replacing the current credit-based choice system. which would allow students to join in one university, pursue the course in another university and earn a degree from a different university, he said.

Earlier in his address to the conference, Patwardhan urged the Home Science Association of India to put forward their suggestion to shape a curriculum the degrees. The UGC has formulated the syllabus already and after getting feedback from the association, it will finalise the curriculum, he said.

In her address, the association president,Prof Anjali Karolia said that still there existed a lot of discrepancies in the degrees offered by various institutions across the country with BA, BSc and even BCom given and a lot of disparities in the curriculum of courses offered.

This definitely is of concern and needs to be addressed, she said.