Committee suggests prefixing institutes’ names with ‘PU’ to bring uniformity

Move on recommendations of NAAC, university officials say many other varsities and colleges are also using the names similar to their institutes

Names of all the institutes of the Panjab University (PU) will be prefixed with ‘PU’, a committee formed to examine the nomenclature of the departments has recommended.

There are about 15 institutes on the PU campus. The representation aimed to bring uniformity in the nomenclature of the departments of the university, was given by professor Rajat Sandhir.

“The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) has also recommended that the university brings uniformity in the nomenclature of its departments.

A committee member said, “Many other universities and colleges are also using the names similar to our institutes, so, to demarcate the identity of PU, we have recommended this. If any regulatory body will supersede our proposals, we will have to abide by them.”

NOD AWAITED FROM V-C, SYNDICATE

The recommendations, however, will be given to vice-chancellor (V-C) Raj Kumar for his approval and after that, the issues will be discussed in the varsity syndicate. 

To bring uniformity in the nomenclature of departments, centres and institutes of the university, the committee has also recommended a criterion to be adopted for naming of departments.

According to the recommendations, an institute shall be a large degree imparting unit having multiple broad specialisations divided into academic branches and should be headed by coordinators. A department is a degree imparting unit that specialises in a single broad area having minimum sanctioned faculty strength of six and will be headed by a chairperson. A coordinator shall head the centres which are non-degree imparting units, the committee said.

“Some institutes in the university are headed by coordinators and some are headed by chairpersons, that is why, we have recommended that a common nomenclature be followed,” a committee member said.

The committee reiterated that the terms of directors, chairpersons and coordinators of various departments be kept unchanged to three years.