MANIPAL:
Manipal Academy of Higher Education have announced its first-of-its-kind programme – BA in Aesthetics and Peace Studies– has been launched from this academic year with many innovative features by the Gandhian Centre for Philosophical Arts and Sciences (GCPAS), Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE). This is also in tune with the National Education Policy -2020 with the possibility of an Honours degree.
Gandhian Centre for Philosophical Arts and Sciences is a department that engages with interdisciplinary teaching and research with a view to developing alternative knowledge systems to deal with contemporary crises. The Centre engages with the intersectionality of aesthetics, philosophy, ecology, journalism, Gandhian and peace studies, and with its much-discussed interdisciplinary approach, the BA in Aesthetics and Peace Studies intends to connect and combine liberal arts and social sciences with a broad framework of Aesthetics and Peace Studies. Literature, Arts, and Media have been brought together with Political Science, International Relations, Philosophy, etc.
“The idea is to provide education for both arguably ‘more creative/artistic potential and more intellectual acumen’ with the possibilities of meaningful careers. Their artistic, intellectual, and communicative abilities will be trained in such a way that they will be able to work in the areas of journalism, media, communication, social sector, international agencies, research, and publishing”, said Prof Varadesh Hiregange, Director, GCPAS.
Earlier Gandhian Centre for Philosophical Arts and Sciences has launched two postgraduate programmes – MA in Ecosophical Aesthetics and MA in Art and Peace Studies – in the last two years, embarked on an undergraduate programme on similar lines, with a view to catering to diverse artistic interests.
“This is the trend; we see many such students with multiple interests; this is an attempt to create the learning opportunity for such students who can also make a career out of their talent. There will be multiple exit points in BA (Aesthetics and Peace Studies) in the sense that the students can study for three years and get a normal degree, can study for four years, and get an Honours degree, can study for two years, and get a diploma, can study for one year and get a certificate. Research becomes integral to the Honours degree which makes it different and on par with global standards,” Prof Varadesh Hiregange, added further.
MAHE Pro-Chancellor Dr. H S Ballal and Vice-Chancellor Lt Gen Dr. M D Venkatesh, in their recent communique, have expressed happiness over the interdisciplinary approach in the new programme, stating that it is in tune with MAHE’s commitment to encouraging liberal arts/humanities and social sciences along with technical and health sciences.
The details of the programme may be obtained from the link- https://manipal.edu/gandhian-centre.html
