Autonomous Xavier’s to start inter-disciplinary courses

St. Xavier’s, an autonomous college under the University of Mumbai, is going to start a ‘cross faculty course’ for second year students belonging to the arts and science faculties.

The course will have  BA students studying a science subject in their fourth semester and BSc students studying an arts subject. This is a first-of-its-kind move in the state but such cross-faculty courses are common in south Indian Universities.

 “We are designing the syllabus for the fourth semester differently. The students from the science and arts streams will study a cross-faculty subject. This will give the students an opportunity to understand a subject from another stream. A six month study will give them deeper knowledge about a particular subject which will eventually help them in the future. The course will be given three credits,” said Fr Frazer Mascarenhas, principal, St. Xavier’s College.

 “The course matter will be same for cross-faculty students. Arts students will get a choice of six subjects and science students will get a choice of seven,” he added.

The students feel that initially this move would be difficult but it would eventually help them in competitive exams as they will get to study at least one subject from another stream.  Commerce students will have to wait as this course is yet to be started for them. The college has also started a communication skill course for 2nd year Science students, spread over 2 semesters, having 1 credit each.