Liberal arts courses at Chandigarh University are a mix of social sciences, humanities, AI: Dean

NEW DELHI: University Institute of Liberal Arts and Humanities (UILAH) at Chandigarh University offers two undergraduate (UG) and three postgraduate (PG) courses. It started BA (Hons) Liberal Arts in 2019 with 80 seats; it now has 150. Ashita Chadha, director, UILAH spoke to Careers360 on curriculum, challenges of teaching in a liberal arts system, and opportunities for students. Edited excerpts below

Q. How does Chandigarh University teach liberal arts ?

A. The liberal arts programme at Chandigarh University is broadly focused on knowledge from large domains of social sciences, humanities and artificial intelligence (AI). We have now incorporated AI because liberal arts students should have some knowledge about technology in present times. We are offering AI as a minor from the 2024-25 academic year.

We have a lot of courses that add critical thinking and reasoning to the curious minds of our students. We encourage them to ask questions, enquire about various facts and concepts and discuss them through case studies. We have interdisciplinary papers on economics, sociology and politics together in the first semester so that they can have a holistic idea on how the society actually functions. We have soft-skills development, general studies courses throughout all semesters. We ensure their holistic development by the time they are placed.

Q. Were you able to fill all your liberal arts and humanities seats last year?

A. University Institute of Liberal Arts and Humanities (UILAH) at Chandigarh University offers BA (Hons) Liberal Arts, BA (Hons) Psychology with 140 seats each; MA in English, Psychology and Clinical Psychology with 50 seats each. Every year, we fill all our seats.

We also have BA (sponsored category) for students from sports category. The entire education cost of 80 students under this category is borne by the university. National or international-level medal winners get scholarships.

Q. Are you admitting students through the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) for undergraduate and postgraduate courses ?

A. We are taking admission through CUET-UG and CUET-PG from this year onwards. Students who have not taken the CUET can take our Chandigarh University Common Entrance Test (CUCET) for admission. Those who score above 80% in CUCET are offered scholarships.

Q. How are you implementing the provisions of National Education Policy (NEP)?

A. All graduation courses at Chandigarh University are four-year ones with an option to exit, if required, at third year, as per the NEP-2020 norms. If students choose to exit in third year, the course won’t remain a honours degree. If they maintain a 7.5 CGPA and submit their dissertation during the four years of the UG course, they get honours with a research degree and can enroll themselves in a PhD programme without doing a master’s.

We have introduced major and minor subjects as per NEP-2020 provisions. BA (Hons) Liberal Arts course students can have majors in five areas – English, Psychology, Political Science, Economics and Sociology. They can have AI, management, media studies, performing arts and various disciplines of humanities and social sciences in minors.

Q. How do you offer the combination of major and minor subjects in the liberal arts course?

A. The first semester of BA (Hons) Liberal Arts is the foundation semester in which we focus on sharpening the students’ critical thinking and communication skills. We have one integrated paper on subjects in society, politics and economy, one paper on mind and behaviour, one on English literature and society or media studies and society.

At the end of the first semester, we ask students to pick their major areas of study. From the second semester onwards, students have to choose major subjects for 64 credits till the eighth semester and minor subjects with 32 credits to get honours degree as per the University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines. Students choose their minor and major subjects based on their choices and career prospects.

If students do not want to pick minor subjects that UILAH offers, they can choose from the university's other departments.

Also read Liberal arts universities are taking a ‘problem-centric approach’ to education

Q. How do you maintain the diversity of students in liberal arts courses at your university ?

A. We have international students from all over the world who come to study liberal arts at UILAH. We also have students from all 29 states of India and eight union territories. UILAH has more girl students than boys. Girl students make up around 50 to 55% of the total number of students in the university.

Q. Liberal arts is still considered an elite pursuit as it is mainly offered by private universities in India. How do you see this?

A. When we started the BA (hons) Liberal Arts programme five years ago, people were quite shocked. People were not aware about it. It took us sometime to reason with everybody, but we did very well in the first year itself.

Still, parents used to ask us how it is different from a normal BA and we have to convince them about the values and prospects of the courses. Now, parents and students ask us about placement opportunities after pursuing BA (Hons) Liberal Arts.

Though we charge less fees than other private universities for our liberal arts courses, we do not offer anything less. All the faculty at UILAH are doctorates from the best universities of the country. I believe that every student should have a chance to study more than what is being traditionally offered in government universities.

Government institutions are still offering traditional courses and don’t want to become contemporary. They have become irrelevant because of their curriculum and syllabi. Their faculties are responsible for this loss of trust among students and then they claim that liberal arts courses are for elites. This is not the case. We have courses that impart among students relevant skills for modern society. Because of the affordable fee, we have students from both rich and middle-class backgrounds.

Q. What are the challenges of teaching liberal arts courses in India?

A. I just have one major problem – faculties not very well-versed with interdisciplinary teaching. It took me time to ensure that faculties are able to teach about the intersection of different subjects. We are training the faculties to deliver liberal education.

Also read Liberal Arts: ‘Our curriculum is forward looking,’ says Krea University dean

Q. What are the future visions of Chandigarh university for liberal arts education?

A. After Ashoka University, we are the first institution in North India to offer liberal arts courses.

After the first batch of students got placed, we got feedback from industry leaders. Now, we are making our courses industry-relevant by adding those insights and suggestions in our course. We are improving the learning process for students.

Our social science and humanities departments are among the top-ranked institutions in QS rankings 2024.