Controversy around new course 'needless', university place for free-thinking: JNU VC

JNU has approved three new courses in its curriculum- Counter terrorism, Asymmetric Conflicts & Strategies for Cooperation among major powers, India's emerging world view in the 21st century, Significance of science & technology in international relations.

Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has approved three new courses as part of its engineering course. JNU Vice-Chancellor has defended the decision to launch the course and termed the controversy surrounding it as ‘needless’.

A Controversy has erupted over the approval of new courses which reportedly asserts that ‘Jihadi terrorism’ is the only form of fundamentalist-religious terrorism.

According to a statement issued by the JNU Vice-Chancellor M Jagdish Kumar, during the past few days, there was a needless controversy created about the first course without going into the academic merits of the course.

The objective of the course 'Counter-Terrorism, Asymmetric Conflicts and Strategies for Cooperation among Major Powers’ is mainly to have an in-depth understanding on the challenges emanating from Terrorism to India's national security and how India can get equipped with adequate responses in case of any eventuality.

“It is imperative that an academic institution like JNU takes the lead and builds a good set of counter 'terrorism specialists. India urgently needs a critical mass of such specialists in the field,” mentions a statement from Kumar.

The Three New Courses by JNU

The Academic Council of JNU has approved three new courses in their curriculum -1) Counter terrorism, Asymmetric Conflicts & Strategies for Cooperation among major powers, 2) India's emerging world view in the 21st century, 3) Significance of science & technology in international relations.

In 2018, JNU established its School of Engineering with a dual degree program. As per the university, in this school, students study engineering subjects in the first four years for their undergraduate degree and in the fifth year, they enrol for a one year Master's degree in any of the areas of Humanities, Social Sciences, Languages, International Relations. Management, Science and Engineering.

As per JNU: “It is in this context that following three new courses were approved by the Academic Council of JNU on August 17.”

The letter further states that the curriculum has been designed keeping in mind the terror activities at the global level and India’s experiences in handling them. There is a need to further evolve India's perspective in a balanced and objective manner. This course has the potential to build a strong narrative for India.

The course curriculum is holistic and also contains sections on the role of intelligence information and the counter-terrorism cooperation among major powers, there is a section on best practices of counterterrorism.

The VC in his letter has stated that JNU will continue to encourage critical thinking since ‘a university is a place for free thinking.

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