Kurukshetra: Kurukshetra University (KU) held its 131st academic council meeting on Tuesday, taking up 23 major proposals spanning academic reforms, research, skill development, curricula updates, and international student policies.Chaired by vice-chancellor Som Nath Sachdeva at the Senate Hall of Shrimad Bhagavad Gita Sadan, the meeting focused on strengthening the university’s academic and research ecosystem in alignment with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.“Strengthening the university’s academic and research ecosystem in line with National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 remained a priority,” said VC Sachdeva.The council discussed key institutional partnerships, including MoUs with Shri Vishwakarma Skill University (Palwal), Public Asia, Tata 1mg Healthcare Solutions, and the recognition of Swarna Jayanti Haryana Institute for Fiscal Management (Panchkula) as a research centre.Among major academic updates, the council evaluated the KU Skill Development Policy 2026, a new policy for ICCR-sponsored international students, and the introduction of a three-year BSc (Robotics and Automation) programme at the Institute of Integrated and Honours Studies.In engineering, the council aligned examination schemes and curricula with NEP-2020 across multiple BTech branches, including automation and robotics, AI & ML, electrical, civil, and computer engineering.It also considered amendments to the PhD ordinance 2024–25 regarding supervisor eligibility, pre-registration seminars, and thesis publication rules, alongside revised evaluation criteria for two-year LLM viva voce exams and special mercy attempts for Centre for Distance and Online Education (CDOE) students.Other proposals covered ordinances for five-year integrated PG and teacher education programmes, revised curricula for foreign language core courses (German, French, Japanese) under CDOE, and a new one-year PG diploma in translation.
