Disaster management, film media among new BU courses

Bangalore University (BU) is all set to offer disaster management, film media and animation graphics courses from the next academic year, 2019-20.

The framework for the same is already set, where the film media, animation and graphics courses will be functioning under the electronic media department and the disaster management course under the department of geography.

“A team from BU’s geography department had visited flood-hit Kodagu last year, where the design of the course was planned. Though the course was in the pipeline much before that. So, the curriculum has been finalised, where the admission for the same will happen from the next academic year. This would be one of the professional courses in geography,” a senior official from BU told DH.

BU will be offering MSc in Disaster Management, MA in Film Studies and MA in Animation and Graphics from next academic year. As the most number of seats remained vacant the previous year, the BU syndicate decided to give importance for professional courses. Since film media and animation and graphics have greater scope, they have finalised the curriculum.

“We have the infrastructure to start the above courses. For animation and graphics, all we need is computer systems, which will be set up at a reasonable cost. And for film media, we are planning to tie up with film institutes, which will be more than happy to help us in practicals. A few years down the line, we will be having our own film institute on the campus,” Venugopal K R, vice-chancellor, BU, told DH.

Talking about disaster management, Venugopal added: “It’s not necessary to approach disaster management from a negative perspective. It could also be about avoiding the adverse effects of a natural calamity or the management after a disaster. Due to climate change, the world is open to the risk of many natural calamities. The course is designed in such a way that the students will be exposed to all the aspects, like medical emergencies and others.”