New and Restructured Post-Graduate Curricula and Syllabi: Statistical Sciences

Abstract

The discipline of Statistical Sciences includes in its gamete subjects like Statistics / Agricultural Statistics, Bio-statistics, Computer Application, etc. These subjects have wide applicability in the disciplines of physical, social, agricultural, animal, biological, medical sciences, etc. Statistical sciences form the backbone of agricultural research and are an integrated component of agricultural research. It is, therefore, of paramount importance that the education in statistical sciences is of high academic standards so as to produce trained human resource in the country to meet the challenges of agricultural research in newer areas and also to help make the agricultural research globally competitive. The course curricula in the discipline of agricultural sciences should be dynamic in nature and also should be competitive at both national and international level. A number of State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) and Deemed-to-be Universities (DUs) under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) have introduced M.Sc. programmes in Statistical Sciences. The revision of curricula and syllabi has been undertaken by the SAUs and DUs from time to time on need basis. In order to meet the requirements of teaching in the changing scenario, particularly in view of the open economy, ICAR constituted a Broad Subject Matter Area (BSMA) Committee on statistical sciences covering three PG Programmes viz., (a) Statistics / Agricultural Statistics, (b) Bio-Statistics and (c) Computer Application so as to revise the course curricula to meet the demands of agricultural research in newer emerging areas. The underlying concept while revising the curricula was that the number of courses and the course contents should be such that it covers all the necessary courses required to be studied by an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. student and the student gets prepared for undertaking research independently. This would ensure that the curricula is competitive at both national and international level. Further, the course curricula should be such that it enhances the job opportunities for the students and helps them to fetch good jobs in the private sector as well. The course curriculum divides the major courses into core and optional courses for all M.Sc. programmes. However, for Ph.D. programme in Agricultural Statistics, there are no core courses. The existing syllabi have been revised and the number of courses have been reduced by combining several courses. The course contents, however, have not been sacrificed.