First Meeting of the Steering Committee, 28th - 29th September 2002, Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France

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Conference Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France - 28th September 2002

First Meeting of the Steering Committee
From left to right: Uma Coomaraswamy, Open University of Sri Lanka; Naveed Malik, Virtual University (Pakistan); Suresh Raj Sharma, Kathmandu University; Abdul Waheed Khan, UNESCO Assistant Director-General; Madanjeet Singh, SAF Founder; Jamilur R. Choudhry, BRAC University (Bangladesh); Ahmed Ali Maniku, MCHU (Maldives); Suresh Garg, Indira Gandhi University (India); Ershadul Bari, Bangladesh Open University; and Altaf Husain, Allama Iqbal Open University (Pakistan).
 

The 1st meeting of the Steering Committee (SC) of the SAF Learning Initiative was held to discuss the initial academic programme offering. The SC discussed the minutes of the meeting of VCs held on September 28th 2002, and approved them with minor changes.

The approved minutes are attached. After a brief introduction, Ambassador Madanjeet Singh asked Prof. Suresh Garg to outline the process. A discussion followed on the strategies to be adopted for the design and development of the project. It was agreed that:

1. The name of the programme will be Post Graduate Diploma in South Asian Studies.

2. Each collaborating institution will form a local committee to work out the structure of the programme. This activity will be coordinated by a Convenor from each institution and shall be completed by 15th November 2002.

3. The Convenor from each institution will send the structure of the programme so formulated to Prof. S. Garg, Coordinator SC, by 30th November 2002, with copies to Ambassador Singh and all members of the SC.

4. The Convenors of institutional committees and members of the SC will constitute the Academic Board. The recommendations received by the Coordinator will be placed before the Academic Board for its consideration at a meeting to be held in December 2002.

5. After the approval of the structure of the programme, each institution shall nominate an expert for each course to work out the detailed content. The members nominated by each institution will form the Expert Committee (EC) for that course.

  

Each EC will also deliberate upon the delivery strategy. If necessary, each team may be helped by an outside expert to be provided at the expense of SAR.

6. Each institution will identify a course it will develop. It is expected that each EC will finalize the detailed syllabus for its course by 28th February 2003.

7. These details must be agreed to by all collaborating institutions. The detailed course content should be adopted by the Academic Board, and its approval be obtained from the respective competent statutory bodies of each institution, by 30th April 2003. Changes suggested by the academic statutory bodies must be shared amongst the EC and the Academic Board.

8. Development of coursework will commence at the institution as referred to in M.

9. Camera-ready copies for print should be made available by 31th October 2003.

10. The programme shall be launched w.e.f. January 2004.

11. Individual institutions may add material pertaining to their specific needs/situations and decide the date of offer accordingly.

12. The initial one-time course design and development costs, including secretarial and administrative costs, as well as costs of the final product (inclusive of all media, such as print, cd/dvd-rom, audio/video-tapes, etc.) will be borne by the SAF.

13. All Courses and material developed under this initiative *will carry the Logos of the SAF and all collaborating institutions.