UG students will have to study climate change, threats to environment

New Delhi: Students pursuing graduation will now have to study subjects like environmental education.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has recently instructed its affiliated universities and colleges to introduce a compulsory subject on environmental studies at all branches of undergraduate degree.

Under the guidelines released by the UGC, environmental education will include areas such as climate change, pollution, sanitation, waste management, conservation of biological diversity, sustainable development, forest and wildlife conservation, management of biological resources and biodiversity.

The UGC issued these guidelines on the direction of the Union Ministry of Education.

The UGC said that they have sent official guidelines in this regard to all the universities of the country through a notification. These guidelines state that environmental education should be included as a main subject in all undergraduate programmes.

"The Education Ministry's online platform 'SWAYAM' is also offering videos and e-content for the subject," the UGC said.

According to the Education Ministry, various higher educational institutions across the country can use the teaching material available on the online platform.

The Education Ministry said that the curriculum of environmental education is of multidisciplinary nature. This is the reason that higher educational institutions across the country can choose the methodology and process of their choice to implement this subject.

"The basic objective of this programme is to create awareness among the students about the environment, in such a situation, due to the multidisciplinary nature, the universities will get the freedom to choose according to their compatibility."