Pathbreaking Initiative by USTM: BA Administrative Service for Civil Service Aspirants launched

04th May, 2019 148

Mahbubul Hoque, Chancellor, USTM addressing media on launching of 'BA Administrative Service Course for Civil Service Aspirants' at Guwahti Press Club today, 4th May. Dr Balendra Kr Das, Director, Administration, USTM and Sailen Baishya, Director Coaching, ERDF also addressed the press meet.

GUWAHATI, May 4, 2019: With a path breaking initiative for the Civil Service aspirants, the University of Science and Technology Meghalaya has launched a new course named BA Administrative Service with an objective to groom students right after their higher secondary /10+2. After completion of this 3-year degree course, a student will become graduate and at the same time will be fully comfortable to appear and crack civil service examination conducted by UPSC without further preparation. USTM has also opened a ‘Centre for Competitive Examination and Placement’ and developed a separate library in this regard.

Addressing a press conference in Guwahati today, Mahbubul Hoque, Chancellor of USTM who is the architect behind conceptualizing and introducing this new course stated that many students set their goal of life to be an IAS, IPS or state civil service officer. But to appear for such competitive examinations, they have to complete their graduation first in any discipline. “There are students who are graduates in professional courses like medical, engineering or technical courses but their aim always remained to be a civil service officer. By the time they begin preparation for this competitive examination, they would have already lost few precious years for graduation in a subject which is not related to administration. In the process, they only occupy seats of other professional courses in good institutions which could have been availed by some other students. So, why not a special course dedicated to administrative service only, which will groom the students for such competitive examinations from right after 10+2? This thought instigated me to form a research team at USTM to find out the benefits of developing such a course”, he stated.

Shri Hoque said that guidance for civil services in the north-eastern region is still lagging behind and for that reason every year many students from the region go to New Delhi to take coaching in various centres. “Many students have to take tuitions and strive to continue their study and stay in a different city to achieve their goal. Therefore, we have taken this step to help students so that they can prepare themselves for graduation as well as civil services in a way which will relatively save much time and money.”

USTM constituted an expert team comprising academics and administrators which has done thorough research on how to go ahead and designed a syllabus with this perspective. The 3-year BA Administrative Service course has six semesters and students have to appear for six papers in each semester. The students have to choose one optional subject either from Sociology, Political Science, History, Geography or Psychology. The optional subject has two papers while the four other allied papers will be focusing on areas specified by the UPSC syllabus. A Review paper will be there for which the students have to appear from the 2nd semester till the final semester. The objective of this paper is to revise and refresh whatever was learnt since the first semester. The “Today & Tomorrow” paper concentrates on current affairs and analysis. Eligibility of the course will be 10+2 from any stream with minimum 70% marks to appear for the entrance test followed by interview for admission process.

Sailen Baishya, Director, Coaching for Civil Service, ERD Foundation said that the main objective is to educate the targeted students making them graduates and at the same time train them in various need-based allied subjects of knowledge to make them competent and prepared to face UPSC and other competitive examinations just after completion of the said Course. However, if students cannot qualify any competitive examination, they can still pursue higher education in their main optional subjects studied during graduation. The course will be incorporated from the academic session 2019-20.