THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For the touted four-year undergraduate courses about to begin in the Departments of Studies at the University of Kerala, Karyavattom Campus, the university will bring UGC emeritus professors and retired teachers of the varsity as faculty members.

However, when the course gets implemented in the aided colleges next year, it will be the college teachers themselves who will do the teaching. The university decided to rope in UGC emeritus professors since the course is research-based and the experience of such faculty members was reckoned to come in handy. The selected professors have acted as guides for many researches and published many articles. Emeritus status is a national recognition given by UGC to retired professors.

BA Honors (Politics and International Relations, Economics, History) course will be started this year in Karyavattom. 15 courses in science and arts will be launched next year. This year, emeritus professors will be appointed in history and economics courses while two retired professors will be assigned in political science.

From next year, undergraduate courses in all universities and colleges will have a course duration of four years. The four-year courses are under the Center for Undergraduate Studies starting at the Karyavattom campus. All other courses will be started from next year emulating the Bioscience course at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Mathematics, Physics, and Earth Science can all be studied together in the Indian Institute of Science's Bioscience course.