A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instill a love of learning. In the current educational scenario, teachers play the role of facilitators. This makes all the more important for the teachers to be updated about the recent developments in the field. Also they should know how best to frame the curriculum to meet the growing needs of the student community.

    The Academic Staff college and the Department of Life Sciences of CHRIST (Deemed to be University) jointly organzied a Quality Improvement Programme to meet the above needs. The theme of the QIP was “Emerging Areas in Life Sciences”. Ten faculty of the newly formed department of Life Sciences merging together the erstwhile departments of Botany, Zoology and Biotechnology attended the 3 day programme (Sept 30-Oct 3, 2015), which was conducted in Room No 110 in Block IV, Central Campus, CHRIST (Deemed to be University).  

    The sessions were handled by experts in most domains encompassing this theme.  The key resource persons included experts from the three major subjects of Botany, Zoology and Biotechnology. Discussions were mainly centered on incorporating the emerging thrust areas in the curriculum with a view to have a bunch of students adept in the modern techniques followed in the fields so as to create more employability and eligibility for higher studies in premier institutes.
    
    Experts from premier R &D institutes and colleges like UAS, IBAB, Ugenomics, USA, I&B Seeds Pvt Ltd and BIOCON handled the sessions. Since the experts were from both academics and from industry, the suggestions which were obtained comprised of excelling both in the industrial sector and in the arena of higher studies in different domains of higher studies. Some of the sessions were carried out in BIOCON so as to have a firsthand information of the practices followed by pharmaceutical industry.  A tour of the production and quality control divisions of BIOCON helped to better understand these practices.