Semester in India Curriculum

IISAC’s Course Offerings

Course Selection and Flexibility

IISAC’s Semester in India program incorporates an academic flexibility model to maximize the availability of academic and research courses with in Indian institutions of higher learning .The available courses are classified into three groups for mixing and matching interesting courses to create an individualized curriculum.

(i) Core Courses

These courses provide an overview of Indian history, culture, literature, philosophical thought, languages, arts, religions, yoga, music, performing arts, tropical biology, etc. IISAC organizes the resources and professors from various departments to give a balanced core curriculum. Core courses are developed to provide cultural and foreign language immersion opportunities for US students. There are ten such courses available and students are required to register for a minimum of two core SIP courses for an in depth knowledge of India.

• Hinduism and its Practices
• Practical Classical Yoga
• Idea of India in Literature
• Studies in Post- colonial Literature: Women’s Writing
• South Indian Classical Dance
• Experiencing the Arts & Architecture of India
• Christianity and India: 2000 Years of Faith
• Spoken Tamil
• Basic Hindi
• Invitation to Functional Sanskrit
• Invitation to Spoken French
• Indo- US Relations
• India’s Foreign Policy
• India Studies Brochure

Courses like Hinduism, Yoga, Idea of India in literature, Tamil, Christianity and South Indian classical dance have very high cultural content and are the sought after courses by US students over the years.

(ii) Departmental (Elective) Courses

Elective courses are the university’s departmental offerings. SIP students are allowed to take these department courses for their major and minor requirements. In Elective courses the SIP students compete with Indian students. The rigor of these courses is always at upper or advanced level, ranging from 300 to 500 levels, and requires extra efforts to get good grades. U.S. students generally register for two elective courses per semester.

Departments of study with IISAC’s Indian institutions

• Indian studies/Asian Studies/International Studies
• Sociology / Anthropology/ Social Work/ Women’s’ Studies
• Philosophy/ Psychology/ Religious Studies
• Accounting/ Finance/ Business Management
• English/ Hindi/ Malayalam/ Sanskrit/ Russian/ German/ French
• Biodiversity/ Conservation/ Aquatic Biology/ Marine Biology
• Biotechnology/ Biochemistry/ Bioinformatics
• Environmental Science/ Geology/ Chemistry
• Zoology/ Botany/Medical Biology
• Mathematics/ Statistics/ Computer Science
• Performing Arts/ Music/ Sculpture/ Painting/ Film Studies
• Journalism/ Electronic Media/ Creative Writing/ Mass Communication
• Rural management/tribal studies/fashion technology
• Civil Engineering /Electrical Engineering /Medical Engineering
• Pre-Med/Medicine/Tropical Medicine/Nursing/Dental Science
• Pre-law/Law/International Studies /Indian Law

(iii) Individualized Courses

Individualized courses are intended for students to design their own class or research to explore a particular topic in depth. A professor whose academic interests are aligned with the enrolled student’s will design the course, research or practical training for a maximum of 2-3 academic credits. Only one such course is allowed per semester. Typically SIP students register for a combination of Core and Elective courses to get the maximum academic exposure.

For more information on course availability, visit our websites: www.semesterinindia.org , www.sciencesemesterinindia.org or contact Prof. Sunny Luke sunny.luke@semesterinindia.org