History
Department of Economics is one of the first two teaching and research departments that were established with the inception of the University in 1958. From the beginning, the Department attracted good number of students. The main source of attraction was the leadership provided by Dr. V. V. Borkar, the first Head of the Department of Economics. He encouraged research activity in the department and himself undertook certain research projects mainly relating to problems of regional development of Marathwada. We are proud to state that his legacy has continued over the years.
The Department of Economics was identified by the UGC for implementing two consecutive phases of the University Leadership Programme during 1982 to 1988. Department introduced the semester system during the academic year 2005-06. In 2005, the Department took the initiative to incept Tarabai Shinde Women’s Studies Centre. The initiative was successful and now centre independently runs MA programme and one PG Certificate course in Women’s Studies and it has been recognized by the UGC since 2009. The University accorded academic flexibility to the PG Departments since June 2007. Under the Academic Flexibility Programme, credit-based semester system was introduced since 2007 based on 70:30 pattern. Again in June, 2008, semester system and credit system based on 80:20 pattern along with Continuous Internal Evaluation was introduced. All the faculty members are actively involved in the revision of curricula every three years. During the academic year 2017-18, department revised the syllabus of M. A. course and adopted the Outcome Based Education Model. Department has introduced one open elective of four credits for P. G. students of all faculties and course work for Ph. D. students since academic year 2012-13. Department introduced choice based credit system with effect from July 2016 for M.A. programme. A bridge course was added in the course structure of the MA programme to strengthen the foundation of economics as admission for MA programme is open for all graduates. Also a course on research component has been introduced to enable MA students to handle the research based project work that they have to submit.
Economics is one of the few departments on the campus of the University that has received generous grants under UGC University Leadership Programme (1982-88), UGC Special Assistance Programme (1987-1992) in the first instance, UGC Special Assistance Programme (1992-1997) in the second instance and again UGC Special Assistance Programme was sanctioned to the department in 2006-07 in the first phase and the second phase was sanctioned as SAP DRS II for the period 2013-18. The Department has now become eligible for UGC’s Centre for Advanced Studies.
As the University got accredited with A grate in 2013 and as the department was awarded SAP DRS II, our department became eligible to apply for UGC’s CPEPA Scheme. In 2016, the Department of Economics took the lead to seek the award of UGC’s Centre with Potential for Excellence and was successful in getting recognized as Centre with Potential for Excellence in collaboration with the Department of Political Science & Department of Sociology.