SRM University on Wednesday announced the setting up of School of Liberal Arts and Basic Sciences (SLABS) at its campus in Amaravati.

SLABS will be home for fundamental research, where free, open, and critical inquiry is pursued across disciplines, said SRM University President P. Sathyanarayanan.

SLABS will have its first intake of students in 2018 and would offer B.A., B.B.A., B.Com and B.Sc programmes across 12 departments of Economics, English, History, Journalism, Psychology, Business Studies, Commerce, Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Biology and Computer Science.

Sathyanarayanan made this announcement in presence of Honorary Pro-Chancellor of SRM University, Amaravati, Prof Nicholas Dirks (Chancellor Emeritus, University of California, Berkley), and Pro-Vice Chancellor D. Narayana Rao.

“Today, we face increasingly complex issues and challenges and tackling these calls for multi-dimensional thought processes and problem solving skills. Education needs to focus on this and much more. We aim to help students develop such skills through the Liberal Arts and Basic Sciences education offered at SRM SLABS,” said Sathyanarayanan.

“Students will learn the skills of critical thinking and knowledge creation in a range of fields in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. They will have an innovative multi-disciplinary education, in close proximity as well to breaking new teaching and research in areas ranging from machine learning and data science to public policy and social analysis,” said Prof Dirks.