College of Community Science (formerly known as College of Rural Home Science) is the only institution in the state having rural and agriculture oriented curriculum. The college was founded in the year 1974 and has paved its way to a fruitful existence in catering to the needs of both rural and urban community of North Karnataka.
There has been a rapid growth and development in teaching, research and extension in the college. Since 1974, Bachelor’s degree was of three years programme with trimester system of education and later in 1992 to be on par with ICAR norms and with other Agricultural Universities in the country, the semester system of education was implemented. Later to meet the requirements of the post of Assistant Agricultural Officer for farm women of the Indo-Danish project in the state, more courses in agriculture were added and the degree programme was of 4 years duration.
During 1998-99 when the four year degree programme comprised 2 years of core courses and 2 years of electives (2+2), it was realized that some of the courses were overlapping and one or two departments did not have enough takers. So the college adopted 3 years of core courses and 1 year of electives (3+1) programme with advanced courses to meet the demands of the stake holders viz., Department of Women and Child Development, Hospitals, Industries, etc.
B. Tech. (Food Technology) another degree programme offered by the college, was started in 2012 in the University to develop human resources to cater to the needs of Food Processing Industries, R&D centres and Food quality assurance laboratories. Food industry is the largest industry in world and needs highly trained professionals in Food Science and Technology to ensure supply, quality and safety of food for everyone. In spite of growth of many food processing industries, education and training for creating strong human resource capacities are inadequate.
Present Status
The present four years degree programme as per V Deans’ Committee is being implemented since 2016-17 with three years of core courses and one year of student READY programme which focuses strongly on entrepreneurship. The curriculum is a value added programme for skill and capacity building of students. Currently this programme has enhanced visibility, skill and employability for graduates for self employment and to serve in industries as well as Government jobs. The present graduate programme gives hands-on training to students in specialized fields with strong basic and essential knowledge. The opportunities and hands-on training builds self confidence and capacity for establishing an enterprise of new venture.
Community Science is the only significant, comprehensive and unique course which encompasses arts, science, commerce, engineering, medical and agriculture subjects. This discipline prepares individuals for both professional and quality family life. The flexibility and versatile nature of the curriculum gives opportunities to enter into the diversified job market and to rise to the occasion in the competitive world.
Since 2012, the B. Tech programme is growing exponentially with three batches of students graduated who are well equipped to face professional challenges. The four year degree programme offers courses for six semesters with theory and practical. It teaches combination of food technology, management and marketing skills. The course also teaches maximizing utilization of agricultural resources conceding with environmental concerns. In the 7th semester, the students are given hands on training with concept of ‘earn while you learn’ while in the 8th semester, the students are placed in different food processing industries to actually learn how the industry functions in terms of production, financial management, marketing, quality assurance, etc.
The laboratory facilities and processing plants are created with the financial support of project, National Mission for Food Processing and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, GoI along with University support.