St Xavier’s University will start a law school and a morning section for BCom from the 2019 academic session, vice-chancellor Father Felix Raj announced on Friday.

“We are ready to open our new law school from the current academic session. Our commerce students had requested us to start a morning section,” he said. “We are prepared to start the new section, too, from this session.”

He made the announcement at a function on the university campus in New Town to celebrate its third foundation day.

Metro had earlier reported about the university’s plans to start a law school and a morning BCom section.

The Xavier Law School will offer five-year integrated BA LLB (honours) and BCom LLB (honours) courses.

The school will need the clearance of the Bar Council of India that regulates law education in the country.

The morning section in commerce (from 7am to noon) will have two classes. Classes in the day section continue from 10am to 4pm.

St Xavier’s College on Park Street had started its morning section in commerce 83 years ago following requests of students who wanted to pursue professional courses like chartered accountancy and company secretary simultaneously, the vice-chancellor said.

The morning section at the university aims to help students who want to devote the latter part of the day to their family businesses, he said.

Father Felix Raj said the university had started its academic activities less than 20 months ago. But the institution was “fast progressing” in “true Xaverian spirit”, Nihil Ultra (nothing beyond), he said.

“We began an MBA course last year. It is growing steadily. The summer internship has been very successful at the business school. I am confident the university will continue to grow in true Xaverian spirit.”

“St Xavier’s institutions belong to a global education network. Jesuit education is known all over the world for its excellence and the high quality they have maintained,” governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, the chief guest, said. “St Xavier’s University in its second year has 1,100 student on its roll. This is a fast growth. I applaud the Jesuit Fathers for their wholehearted work.”

Partha Pratim Chakrabarti, director, IIT Kharagpur, delivered the foundation day lecture on Science and Technology in Higher Education Today.