Origin
The University Grants Commission sanctioned an Academic Staff College to Pondicherry University in 1987 with a Professor Director and two Lecturers. The ASC was established in the month of December 1987 with a building rented from Tagore Arts College of Government of Pondicherry at Lawspet.

Courses and programmes
The Academic Staff College has been organising primarily two kinds of programmes, viz, orientation courses and refresher courses. It has also organised a workshop for the Principals of Colleges and a special course for Finance Officers. It has also conducted AICTE sponsored Induction Training Programmes in Engineering, Management and Pharmacy.
Details about the courses being offered in the current year can be had from Dr. K.Ramachandran, Director (i/c) , Academic Staff College, Tagore Arts College campus, Lawspet,Pondicherry.Phone no: 252664

1. Orientation programmes
   The orientation programmes have been designed to the newly appointed teachers of colleges and universities who have less than eight years of teaching experience.
2. Refresher courses
   The refresher courses are meant for teachers of colleges and Universities with more than five years of experience. These courses will provide opportunities for inservice teachers to keep abreast of the latest advances in subjects concerned.
3. Duration
   The duration of orientation programme is four weeks and refresher courses is three weeks.

The All India Council for Technical Education, New Delhi has sanctioned induction training programmes in Enginerring, Architecture, Management and Pharmacy be organised by the Academic Staff College. This programme, under the scheme of staff development programme, is intended to provide opportunities for teachers employed in AICTE approved institutions for induction training and upgradation their knowledge and skill in the areas of national education policy and other management issues. The participants shall be teachers working in the University / colleges / govt. aided institutions having less than upto ten years of working experience in AICTE approved institutions.

Academic advisory committee
The Academic Staff College is governed by an Advisory Committee whose role is to advise on the orientation programmes, refresher courses and the selection of resource persons. The Vice-Chancellor of Pondicherry University is the Chairman and the Director, ASC is its Member-Secretary. The representatives from the University Departments/Schools and Colleges of Higher Education in the area of its jurisdiction, the Members.

Facilities available
The Academic Staff College of Pondicherry University, situated at Lawspet, at the outskirts of the town of Pondicherry is one of those ASC's, which houses all its acdemic and adminsitrative facilities/activities under one roof thereby providing the aspiring participants, an avenue, for their academic excellence. The campus is small but self contained with all amenities required for ideal training of Teacher-Class room and residential accomodation together, library, canteen, and administrative accommodation.

Audio visual equipment
The ASC has equipped itself with the following audio-visual aids for conduct of the orientation/refresher courses :
Over Head Projector - three, Slide Projector - two, Public Address System - one T.V. and V.C.R. - one, Audio Cassette Player - one, Photocopier - one.

Computer training activities
The participants of orientation programmes are exposed to the working of computers. The computer centre of Community Centre which is located in the ASC campus helps in the Training Process. The Computer Lab has the fastest computer processor, namely, Pentium III and Pentium processor machines. A Windows NT Server 4.0, Novell Netware Server 4.1 (LAN) and Linux Server are connected with 20 nodes including 5 colour SVGA monitor with Multimedia Kit and Internet facility. In addition to the above advanced facility, computer lab also has a Novell netware File Server 3.12 (LAN) which is connected with 20 nodes, including one SVGA Logitech/Microsoft Mouse and 101/104 keys keyboard. The Lab also possesses peripheral devices of Laser printer (HP Laser Jet Plus), HP Colour Deskjet Printer 870 Cxi, two Dot Matrix Printers - (Wipro LQ-1050+ and one EPSON LQ 2170 Printer.

Participants benefited
The second indicator of progress of ASC is the number of participants benefited from the courses organised. Since its inception to March 2000, the college has trained 4063 teachers (1823 in orientation programmes, 2114 in refresher programmes, 52 in special programmes and 74 in AICTE sponsored Induction Training Programmes through 126 courses.