patiala in an effort to promote punjabi language sikh studies and music punjabi university has established an online study centre in ontario canada which would provide online courses on these subjects to second and third generation sikh diaspora settled there this is the sixth such online centre established by the university in north america centres are already functional in winnipeg alberta new jersey houston and los angeles the ontario khalsa darbar gurmat gyan online study centre will be managed by ontario khalsa darbar gurdwara sahib the role of the university will be to impart training and conduct examinations gurnam singh founder chairman of gurmat sangeet department of the varsity said these centres will be opened in places where our sikh brethren are already managing institutes like gurudwaras or academies students interested in sikh history and music will be enrolled we would provide them online teaching with the help of audiovisual aids he added that the duration of online courses varies from 30 to 70 hours depending on the subject and difficulty level we start with the elementary course which is 30 hours per semester students attend classes every sunday for four hours over 100 students have already enrolled in five of our centres he added