The University Grants Commission has proposed that multi-disciplinary subjects, apprenticeships and skill enhancement should constitute up to 50 per cent of an undergraduate student’s curriculum, which teachers’ bodies fear will dilute the standards of education and universities’ ability to monitor quality.
“A student has to earn a minimum of 50 per cent of total credits in a (core) discipline to earn an undergraduate degree with a major in that discipline,” say the Draft UGC (Minimum Standards of Instruction for the Grant of Undergraduate Degree and Postgraduate Degree) Regulations, 2024.
“For the remaining 50 per cent credits, the students may choose skill courses, apprenticeships and multidisciplinary subjects.”
The draft was circulated early this month with comments sought from higher-education institutions (HEIs) by December 23. It is yet to be known what the institutions have said.
However, teachers fear that most institutions would jump at the chance to restrict the core disciplines to 50 per cent of undergraduate programmes, thus saving on the costs of building and maintaining infrastructure and hiring faculty.
This is because the students are likely to pursue the skill and apprenticeship courses largely outside the campus — for instance, with private companies and government-run vocational training institutes.
The arrangement, they fear, will not just hamper their competence in their core subject but prevent the universities from monitoring the quality of a large part of their education.
“The students can do such (skill, apprenticeship and multi-disciplinary) courses from outside the parent institution. There is no way that quality can be ensured,” said Moushumi Basu, president of the Federation of Central Universities Teachers’ Associations.
Before the National Education Policy (NEP) was notified in 2020, universities offered undergraduate courses focused largely on discipline-based content. A BA or BSc honours student mostly studied the honours subject along with a few related subjects. For instance, a physics honours student tended to study mathematics and chemistry alongside.
The NEP introduced four-year, integrated undergraduate courses incorporating multi-disciplinary subjects and skill enhancement. But it did not say what proportion of the programme these auxiliary subjects wouldmake up.
Some universities, such as Delhi University (DU), have introduced four-year undergraduate courses allotting certain credits to value-added courses (VACs), skill enhancement courses (SECs) and multi-disciplinary subjects.
Now, the UGC wants all universities to follow the model outlined in thedraft guidelines.
Seema Das, a member of DU’s executive council, said undergraduate students’ focus on their core subjects had been diluted after the introduction of VACsand SECs.
“Earlier, an honours student developed a certain competency in their core subject. Now, the student does many things together, including VACs and SECs. Some of the VACs are part of government schemes too. This has greatly affected the standard of learning,” Das said.
Biannual admissions
The draft regulations encourage universities and colleges to carry out biannual (twice a year) admissions based on entrance tests, once in July/August and again in January/February. The matter has been left to the universities’ discretion.
The stress on entrance tests seems to carry a hint of promoting the CUET, now relevant mostly to central university admissions. If more universities are indeed brought under the CUET’s ambit, it will gladden thecoaching institutes.
The All India Federation of Universities and College Teachers Organisation, which represents all state government university and college teachers, has written to the UGC expressing concern about many aspects of the draft guidelines, including the provision ofbiannual admissions.
“Many HEIs are not equipped with the necessary infrastructure, such as faculty requirements, classroom requirements, laboratories, libraries, sports and health facilities, technology infrastructure, hostel accommodations,” the letter says.
