Soon, students can take 2 college courses together
NEW DELHI: College students will be allowed to pursue two academic courses at the same time as long as both are of the same level of advancement, the University Grants Commission (UGC) announced on Tuesday in a decision that represents a significant reform in the higher education system.
Once notified, students can pursue two undergraduate, postgraduate or a diploma courses at the same time as long as classes do not clash or if either one or both are being taught online. The option will not be available if either is a medical or an engineering course.
UGC chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar said the move was in accordance with the National Education Policy 2020, which supported multidisciplinary education across domains. “The NEP 2020 recommends providing as much flexibility as possible to students to personalise and customise their education so that they can receive multidisciplinary and holistic education across the disciplines. So, if the students
to pursue two degrees simultaneously, they will have an option now. It all depends on the choice of students,” Kumar said, adding that the provision will be applicable to non-technical courses affiliated by the UGC.
The UGC is planning to implement the reform from this year. “These guidelines shall come into effect from the date of their notification. No retrospective benefit can be claimed by the students who have already done two degrees simultaneously prior to the notification...,” said the draft guidelines, a copy of which was reviewed by HT.
Experts and academics, howdents
ever, raised concerns over the announcement, warning that the provision may reduce the purpose of education to just pursuing degrees or dilute the worth of the programmes themselves.
Abha Dev Habib, an associate professor of physics at Delhi University’s (DU) Miranda House college, said: “The UGC, by issuing any such guidelines, will be diluting its full-time degrees and their worth. For holistic growth, classroom time has to be balanced with time for self-study, group study, extracurricular activities, summer projects etc... It is one thing to allow students to earn degrees with extra credits but to allow stuwant to pursue two “full-time” degrees will be disastrous.”
According to the draft guidelines, students can pursue two fulltime degrees in three ways. First, pursuing both programmes in person provided that class timings do not overlap. Second, they can pursue one programme in person and another online or in distance learning. And third, they can pursue up to two programmes online or as distance learning.
“The two universities or colleges should be in proximity with each other. It is not possible to pursue two programmes in person from two universities located in different cities,” the UGC chairperson said. Students can, he added, pursue a second programme from the same college or university.
The UGC also cautioned that under this provision, online programmes will only be allowed from higher education institutions recognised by the commission or the government of India.
Rajesh Jha, a political science professor at DU’s Rajdhani College, said, “This will reduce the purpose of education to just getting degrees rather than acquiring knowledge...”