4-year format done,DU gets to work on credit system

“If we want DU to make it to the top international rankings,the first thing that we need to do is apply the credit system. We,at Delhi University,are in fact too late to make the shift. Other universities such as Indian Institure of Science,Bangalore,are functioning under the credit system,” Umesh Rai,Director of South Campus,said.

Even though the modalities are yet to be worked out,the need for implementing the credit system gains relevance with the four-year undergraduate course. A student need not spend two years to get a Masters’ degree if she can earn the required number of credits in one year,senior university officials said.

“The change needs to come from the departments. The heads of each department need to sit together and prepare a structure for assigning credits to particular courses,” Rai said.

According to university authorities,however,the final structure of the credit distribution between the undergraduate and the postgraduate courses needs to be decided at the national level.

A University Grants Commission report on expansion of higher education under the Twelfth Plan also highlights the need for a “choice-based credit system”.

Among reforms suggested in the report are “the introduction of Semester System,Continuous and Comprehensive Internal Assessment,Choice Based Credit System and mobility of students through effective mechanism of credit transfer across institutions of higher education”.

A UGC meeting dating back to January 2009 also underlined the role of a credits system in “inter-university student mobility”. According to the minutes of the meeting,the commission approved,in principle,the guidelines for the new scheme relating to “Inter-University student mobility enabling students to undergo off-campus courses under ‘Credit Transfer’ Programme”.

The credit system,university officials maintained,would encourage collaborations with other universities. “Through inter-university collaborations and credit transfer,students of one university can spend a semester in another,” Rai said.

While stating that the talk about the credit system is not new,a section of teachers have raised concerns over its implementation. “This whole talk of credits and credit transfer was done during the implementation of the semester system both at the undergraduate and the postgraduate level. However,it was never followed through,” Abha Dev Habib,a teacher of Physics at Miranda House,said.