DU Academic Council passes UGCF, 11 members issue dissent note

The UGCF is an attempt to include two of the most talked-about features of the National Education Policy (NEP)—the multi-disciplinarily and multiple exit points (leaving the course at the end of each year with a different degree). The new draft has a total of 176 credits on offer. As per the new framework, to get a four-year UG degree with a major in a specific discipline, students need to get a minimum of 50 per cent of credits (88) in that discipline.

Students who complete the FYUP in more than one discipline—like what the erstwhile programme courses were—will need to earn 80 credits in a specific discipline to get an Honours degree with a major in that discipline. Students can also get a Minor in a specific discipline by earning 28 credits.

Now that the draft UGCF has been passed by the Academic Council, it will be placed before the Executive Council and will be implemented if cleared there.

Like teachers’ bodies, which have been protesting against this framework, the dissenting AC members also flagged the lowering of credits required by students, and has specifically flagged the reduction of credits in students’ core papers.

“In the proposed UGCF, a student will earn an Honours degree with 20 DSC (Discipline Specific Core papers) i.e. with 80 credits out of a total of 176. DSCs will constitute only 45.4% of the total credits. In the name of “choice” and multidisciplinary, this is a huge dilution of Honours courses and an attack on University’s right and duty to design a credible framework which provides a rounded and robust education. This will also lead to massive job reduction,” reads the dissent note.

It also noted that there is a substantial increase in the number of papers students will have to study per semester, of which most have been assigned fewer credits and it states that “despite the overload, the depth will be sacrificed”.

It has also questioned the preparedness of the university to accommodate this change. “Further, FYUP means 25% expansion in terms of students to be hosted. There is no promise of any grants for this expansion. A college which gives admission to 1000 students, should be ready in terms of human resource and infrastructure to cater to another 1000 students (as continuing up to the Fourth year is a student’s choice). The en-masse research envisaged in the 4th year requires a greater investment towards advanced laboratory and library facilities.”