DU to implement two-year PG framework for students who pursue 3-year undergraduate course

The move, however, has not gone down well with a section of teachers who said it appears hurried especially when the fourth year of the UG courses remains in limbo in the absence of syllabi.

The draft of the Postgraduate Curriculum Framework 2024, in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, will be tabled at the Academic Council meeting on December 27 after taking into account the views of heads of departments, directors of centres/institutes, and other officials.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Director of South Campus Shri Prakash Singh said, “Students who pursue undergraduation for four years will have to pursue post-graduation for one year. And if any student pursues UG for three years, exits, and would like to come back and recontinue their studies will have to pursue PG for two years… This draft will allow universities to create syllabi in a way that students in both cases get a win-win situation.”

The item in the AC meeting Agenda stated, “To formulate syllabi of courses for two-year PG programmes, which shall be pursued by students who exit after three-year UG programmes in the coming academic session 2025-26, it is proposed that the draft structure of the PG Curriculum Framework 2024 may kindly be placed for consideration of the Academic Council in the meeting scheduled for 27th December 2024. Finer details relating to the implementational aspects of the framework will be worked out in due course of time to ensure that PGCF 2024 is put in place in a seamless manner consequent upon implementation of UGCF 2022.”

Also on the agenda is the twinning degree, through which a DU student can study one semester in a foreign higher education institute and earn credits that will be counted towards the final score. It was proposed by the varsity in its AC meeting last November but was later deferred.

The agenda document states that a six-member academic committee will be formed “to examine applications for signing the ‘Learning Agreement’. Mapping (of courses ) shall be undertaken by this committee”.

The university, it said, “may initiate collaborative arrangements whereby students enrolled in any programme offered in DU’s departments or colleges may undertake their programme of study partly in India and partly in the FHEI, complying with relevant UGC Regulations, 2022, for one semester”.

Mapping of courses of DU’s degree programme with that of the FHEI with which a twinning arrangement is to be established shall be done before initiating an exchange of students, the document stated.

Teachers have voiced their reservations over the two-year PG framework.

Richa Raj, Assistant Professor at Jesus and Mary College and a former AC member, told The Indian Express: “There are no clear guidelines for how a fourth year will look like under NEP 2020 until now, so why should the university be in such a hurry to bring in a new curriculum framework for PG? Reforms should be well thought out, there’s no clarity on what will happen to students who exercise the exit option. These should be thoroughly discussed.”

Maya John, a DU AC member said, “It is a bitter irony that the university is seeking approval of its UG-PG course structure in an ambience of massive unpreparedness, pending an audit of the functioning of its four-year UG programme since 2022. The proposed PG structure, purportedly based on whether a student attempts a three- or four-year UG course, is deeply problematic, given that the fourth-year syllabi of many UG courses have yet not been tabled and approved by the Academic Council. As per established protocol, the full syllabi of a UG and a PG course needs to be prepared and shared in the public domain well before implementation.”

She said it was worrying that a structure for a university’s PG course is being circulated when its syllabi is still unclear.

“Further, there is a convenient eliding of another key issue — lack of adequate faculty, funds and infrastructure to support not only the fourth year of the UG courses but also parallel streams of PG courses offered by the DU departments… Overall, there is a marked unwillingness of authorities to consult with the UG teaching fraternity and students who are bearing the brunt of the ill-conceived four-year UG programme,” she added.