THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a major reform aimed at enhancing academic flexibility, students pursuing the Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUGP) in the state can opt for inter-college transfer in the beginning of semesters four, six and seven as well. Earlier the option was available only in the start of third and fifth semesters.

The proposal, mooted by the state-level FYUGP monitoring committee, has been ratified by the state government and passed on to universities for implementation. Students in eight universities under the higher education department, that have adopted the FYUGP, will benefit from this reform.

Last year, arrangements were made to allow students to switch between colleges and universities and also to avail of the option of changing their major subject of study, coinciding with the commencement of the second year of FYUGP implementation, “Even though inter-university transfer applications were very few, there were many requests for inter-collegiate transfers within the same university,” said an official of the FYUGP monitoring committee.

Meanwhile, the uniform academic calendar for universities that was rolled out last year has come fully on track by this year, enabling smooth inter-institutional transfer. The K-REAP software that facilitates credit transfer between institutions have also facilitated greater avenues for inter-collegiate transfers.

This story has been written by Sovi Vidyadharan of The New Indian Express.