New norms have been notified for the curriculum and credit framework for the Four-year undergraduate programme (FYUP) in accordance with the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020. These were notified by the University Grants Commission (UGC) on Monday, December 12. But the Vice-Chancellor of Delhi University asserted that they will be following the existing system as approved by the university, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express.
Giving more details, he said the University will continue to follow the existing system approved by the university, at least for this year. But a point to note here is that the new UGC norms and existing DU rules vary which raised concerns that this variation could impact the university's educational framework.
What are UGC's new norms?
As per the UGC's curriculum and credit framework for FYUP, students will get a bachelor's degree after three years of study, while a four-year programme will result in an undergraduate honours degree. This standard runs counter to the current DU undergraduate programme design, which states that students will get a bachelor's degree with honours after three years.
Further, the UGC also stated that a certificate will take 40 credits, a diploma will require 80 credits, a degree will require 120 credits and a degree with honours and research will require 160 credits. Contrary to this, the university's proposal for four-year honours and research degrees proposed 176 credits, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express.
The VC made it clear on Friday, December 9, that the university will continue with the existing rules and will award the honours degree after three years. "Delhi University regulations have been approved by our statutory bodies and we will continue with that. We will give an honours degree after three years as we have been doing since 1980," he said.
Criticising the new UGC's norm, Nandita Narain, professor at St Stephen's College said that these norms are chaotic and totally whimsical. " The University teachers are already overloaded with work and now with these new norms, things will become totally chaotic. The student who already struggled with the tedious CUET process are now in a state of confusion," she added.
