Breather for honours students at Delhi University

NEW DELHI: The students of the current batch of Delhi University need not worry about their honours degrees as the session has already started and the nomenclature won’t change mid-session, University Grants Commission chairman M Jagadesh Kumar said.
“We understand that the sessions in the university have already started. Mid-changes to the academic coursework will not be done. Probably from next year, the universities will follow the framework, which has been prepared after several consultations and is also in line with the National Education Policy (NEP),” the UGC chairman said.
The commission will officially be notifying the “curriculum and credit framework for the four-year undergraduate programmes” on Monday. As part of the curriculum framework, it states that the students will now get an undergraduate degree only after the completion of a four-year course.
Delhi University was first to implement the four-year programme from this academic session itself. As per the framework, students enrolled in BA/BSc (Hons) will get an honours degree after the completion of three years itself. However, if any student continues for four years, they can either do research, write a dissertation, complete an academic project or go for entrepreneurship. The degree they will be given will be a BA (Hons) degree along with the research/ academic project/ entrepreneurship.
Meanwhile, in BA programme, a three-year course will guarantee a BA degree while a four-year course will earn the students an honours degree.
Amid concernns following the UGC announcement, DU vice-chancellor Yogesh Singh said the students who complete three years in the course will be awarded an honours degree. This framework was passed by the university’s highest statutory bodies — academic and executive council in August this year.
As it is a new system, he said, the UGC will be handholding the universities and addressing their queries. “Let things stabilise and then we will see how to go about it,” said Kumar.
He explained that the four-year programme aims at providing the students flexibility and a wider choice. “There will be an option for students to exit after the third year and then again join back to complete the programme,” said Kumar.
As per the four-year programme, students can exit the course after completing a year when they will get a certificate degree, after two years they will be eligible for a diploma degree.