Only a year of PG study after 4-year UG course, confirms West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee

KOLKATA: Students completing four-year undergraduate courses will have to study just for a year for their post-graduation degrees, CM Mamata Banerjee said at a programme to felicitate board exam achievers on Thursday.
Elaborating on the rules of the four-year UG format that the state will adopt from this year, the CM said: "Those who want to pursue major subjects will get their degrees after three years but those who want to pursue Honours will be required to study for four years. This is the new policy framed by the UGC. Its advantage is that that the Masters course will be of one year instead of two. So, the duration (UG + PG) will be the same but the structure will be slightly different. If other states follow this system and we don't, our students will be unable to compete with them and suffer."
The UGC in January released guidelines for new curriculum and credit structure under the four-year UG programme as envisaged in NE.
According to the new rules, students will get an UG degree in three years on completion of 120 credits and UG honours degree in four years on completion of 160 credits. Those with more than 75% in the first six semesters can choose a research stream in the fourth year and get a UG honours with research degree. Earlier, a master's degree was compulsory to join a PhD programme.
State education minister Bratya Basu had on Wednesday mentioned that implementation of the four-year UG course was in no way an acceptance of the NE and that the state had prepared its own education policy. He clarified that the state was adopting the four-year format for the sake of students, who would otherwise find it difficult to pursue post-graduation elsewhere.
Jadavpur University, Presidency University and Rabindra Bharati University have already readied their plans to make the switch to the new format while the Calcutta University held a meeting on Thursday to work out that modalities and frame the curriculum, officials said.