UGC makes undergraduate degree programmes flexible

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has made the undergraduate programmes more flexible. A student can increase or decrease the duration of the course, UGC Chairman M. Jagadesh Kumar said in Chennai on Thursday.

“Typically, the duration of a degree programme is three or four years; but talented students can finish it in two-and-a-half years or three-and-a-half years. Similarly, they can slow down the pace and complete the programme in four or five years,” he said.

He was interacting with the media on the sidelines of the day-long south zone conference of autonomous colleges on the implementation of the National Education Policy-2020.

Mr. Kumar said a meeting that Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had with the State Higher Education Secretaries in New Delhi on November 12 and 13 reviewed the progress of the implementation of the NEP. According to him, States such as West Bengal and Kerala, opposed to the NEP, introduced four-year degree programmes. Tamil Nadu had not adopted the NEP and had instead drafted a State Education Policy. But the details of its implementation were yet to be made public. Earlier, at the inauguration of the event, he told the principals of the autonomous colleges that institutions could use English as a communication tool even while using the mother tongue as the medium of instruction. This would enhance the learning outcomes for rural students, he said. He pointed out that higher education institutions in advanced countries teach their students in their language. He said educational institutions should make higher education affordable, fair and supportive for students to succeed. He pointed out that the UGC made it possible for students to take skill-based courses that would make them entrepreneurs.

V. Kamakoti, Director of the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, which hosted the event, said the world population census revealed that India had the youngest population in the 15-35 age group. “If we do not educate the population at this juncture, 10 years down the line we may become the most uneducated nation in the world,” he said.

Published - November 15, 2024 12:28 am IST