Dr. Ravindra Kulkarni, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Mumbai University is a busy man and it is not surprising given that he has the mantle to get Mumbai NEP 20 ready.
In an exclusive chat with Free Press Journal, Dr. Kulkarni said that he and various city colleges have been huddled in meetings for the last few weeks to get NEP on the floors this academic year itself. The immediate plan is to work with the 52 autonomous colleges in the city and gradually fork out to others.
Some of the striking changes which are expected to see the light of the day are
-4-year degree courses instead of the current three-year
-Mandatory internships with degree courses to make students job-worthy
-An international alumni base for Mumbai’s students to connect
-14 lakh degrees of the last seven years uploaded already
-Unique basket of courses to be created by the University
-Noncompartmentalization of streams – a Science student can learn Humanities easily.
-Progressive Credit structure to enable smooth admissions abroad
- Nomenclature for same subjects across colleges to remain uniform
Elaborating on some of the points, Dr. Kulkarni said that the University is currently working on transforming the present three-year degree programs into four-year ones. This will enable those going abroad to not necessarily avail of an extra ‘academic’ year. Degrees will also be awarded at the end of the four-year program. This will transform the undergraduate degree as we know it. It will require colleges to factor in more syllabi, assessments, and additional faculty to handle them.
The 21-member committee while liaising with different bodies and Academic Councils of different Universities is also chalking out credit structures for new programs/courses. “We are creating structures for discipline core major/ minor courses, generic and vocational courses, the skill courses required for an award of Certificate/ Diploma/Degree, MOOC programs, internship/ field projects, etc, all as per NHEQF guidelines released by UGC,” updated Prof. Kulkarni.
Talks of an internship-inclusive degree have been going on within Mumbai University as part of NEP guidelines, the Prof VC said that the University of Mumbai has already conducted a meeting with Principals of Affiliated Colleges for an internship-embedded degree program.
Some more interesting disclosures by Dr. Kulkarni revealed that the nomenclature for subjects within all colleges remains the same – often colleges apply different terms/names for the same subject which sometimes leads to confusion during admissions. The credits awarded to these subjects will also be equalized.
Another progressive idea is an online platform to connect Mumbai University’s students to alumni. “An online portal is being promoted to establish Alumni connections of Indian origin living abroad and foreign alumni,” said Dr. Kulkarni.
And with regards to the Adoption of the Academic Bank of Credits, the University of Mumbai is already Registered on ABC, Dr. Kulkarni added that It has uploaded 14 lakh degrees of the last seven years on Digi locker.
While NEP 2020 has been implemented by other states, Mumbai is planning to go the whole hog and no stone is being left unturned to get the megapolis to get NEP perfect from this year itself.
