New Delhi: Jamia Millia Islamia is likely to offer four-year undergraduate programmes (FYUP) with multiple exit and entry options from the upcoming academic session, officials said on Tuesday.
The proposal in this regard was adopted in a recently held Academic Council (AC) meeting. The matter will now be presented in the next meeting of Executive Council, which is the highest decision-making body of the university, they said.
The development has been confirmed by university Vice Chancellor Najma Akhtar.
“We have tried to adopt all aspects of the National Education Policy. In the recently held Academic Council meeting, the members adopted UGC guidelines for multiple entry and exit options in academic programmes offered in higher education institutions and implementation of the layout of restructured four-year undergraduate programmes,” Akhtar told PTI.
If approved by the Executive Council, the undergraduate degree would be of either a three- or four-year duration, with multiple entry and exit options within this period.
This was part of the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020. Current UG programmes in the university are of three-year duration. Some institutions, including Delhi University, have already adopted FYUP.
UGC launches framework for FYUP, multiple entry-exit
Under the multiple exit and entry options, if students exit after a year, they will be given a certificate. Those leaving after two years will be eligible for a diploma, and those after three, a bachelor’s degree. It is only after the complete four years that students will be eligible for a bachelor’s degree with honours or research.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has said that multiple exits and multiple entries will offer flexibility in curriculum and novel course options to students in addition to discipline-specific specialisations and will enable students to adopt different designs of the Master’s programme.
In December, the UGC notified the curriculum and credit framework for undergraduate programmes which will provide students with multiple options for entry and exit, a choice between single major and double major and interdisciplinary choices of subjects.
According to the programme, students will only be able to pursue a four-year honours degree rather than a three-year course like the present. Honours degrees will also be offered in two categories — honours and honours with research.
However, UGC has also clarified three-year undergraduate courses will not be discontinued till the four-year programme is fully implemented, and under the new pattern, graduates can directly join PhD programmes.
