Mumbai: While colleges and universities are already aligning their undergraduate programmes to the National Education Policy 2020, the Maharashtra state government is ready to launch the NEP implementation guidelines for postgraduate courses within a week.
NEP Master's to offer 40-44 credits
The state has established credit structures for the new one-year master’s programme that one can pursue only after four years of undergraduation (UG), where the final year of their Bachelor's course will be in sync with their master’s curriculum. Much like all undergraduate courses, the one-year Master’s will also allow a maximum of 22 credits per semester while the minimum number of credits is 20, making the programme worth 40-44 credits.
“The postgraduation research projects done by students will be the focal point of this programme. The student research will have a weightage of 12-14 credits. They can also opt for 2-credit elective courses if they wish to deep dive into any subject other than their Discipline Core or DSC,” said Prof Nitin Karmalkar, former Vice-Chancellor of Savitribai Phule Pune University, who also chaired the NEP Implementation Committee in Maharashtra.
Master's can be for a year, two, or omitted
The one-year postgraduate degree, however, can only be pursued by those students who have finished their four-year undergraduate degree in the same major. The students who wish to switch their major during their master’s will have to enrol in the two-year postgraduate degree.
The master's course, however, can be skipped altogether by the students. Those who finish their four-year bachelor's (Hons) degree with research and bag a minimum grade point of 7.5 can directly start their Ph.D. as per NEP 2020 guidelines.
Further details on the structure of the course are expected in the NEP implementation report by the state. Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government has also formed a problem-solving committee to solve the issues that arise during the implementation of NEP 2020.
