File photo of Delhi University campus
A new credit-based system that proposes a common syllabus for all the 400 odd central universities of the country will come into effect at the Delhi University or DU starting this July, the university's executive council, its highest decision making body, decided yesterday.
This will align DU with other universities, allowing a common entrance test, transfer of faculty members and the transfer of credits for students.
The new system, called the CBCS proposes to standardise all courses in universities, bringing about uniformity in curriculum across the country. This system will also award grades rather than marks. So if a student is moving from one university to another, he can carry his grades to the new one, something that is not possible in the current system.
Student unions and teacher associations are unhappy that the new system leaves little room for creativity in courses, and say that it will lead to a lowering of academic standards at DU, one of the country's leading universities.
"One curriculum will be thrust on the whole of India, and it will lead to academic dilution. The biggest sufferers are the students" said Nandita Narayan, president of the Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA).
CBCS has detractors even in the executive council that took the decision. "Those who have to implement it haven't been asked. It is a top down approach," said Abha Dev Habib, an executive council member.
The University Grants Commission (UGC), a statutory organisation responsible for maintaining the standard of university education in the country, had given a go-ahead to the CBCS earlier and a draft model of the syllabi for 19 undergraduate courses was circulated on April 10.
However, the UGC had also highlighted the "disadvantages" of this new system, like lack of infrastructure and workload fluctuation for teachers.
Students have held protests against the move to implement CBCS.