Student mobility held up by delays to credit system

Attempts to ensure that universities adopt a Choice Based Credit System, or CBCS, by September are meeting stiff resistance from universities. The system would make it easier for students to move between universities in India or study abroad.

The CBCS will consist of core courses, elective courses and ability enhancement courses. It hopes to provide a ‘cafeteria like’ approach where students can opt for different courses based on their choices and with a uniform grading system, have less exam pressure.

Currently most Indian colleges and universities have their own exam-based grading. The varied grading and marking patterns makes it difficult for most students to transfer from one institution to another.

The University Grants Commission, or UGC, hopes CBCS will do away with these discrepancies and create a level playing field.

As the apex funding and controlling body for centrally funded Indian universities, it is demanding that all colleges and universities adopt the CBCS from the beginning of the new academic year in September 2015.

It first issued its demand after a meeting of the Minister of Human Resource Development Smriti Irani with state education ministers.

But the vast majority of colleges have not put in place the guidelines, which were issued last year. Only 18 central universities have made changes to implement the CBCS so far – and UGC finds itself on the warpath with many universities objecting to its diktat.

Easier mobility and study abroad

While the UGC move will eventually facilitate easier mobility for students within domestic institutions in India, it is hoped that the CBCS will also give them better leverage with foreign universities when seeking to take joint degrees that include transnational education – such as external University of London degrees – or to transfer to or from abroad, or go on exchanges.

At present each institution that has a tie-up with a degree-awarding college abroad follows its own rules in conjunction with the awarding university.

India has 636 degree-granting higher education institutions and 33,023 colleges. Of these, 297 are state universities, 43 are central universities, 100 private universities and 65 deemed universities. But there is no common approach to grading credits.

While UGC suggested a 10 point grading system, many colleges are following their own methods with a five or seven point grading. The varied grading system often leaves students and future employers with little idea of how they are placed in competition.

Certain universities and colleges have been following a credit system for some time. Many of these have tie-ups with foreign universities under a twinning programme.

According to A Thukral, an engineer from Manipal University, who completed the twinning programme in Chicago: “Some of our credits were considered on a par with the American university. But in some subjects there was a mismatch. You either repeated those credits or took other electives.”

He said the CBCS would help maintain a standard and would also ease exam-related pressures.

On the face of it, the CBCS seems like just the tonic needed for Indian students, long used to arduous exams, no mobility between universities and a watertight academic schedule.

Resistant to change

But many universities have been resistant to changing the system or to the pace of change demanded.

Notable among these is the University of Delhi, one of India’s premier institutions, where the university’s joint registrar last week instructed deans of all faculties to implement the system, despite reported opposition by Executive Council members and widespread opposition among staff, who questioned the UGC’s wisdom in disrupting existing processes without doing its homework first.

Staff associations from 30 colleges of Delhi University passed resolutions rejecting or opposing the CBCS, according to a statement by the Delhi University Teachers’ Association, or DUTA, on 16 April.

Although the change is something that most universities and colleges would desire to implement in the long run, eminent academics and some students have questioned the hurried move. Achieving parity in grading requires an elaborate network and good-quality infrastructure which is not yet in place.

DUTA has said it is against the “hasty implementation”, saying that it would give rise to logistical issues, infrastructure crunch, fluctuation in workloads and contractualisation of teachers.

“What was the hurry?” asked Abha Dev Habib, executive council member at Delhi University. “We should first review the four-year undergrad programme and analyse the problems it has created for students and teachers,” she said.

Nandita Narain, DUTA president said: “CBCS has come to Delhi University soon after the four-year graduate programme, which has been a disaster for students.”

Minister Irani, while appealing to universities across the country to adopt the CBCS, has addressed the opposition to the switch by agreeing to demands to set up a separate grievance cell to deal with issues arising out of the changed system.

Lack of uniform standards

MM Ansari, a member of the UGC, has underlined the scale of the challenge. He told the Hindustan Times: “It must be remembered that universities are governed by different central and state acts and statutes which do not follow a uniform system of admissions and examinations, or development of course content. They also do not maintain uniform standards of teaching and research.

“Another challenge is that UGC directions are not binding on most of the institutions which are under private management and do not receive any financial support. The UGC has no legal authority to derecognise the institutions that do not follow its guidelines.”