Choice Based Credit System needs systemic changes

Earlier this year, India’s central universities agreed to roll out the controversial Choice Based Credit System, or CBCS, from the start of the 2015 academic session in July. A few months down the line, universities are struggling to accommodate the structural changes that CBCS demands.

Academics feel that unless accommodating systems are put in place and the traditional teaching style of Indian universities shifts, CBCS will fail to provide real choice and flexibility to students.

Why CBCS?

According to guidelines issued by the University Grants Commission, or UGC, the highest regulatory authority for university education in India, CBCS puts the focus on the 'learner', thus giving students the flexibility to choose a mix of courses and encouraging interdisciplinary studies.

This is in contrast to the existing system, where disciplines are tightly divided into compartments, with no movement or interaction possible between two disciplines, especially at the undergraduate level.

Secondly, implementing CBCS means that all universities will follow a similar grading and assessment pattern, thus facilitating student mobility across institutions within and across countries as the global best follow this system. CBCS would also enable potential employers to assess the performance of students graduating from different institutions.

The change was welcomed by many as much needed reform in Indian higher education institutions. Notably, some of India’s leading institutions including the Indian Institutes of Technology, the Indian Institutes of Management and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore all follow the CBCS.

However, there was also strong resistance from groups of academics and students, especially from the University of Delhi, one of India’s largest and leading universities. After several protests and under pressure from the UGC and the Ministry of Human Resource Development, the 39 central universities that are funded by the ministry agreed to implement the CBCS.

But there are many challenges.

Teacher shortage

Academics from Mumbai University, a state university that made CBCS compulsory in 2011, have warned that you cannot run a credit system on classroom teaching alone.

“You need project-based activities, case studies, tutorials, practical study, seminars, guest lectures etc. But this is not possible if you have an undergraduate class size of 100 students,” said Dr Lakshmy Ravishankar from the department of chemistry, VG Vaze College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Mumbai.

In a paper titled “Choice-Based Credit System: Boon or bane?” Ravishankar and co-author Alka S Kelkar have analysed the opinions on CBCS of teachers from colleges affiliated to Mumbai University.

“Indian universities already have a huge shortage of teachers. Even if we filled all vacancies we would still not be able to successfully implement CBCS,” said Ravishankar.

“The Indian Institutes of Technology also have large class sizes. But each teacher is given teaching assistants and classes are broken into smaller groups for tutorials and project work. Mostly these are PhD students who are paid a stipend. But most affiliated colleges in India don’t have postgraduate teaching, which is done in the university departments.

“There is also no provision for students who have completed PhDs to be appointed as teaching assistants. The UGC has to make structural changes and provide the funding to hire assistants,” Ravishankar said.

Big class sizes also mean that teachers do not know students individually.

Lack of flexibility and guidance

Under the new system, students can take an adequate number of credits to be eligible for a degree either in their own discipline or across disciplines. They may also take extra credits if they so desire. Yet, the UGC has stubbornly stuck to a maximum period of three years for completion of credits for undergraduate students.

The current CBCS framework suggests allotting 50% of the total credits to core subjects, 25% to applied core subjects, 20% to interdisciplinary subjects and 5% for foundation courses.

To implement the framework and enable students to genuinely experience inter-disciplinary study the UGC has to move away from a time-based model to a credit-based model.

Other than lack of time to pursue different interests, students have also found it difficult to get advice on choice of credits. Since undergraduate education and most postgraduate education in universities is strictly divided into compartments based on the discipline, teachers are finding it difficult to breach this barrier.

“There is a cafeteria of choices but how do you know which combination works best? In all the discussion I have had with the faculty they are unable to advise me on the credits to choose,” said Sagarika Tyagi, a first-year undergraduate student at Delhi University.

According to Nikhil Sinha, founding vice-chancellor of Shiv Nadar University, universities will need to implement effective student advisory systems to guide students.

“Academic advising is a key component of successful CBCSs and most Indian institutions have little experience in this area,” he said.

No clarity on student mobility

The CBCS aims to facilitate student mobility across institutions. Yet there is no clarity on how student movement will take place. Will students be allowed to transfer to colleges or departments affiliated to the same university or to different universities? Can they transfer to institutions outside their respective states? What about institutions that are not accredited in any way?

“To ensure quality of educational institutions, the national accreditation process must be made mandatory for all institutions covered by the CBCS,” said Sinha. “For credit transfer to be effective and meaningful, we must have some measure of the relative quality of the institutions participating in the system. To make such fundamental changes, detailed preparations are essential.

“The UGC needs to determine the number of hours of classroom and lab instruction required for a course, ensure that the course material is consistent with the stipulated credit hours, etc. Institutions will need to determine the appropriate teaching load for their faculty,” he added.

Lack of adequate infrastructure

CBCS encourages teaching through projects and case studies. However, as the study by Kelkar and Ravishankar found, a majority of colleges and departments in universities do not have adequate infrastructure to facilitate this, including smart boards, projectors, access to computers and Internet and storage space for projects.

“As teachers we have to be open to the idea of a teaching aid that is not a textbook. Today there are thousands of massive open oline courses, or MOOCs, that you can use. Open source online content is available. There are platforms such as Moodle and online study groups that teachers can use to interact with large groups of students,” said Sri Krishna Srivastava, vice-chancellor of North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong.

Rather than looking at technology as a barrier, teachers have to use it to facilitate teaching, he said.

“By enabling students to access and critically review research papers and projects online, and effectively use them for self-study, teachers will end up providing students with critical thinking skills. This requires moving away from the traditional classroom and textbook based approach,” said Srivastava.

Unless these enablers are put in place, a credit system designed to offer choice and flexibility to students may not succeed, especially in Indian universities struggling with challenges of huge teacher vacancies, inadequate infrastructure, crippling bureaucracy and enormous student numbers.