Telangana universities set for grade system

Hyderabad: Universities in Telangana will be switching to the semester and grading system — under the Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) — from the coming academic year.

Guidelines for the implementation of the scheme have been framed in Telangana, along with a transition timeline to be followed over the next few months till the beginning of the academic year.

A three-member rule-framing committee was formed by the TS government earlier this year based on recommendations of the UGC and Union HRD Ministry. The Centre had exhorted all states to implement the CBCS in an Education Ministers’ conference in November last year.

The committee has submitted its recommendations to the TS government and asked for implementation of the scheme from the upcoming academic year in a phased manner for different categories of institutions.

Only state universities, their constituent colleges and autonomous colleges are likely to adopt the CBCS in the first phase this year.

Ranjeev R. Acharya, Principal Secretary, Telangana Education department, said, “We have received the report of the committee on CBCS. We are waiting for the Union HRD Ministry, which will also conduct a workshop very shortly on this. Two or three issues are there but we will sort them out.”

Another senior education department official said, “The government is very keen to implement the scheme from the upcoming academic year. Education Minister has also said that whatever happens we should implement the CBCS system, at least in its bare form.”

Osmania University sources said, they have already decided to switch to CBCS. “We are going to switch to the CBCS from the upcoming academic year at any cost. The government is also quite inclined to do it,” an Osmania source said.

The report submitted to the government has recommended a timeline of preparative events like placing the CBCS guidelines in the Executive Council and Academic Senate of universities prior to its implementation. The Governor will also have to give his assent to the adoption of the system. A phase-wise adoption plan has also been prepared according to which universities, constituent and autonomous colleges will adopt the CBCS first.

Accredited colleges will do it in the next phase followed by other affiliated colleges. “It also depends on their infrastructure level. If a college is small and doesn’t have the required infrastructure they can’t do it straightaway,” a senior official.

UGC yet to map flexibility

The Centre and the University Grants Commission (UGC) want to infuse mobility and flexibility in higher education by implementing the Choice Based Credit System (CBCS). But, while the broad framework is similar, the CBCS implemented in different states is disjointed, thereby not delivering the flexibility that the system aims to.

The UGC or the AICTE have also not fixed the number of course hours to be instructed per week. The report submitted to the TS government has put a cap of 30 hours of instruction in a week. Experts say that CBCS still lacks uniformity as different varsities in different states assign different number of credits to each under graduate and post-graduate course.

A Higher Education department senior official, on condition of anonymity, said, “Different states assign different number of credits for each course. So if a student wants to shift from one university to another midway through a course, there will be a big mismatch in terms of the credits the student still needs to earn to get the degree.”

As the UGC has not specified the number of credits that each course should have, the states have been left to decide the number of credits they allot for each discipline.