In a significant development, UGC Chairman Jagadesh Kumar announced that higher education institutions will soon offer undergraduate students the option to adjust the duration of their degree programs.
This flexibility will allow students to either shorten or extend their study period, moving away from the traditional fixed duration for completing their courses. The University Grants Commission (UGC) has approved the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to introduce the Accelerated Degree Programme (ADP) and Extended Degree Programme (EDP) in a meeting held this week.
The draft guidelines will now be made available for public feedback from stakeholders.The degrees will include a note stating that the academic requirements typically completed within the standard duration have been fulfilled in a shortened or extended period. However, these degrees will be treated on par with those of standard duration for both academic and recruitment purposes.
“Students can use this option to shorten or extend their study durations based on their learning abilities. ADP allows students to complete a three-year or four-year degree in reduced time by earning additional credits per semester, while EDP enables an extended timeline with fewer credits per semester,” Kumar told PTI.
“Under ADP and EDP, students earn the same total credits as in the standard-duration programme. The higher education institutions will establish committees to evaluate students’ eligibility for these programmes. These degrees will be equivalent to standard duration degrees for all employment and academic purposes,” he addedAccording to the SOPs, the institutions may earmark up to 10 per cent of the sanctioned intake for ADP. The HEIs may constitute a committee to scrutinize applications received at the end of the first or the second semester under EDP and ADP and select students accordingly.
In the ADP, students will follow the same curriculum content and total credits prescribed for the programme for a standard duration. “The only change will be in the duration of the programme. Students shall have the option to choose ADP either at the end of the first semester or the second semester and not beyond that. Students opting for the ADP will earn additional credits per semester starting from the second or third semester, depending on when they transition to the ADP,” Kumar said.”If they join the ADP after the first semester, they will begin earning extra credits from the second semester onward. Similarly, if they join the ADP after the second semester, the additional credit load will start from the third semester onward,” he added. In a three-year or four-year undergraduate programme, the duration may be extended up to a maximum of two semesters.
“Accordingly, students can earn fewer credits in each semester. Based on the credit structure in the Curriculum and Credit Framework for Undergraduate Programmes, the committee shall decide the minimum number of credits a student must earn in a semester in EDP,” he said. The commission has noted that the HEIs may issue degrees for students on completion of the programme in the opted duration (shortened or extended duration) and need not wait to complete the standard duration for the award of the formal degree.
“For the accelerated and extended degrees, a self-contained note should be added in the degree stating that the academic requirements required in a standard duration have been completed in a shortened or extended duration.
“For an ADP of a four-year undergraduate programme, the note should specify that the student completed the academic requirements of a four-year programme in six or seven semesters, as the case may be,” Kumar said.