HRD Ministry haults DU's plans to introduce choice based credit transfer scheme

The HRD Ministry has put a spoke in Delhi University's plans to introduce the choice based credit transfer scheme from the coming academic session, raising questions about the preparations made, even though it had itself directed all central varsities to implement it from the said period.

The Ministry has sought a clarification from DU's Vice Chancellor Dinesh Singh about the arrangements made after the varsity's academic council this week cleared implementation of the scheme for the coming session, said Ministry officials.

The communication to the varsity, they said, is to ensure students are not "misguided" about their future and the preparations made. The Ministry does not want another trouble in the campus especially at a time when the fiasco over the implementation of the four year undergraduate programme are still fresh in memory, they said.

A University spokesperson, however, said they have complied with the instructions of UGC on the system but maintained that they were unaware of the Ministry's letter.

In a communication to the vice chancellors on January 8, UGC had laid down a set of guidelines and had asked the universities to act on them for implementation of the scheme. They include semesterisation of the curricula, restructuring of the syllabi in the form of module, standardisation of examination and switching over to the grading system.

The 'choice-based credit transfer' system will enable students to opt for courses of their choice, learn at their own pace, undergo additional courses and acquire more than the required credits and adopt an interdisciplinary approach to learning. Adoption of the grading system will facilitate seamless mobility of students across the institutions of learning in the country.

The Ministry's directive to implement it from the coming academic session has, however, not got down well with a section in Delhi University who maintained that being autonomus, its implementing should be left to the discretion of the universities.

"It needs a huge effort to implement the system and we cannot go in a hurry undermining the future of the students," said an academician in the university, referring to the voices of dissent when the matter was taken up at the academic council meeting this week. They felt such an exercise could take as long as one year to be put in place. On November 14, they said, a letter was issued by the HRD Ministry to all the central universites to implement the programme following which a task force was set up by the vice chancellors.