THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:The UGC’s latest proposal to adopt a uniform Choice Based Credit Semester System (CBCSS) across the country is being seen by the academic community here as a move that is detrimental to the academic autonomy of universities.
Apart from issuing a set of guidelines titled ‘Minimum Course Curriculum for Undergraduate Courses under the Choice Based Credit System’, the UGC has also published the draft syllabi for 19 undergraduate courses and has given a brief period of 15 days to gather feedback from the public.
The academic community feels that the move to impose a ‘uniform academic code’, to facilitate credit transfer across universities, would reduce the academic autonomy of the universities and other institutions of higher learning. Academics in Kerala are specifically concerned that the proposed scheme reduces the number of credits assigned for language papers in undergraduate courses.
According to All-Kerala Private College Teachers’ Association general secretary L Vivekanandan, the CBCSS has been successfully implemented in Kerala for the past six years. “Keeping in mind the Kerala experience with the CBCSS, the guidelines provided by the UGC do not appear to be scientific, flexible and suitable to regional needs,” Vivekanandan said.
“In the present proposal by the UGC, it is seen that the students are given a choice to take up either Communicative English or any of the Modern Indian Languages as an ability enhancement elective. This would in effect contribute to the marginalising of Indian languages in undergraduate programmes,” he adding that the UGC needs to take into account the Kerala experience with the CBCSS while framing guidelines in this regard.
It was also pointed out that the curriculum, scheme and syllabus of the varsities across the country have to do justice to the regional realities. In order to achieve global standards in higher education, individuality of institutions is necessary, according to experts.