PG courses at Delhi University set for overhaul

NEW DELHI: Delhi University plans to finally rejig its postgraduate courses to fit into the choice-based credit system (CBCS). The standing committee for academic affairs, which met recently, approved the revision of courses like MBA and MCom. This is now scheduled to be taken up at the next academic council meeting.
A similar exercise has been conducted for UG courses, too, as teachers have realised that this is a good time to make revisions.
This academic year, the first batch of students who studied under CBCS entered their last undergraduate year. This means, the postgraduate study they take up next year needs to be in the same format as their UG. With this in mind, the various faculties of DU are taking up exercises in revision of their syllabus and rejigging courses.
According to a member of the standing committee, the decision-making process was delayed, giving faculties little time to carry out a new format and understand its flaws. “Ideally, we should have decided on this matter last year, so that the new syllabus was implemented this year. That way, the faculties would have a year to understand the system and make relevant changes before the first CBCS PG batch,” said a member.
Currently, the masters programmes in the university run on a semester system, under which the students are evaluated on the basis of marks. Under CBCS, the student scores are converted into grades. Though MBA, MCom and music courses are expected to be taken to AC for further approval, whether it will be implemented this year or not remains undecided.
“In case the courses pass through the AC meetings seamlessly, there might be a chance that the new syllabus will be taught this year itself. The classes for postgraduate students have not started yet. But the approvals need to be completed before the end of August,” added the member.
However, this revision is not just restricted to PG courses. According to the agenda of the next meeting, BSc courses in maths, statistics and physics are also next in line for approval of revision. Taking the opportunity, several faculties have also decided to take a fresh look at the CBCS syllabus, which was prepared three years ago in a hurry, without much deliberation.
Teachers have complained over the years, that the CBCS syllabus being taught by them is of little use for students, while also putting them under pressure to deliver thick concepts cut off from context and delivered in a short period of time. For example, the English department had started the exercise of revising its CBCS syllabus, after nearly 10 decades of last such revision. The revisions, according to officials, are still in progress and will be set in front of the standing committee after a few more deliberations.