Study from home, earn 20% credits in PG at Madras Univ

Siddharth.Prabhakar @timesgroup.com

Chennai: From the next academic year, postgraduate students of University of Madras will have the option to earn 20% of credits by staying home and taking courses online.

The university’s syndicate on December 15 approved crucial changes in the choicebased credit system (CBCS) regulations to include massive open online courses (MOOCs) on portals like Swayam, National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) that the University approves. The university also plans to have a portal of its own. The CBCS regulations are being modified after 10 years.

Core, elective and softskill courses on these portals can be taken to earn credits, university vice-chancellor P Duraisamy said.

“We have asked our departments to come out with detailed guidelines on the online courses and the respective credits. The departments will consider the available MOOCs and choose the courses and credits based on the content and duration,” he said.

The process will first be tested in the university’s departments before being extended to affiliated colleges.

Postgraduate students have to earn 60 credits in core subjects, 21 in elective and 10 in soft-skill courses. Examination and evaluation of online courses will be specified at the beginning of the semester.

Another reform has been brought in the CBCS regulations with respect to core courses.

Departments and schools will have the freedom to prescribe core courses for more than 60 credits, which can be offered by any department across schools.

This means that students will get a choice on the type of specialised courses they want to study in a discipline and will also have the option of skipping some courses. This flexibility was not available till date.

“This would pave way for inter-departmental collaboration. At present, the process of selecting electives is rigid,” Duraisamy said.

An alumnus who passed out of the university recently said that professors often decided on students’ electives.

“There is pressure to choose an elective from within the department. The change in regulations will facilitate students to study subjects in other disciplines as well,” he said.

The modifications are a result of a brainstorming session the vice-chancellor recently had with heads of departments and the university’s centres.