UG courses: Only 23 out of 900 colleges opt for 4th yr

UG courses: Only 23 out of 900 colleges opt for 4th yr

SruthySusan.Ullas@timesofindia.com  18.10.2024 

Bengaluru : The fourth year of the undergraduate programme under National Education Policy 2020 has not taken off well in the city. Only 15 colleges in Bengaluru City University and eight in Bangalore University have started the fourth year of their programmes. No affiliate college of Bangalore North University has started the fourth year. The three universities have about 300 affiliated colleges each. It may be recalled that when NEP was launched in the state, students were offered four-year programmes. Colleges were given the option to offer the fourth year depending on the infrastructure and student interest. Bangalore University issued a circular asking interested colleges to apply. 

Only eight of its 300 affiliate colleges expressed interest, with around 150 students pursuing the programme now. At BCU, 25 colleges expressed interest in running the fourth year but only 15 of them were found eligible. The minimum number of students per course is 15. About 460 students are now pursuing BCA, BBA, BCom, BSc and BA courses at BCU. NEP recommends a cluster system according to which, students from colleges where a fourth year is not available can approach those which offer the programmes. The fourth year did not go down well with the student community at all.

 “There was alack of clarity in terms of the one-year post-graduation and how many colleges would offer that. It was only Karnataka that initiated the programme in 2021. Other states did not have four-year programmes as they rolled out NEP only in 2024. Moreover, colleges themselves were not enthused enough as it was relevant only for two batches of NEP. The new Congress govt in the state abolished NEP and introduced SEP. Why would colleges invest in human resources and infrastructure if it was only for two years?” said a senior faculty member of an autonomous college. “Some of the universities are large and it was practically difficult to arrange for a common class for students from various colleges wanting to pursue a particular programme. The cluster system was difficult for such universities. Colleges also did not want to make investments for only a few students,” said a senior academician.

Yet another academician said some universities also did not take keen interest as they feared they would lose out on the postgraduate students. “Many universities thrive on PG programmes. They feared that a fourth year would keep PG aspirants away from their campuses. So the fourth year was not encouraged enough,” said another faculty member.