(a) whether it is true that many universities in the country have demanded to withdraw the proposed choice based credit system (CBCS) from academic session 2015-16;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether the Government has taken any decision on the demand of the said universities and if so, the details thereof; and
(d) if not, whether the Government has encroached upon the autonomy granted to academic fraternity and university system and if so, the details thereof?
MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
(SMT. SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI)
(a) to (c): This Ministry has not received any resolution from the Statutory Bodies of any University requesting withdrawal of Choice Based Credit System (CBCS).
The UGC had conducted eight workshops at various locations in the country with the representatives of Central and State Universities and Deemed to be Universities. The workshops were conducted for resolving issues related to roll-out of CBCS and for requesting the representatives for taking up of the adoption of CBCS with the Statutory Bodies of their Universities/ Deemed to be Universities. The UGC also established a grievance cell for clarifying issues related to the implementation of CBCS.
While many UGC funded Central Universities had implemented CBCS at undergraduate level (27 universities) and post graduate levels (35 universities) in the 2014-15 academic session, all UGC funded Central Universities are implementing CBCS from 2015-16 academic session onwards. In addition, 21 State Public Universities, 5 State Private Universities and 6 Deemed to be Universities have also expressed their readiness for implementing CBCS.
(d): The UGC has apprised the representatives of Universities about the benefits of the components of CBCS, namely:adoption of Semester System, modularization of curricula; adoption of uniform grading system, reform in examination system etc. The CBCS allows academic flexibility to Universities in designing their syllabi. As per the UGC detailed Instructional Template, at http://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/ 4426331_Instructional-Template.pdf, Universities have been allowed to customize the syllabi of core papers to the extent of 30% of model syllabi. Universities have complete freedom in designing Elective and Foundation Courses.
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