UGC allows students to pursue two academic programmes simultaneously

NEW DELHI: Now students will be able to pursue two full-time academic programmes simultaneously either at the same university or from different universities, the University Grants Commission (UGC) chairman M Jagadesh Kumar announced in a virtual meeting today, April 12. UGC will soon issue detailed guidelines in this regard. Kumar said that the Commission in its meeting on March 31 discussed the provision in detail and therefore, UGC decided to issue guidelines enabling students to pursue two academic programmes at the same time. The decision is in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 which emphasizes the need to facilitate multiple pathways to learning, Kumar said. A combination of physical and online mode should be used to give much more freedom to acquire multiple skills, he said.

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UGC has framed new guidelines to help students identify their unique potential by taking different courses as part of a physical university. This will offer multidisciplinary and holistic education across domains, Kumar said.

UGC new guidelines

• A student can pursue 2 full-time academic programmes in physical mode given that the class timings of one programme don’t overlap with that of the other programme. For example, the student can pursue BA Economics in physical mode with another degree programme in nearby universities (probably an evening programme).
• Not only 2 courses in physical mode, students can pursue 1 course in full-time physical mode with another in online or open, distance leaning mode.
• Students can also pursue one online programme with another online programme

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This will empower students to acquire new knowledge across domains, UGC chairman said. The guidelines will come into effect after an announcement on the website of UGC -- ugc.ac.in tomorrow, April 13. The guidelines can be adopted by the governing statutory bodies, and higher education institutions (HEIs), he said. Whether there will be compulsory attendance will be decided by the universities, UGC doesn't mandate it, Kumar said. This is optional to the universities, not mandatory, he added.