UGC asks universities to device mechanisms to allow students to pursue dual degrees

NEW DELHI: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has issued a notice asking universities to device mechanisms facilitating students to pursue two academic programmes simultaneously. The commission introduced guidelines for dual-degree programme in April 2022.

In the latest UGC notice, the commission said that students are facing difficulties in pursing the dual-degree programme as higher educational institutions (HEIs) insist on submission of migration certificates or school leaving certificates. In absence of these certificates, the students are not able to secure admissions.

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"It is, therefore, once again requested that the universities may kindly devise facilitative mechanisms through statutory bodies to allow the students to pursue two academic programmes simultaneously," read the UGC notice. The commission previously asked the universities to make statutory changes for dual-degree programme in September 2022.

As per the UGC dual-degree programme guidelines, a student is allowed to pursue two full-time academic programmes in physical mode or in online mode or up to two online programmes at the same university or from different universities simultaneously. The aim of this programmes is to facilitate multiple ways form students to gain both formal and non-formal education. The UGC dual-degree programme is however not applicable to PhD students.

Students can pursue dual-degrees provided that the class schedules do not overlap with each other. "The objective of allowing a student to pursue two degrees simultaneously stem from recognising, identifying, and fostering the unique capabilities of each student, no hard separations between between curricular and extracurricular activities, between vocational and academic streams and enabling an individual to study one or more specialized areas of interest at a deep level, and also develop character, ethical and constitutional values...," said the UGC guidelines.