UGC’s FYUP draft mindless cut-paste from foreign universities: Teachers’ body

NEW DELHI: The University Grants Commission (UGC)’s draft curriculum for four year undergraduate programme (FYUGP) has drawn flak from the Democratic Teachers’ Front (DTF) being called a “mindless cut-paste from foreign universities” and “divorced from ground realities in which higher education takes place”.

In a statement, the DTF president Nandita Narain and Abha Dev Habib have accused the introduction of FYUG programme of increasing the financial burden on students with an additional year while not providing a meaningful academic value.

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“It is no surprise, therefore, that the document put out by the UGC mindlessly stacks plagiarised phrases and sentences from various foreign universities as motivation for different kinds of courses to be offered under FYUGP,” the DTF statement argued.

The teachers’ body alleged in the statement that it is not able to send a detailed critique of the UGC Draft Curriculum Framework and Credit System (CFCS) for FYUP and has the only option to mail the feedback despite the UGC portal.

Four year UG programme

DTF said that copying of ideas for FYUP from foreign universities by UGC shows the insensitive approach of the National Education Policy (NEP) which is being forced on the country's education system.

As per the suggested framework, students will spend three semesters on studying numerous general courses and will only study the core discipline in semesters IV, V and VI. The last year is to be spent on research mainly. In effect, it will lead to massive dilution of Honours courses as compared to the current 3-year degree, the DTF statement explained.

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The teachers’ body went on to say, “While the FYUGP increases the time spent on and the cost towards acquiring an undergraduate degree, it wastes the precious time in useless courses. It appears that the UGC has forgotten the nightmarish experience of the erstwhile FYUP in DU (introduced in 2013 and withdrawn in 2014 after huge protests).”

Further, DTF said the FYUP curriculum is devoid of choices for students. Over a crore students will take UG admissions 2022 and any expansion should be to provide admission to more students rather than hosting the same set for a longer period, it said.