All Central Universities Agree to Roll Out CBCS
New Delhi: The controversial Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) will be rolled out by all central universities from the coming academic session notwithstanding the protest from a section of teachers and students here.
While all the universities including Delhi University "unanimously" agreed to its roll out at a crucial meet of the VCs here today, a few sought one more year, but eventually agreed to embrace it from the coming academic session.
Benaras Hindu University is planning to implement it in phases in different departments, sources said.
The meeting was chaired by Higher Education Secretary V.S. Oberoi in the absence of HRD Minister Smriti Irani. Visva Bharti Vice Chancellor Sushanta Dattagupta, who was served a show-cause notice last week, stayed away from the meeting.
The meeting came against the backdrop of continued protest by a section of teachers and students of Delhi University, questioning the "legality" of the programme and rejecting the proposed reforms in the education system as a "crackdown on varsities' autonomy".
Similar protests were organised by Delhi University Teachers' Association (DUTA) and Federation of Central Universities' Teachers' Associations (FEDCUTA) outside the venue of the VC meet in Vigyan Bhawan.
"All VCs assured that their preparations are complete and they will be starting CBCS this academic session," said a Ministry statement after the meeting. It added that out of 39 central universities, 37 have introduced CBCS at the post-graduate level. It said that while 13 new central universities do not have under graduate programmes, 18 have already introduced CBCS at this level.
UGC has developed syllabi on 103 subjects, 85 of which are main line courses and 18 are specialised courses, giving 30% choice to the universities to make amendments in the courses. The next meeting of the VCs are slated to happen in October before the President (the Visitor) reviews the institutes' performance in November.
The issue of vacant positions also came up for discussion and it was resolved that all such vacancies would be filled up by October. The VCs have been asked to file an action taken report in this regard, sources said.
Universities without accreditation were asked to apply shortly while UGC assured to expedite the inspection process. At present, while 17 Central Universities have got accredited with NAAC, seven have applied for NAAC re-accreditation and nine have applied for NAAC accreditation for the first time. Five others have assured to apply for NAAC accreditation shortly.
The meeting also resolved to start the B.Voc programme in all central universities. It was also decided that each of the universities would have a community college, and that all the universities would adopt an identified village for their development.
Other issues like campus connect scheme, creation of centres of excellence, establishment of innovation clubs, alumni involvement, inspired teachers' network, industry linkages etc. were also discussed, where most of the universities have either made satisfactory progress or are in the process, giving them high priority, the Ministry statement said.
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