Irrespective of the fact that many colleges affiliated to the Utkal University do not possess minimum infrastructure, quality and sufficient teachers and other manpower, leave alone financial viability, the university’s total 359 affiliated colleges have been told to switch over to the Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) from year 2015-16.
These colleges are coming under several categories like Government, non-Government aided, full Block Grant, 40 per cent Block Grant, unaided and autonomous. In all the Government and aided colleges there are large scale vacancies of teachers and other staff members while in the Block Grant categories, the colleges are handicapped by lack of basic infrastructure, quality teachers and finances.
Mostly old Government colleges have got autonomous status while there a handful of aided colleges which have also got the tag. While in the autonomous colleges have their own syllabus and study pattern, the rest colleges are governed by a common syllabus prescribed by the Utkal University.
Presently, in all colleges a traditional three-year degree course is in vogue. Despite wide disparities among the colleges, the university has told the principals to adopt the CBCS pattern from the next academic year at a meeting held at Vani Vihar campus here on December 22 last. Apart from Vice Chancellor Ashok Das and other top officials and professor of the university, Higher Education Minister Dr Pradeep Panigrahy was present on the occasion.
In the conference of the principals, the push for implementation of CBCS was met with reservations. “It is not possible to implement CBCS due to lack of infrastructure, teaching and non teaching staff,” said a number of principals whose suggestions were sought.
However, the Minister urged them to accept the system and ensure quality education. The CBCS will offer a flexible approach to study as it will enable a student, enrolled with a particular course, to opt for and earn elective credits in other subjects of choice. For example, the science students can opt for Arts or Commerce classes and the vice-versa.
The CBCS will also enable part-completion of an academic course in the institution of enrolment and the other part in a specialised institution. There would be 128 credits for the three years. The attendance and performance of the students will be considered before evaluation. Also, the internal marks will be added to the results in the main examination to encourage better attendance of students in classes.
As per the system, all students opting for +3 will be eligible for an honors paper. If a student secures more than 50 per cent, ‘honors’ will be mentioned in the certificate and ‘pass’ will be mentioned if they secure less than 50 per cent. The OPGA system will be implemented from 2017-18.
However, the students passing out in the next two years will have grades and divisions. Marks over 90 per cent will be marked as O grade, 80-90 per cent as A grade, 65-80 per cent as B grade, 50-65 per cent as C grade, 30-50 per cent as D grade and below 30 per cent will be considered as ‘Fail’.
Sources said the guidelines have been made mandatory by the UGC for colleges to be eligible for the National Assessment and Accreditation Council’s (NAAC) accreditation and receive UGC grant.
Meanwhile, the affiliation of colleges that have not been able to come up with permanent campuses, have required faculties and put in place the infrastructure in the past seven years will be cancelled. A joint team of Higher Education Department and Utkal University will conduct raids to verify the preparedness. Also, the +2 and +3 colleges will be separated from next year to ensure quality education.