Vinoba Bhave University, Hazaribagh, is ready to introduce a choice-based credit semester system at both PG and UG level from session 2015-16. UGC had issued a letter to all universities of the country in February 2015 about this new system and perhaps VBU is the first university of both Jharkhand and Bihar which has stepped ahead in implementing it from the coming session.
In VBU, semester system was already in practice at post graduate level but for the first time it is going to be introduced for under graduate courses also. So now the three year degree course will get converted into six semesters of six months duration and in place of three exams now the university will take six exams, when all six semesters will become operational.
In choice based credit semester system there will be no gap or holiday between two semesters. After the end of semester exam classes of next semester will start from the next day of the last exam. A student of honors will have to complete study of 140 credits in six semesters. Thus in one year he will have to complete studies of 46 credits, one credit is equal to 15 hours i.e. 15 classes of one hour duration.
In this system the students will get the facility of choosing side subjects of their choice. There will be no bar of stream or faculty. Besides honors and side subjects they will have to study a core paper, either Hindi or English, and a paper of skill development. The university will take exam of 80 credits while 20 credits will be in the hands of colleges/departments. They will give credit on the basis of attendance, participation in extra-curricular activities and internal exams.
In the meeting with principals of the colleges, VC, PVC and other officials had already hinted last week that this year you will have to take admission in semester I by 15th July 2015 and the last date of registration in university will be 25th July. The colleges/departments can take admission of students in a ratio of 1 teacher: 40 students in practical subjects and 1 teacher: 80 students in non-practical subjects.
Admission process in colleges is going to start from 1st of June. Colleges are preparing themselves to meet with the challenges of this new system because it will require more infrastructures, more human resource and more hours of classes. On the other hand university administration is also in hurry to collect the syllabus of all subjects and to get it passed through the statutory bodies of the university.