The University Grants Commission (UGC) chairman on Tuesday, 12 April, announced that students will now be able to pursue two full-time degree programmes simultaneously.
The students will be able to pursue these courses in the physical mode of teaching, either at the same university or from different universities, UGC Chairman Jagadesh Kumar announced.
"As announced in the new National Education Policy (NEP) and in order to allow students to acquire multiple skills, UGC is coming up with new guidelines to allow a candidate to pursue two degree programmes in physical mode simultaneously. The degrees can either be pursued from the same or different universities.”UGC Chairman
Students will also be allowed to pursue two degree programmes in physical and online mode simultaneously, he said.
“A student can pursue two full-time academic programmes in the physical mode provided that in such cases, class timings for one programme do not overlap with the class timings of the other programme. Universities will have the flexibility to decide if they want to offer such a scheme of programmes or not," the chairman clarified in his press address.
The guidelines will only be applicable to lecture-based courses, including undergraduate, postgraduate, and diploma programmes. MPhil and PhD programmes will not fall under the same scheme, Kumar said.
Guidelines for the same are expected to be released in two weeks' time.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)