UGC Committee Proposes New University Degree Names

What’s in today’s article?

• Why in News?
• About University Grants Commission (UGC)
• Mandate of UGC
• News Summary
• Other Recommendations Made by the Committee to the UGC 

Why in News?

• Keeping in line with global norms and the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the University Grants Commission (UGC) is poised to introduce a new range of college degree names, including a Bachelor of Science degree in disciplines like arts, humanities, management and commerce.

About University Grants Commission (UGC)

• The University Grants Commission of India is a statutory body under the provisions of UGC Act, 1956.
• It is responsible for coordination, determination and maintenance of standards of higher education.
• It provides recognition to universities in India, and disburses funds to such recognized universities and college.
• Nodal Ministry – Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education

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Mandate of UGC

• Promoting and coordinating university education.
• Determining and maintaining standards of teaching, examination and research in universities.
• Framing regulations on minimum standards of education.
• Monitoring developments in the field of collegiate and university education; disbursing grants to the universities and colleges.
• Serving as a vital link between the Union and State governments and institutions of higher learning.
• Advising the Central and State governments on the measures necessary for the improvement of university education.

News Summary

• The University Grants Commission (UGC) is poised to introduce a new range of college degree names, including a Bachelor of Science degree in disciplines like arts, humanities, management and commerce.
• Currently, the UGC permits universities to offer a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in arts, humanities and social sciences.
  • Bachelor of Science (more commonly abbreviated in India as BSc) degree is typically given for science subjects.
• However, with the NEP 2020 advocating a restructuring of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, a committee was set up by the UGC to review degree nomenclatures.
• The committee has recommended that the new four-year undergraduate honours (or honours with research) degree programme, irrespective of the discipline, can also be offered as a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree.
• Similarly, universities can adopt the Master of Science (MS) nomenclature for both the one and two-year postgraduate programmes, even for disciplines such as arts, humanities, management, and commerce.
• The use of BA and BS for undergraduate programmes across disciplines is a prevalent practice abroad, where universities often offer, say, BA and BS degrees in Psychology or Economics.
  • In such a case, the programme curriculum sets the BA degree apart from the BS.
  • While a BS degree gives a student a more specialised education in the subject, a BA degree (in the same subject) provides more flexibility.
• For instance, Harvard University offers both a BA and BS degree in engineering sciences.

Other Recommendations Made by the Committee to the UGC

• The four-year undergraduate honours degree programme will include ‘Hons’ in brackets, such as BA (Hons), BCom (Hons), or BS (Hons).
• The committee recommends discontinuing the nomenclature of the ‘MPhil’ degree, as per the NEP 2020’s recommendation to scrap the MPhil programme.
• If a student has earned all the required credits for a programme, she can be considered for the award of a qualification (such as a certificate, diploma or degree) even before the completion of the programme’s duration.
• The UGC will soon share the committee’s recommendations in the public domain for feedback, following which the Commission will notify the fresh set of degree nomenclatures.

Q1) When was University Grants Commission established?

The UGC was formally established only in November 1956 as a statutory body of the Government of India through an Act of Parliament for the coordination, determination, and maintenance of standards of university education in India.

Q2) What is the role of NCERT?

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is an autonomous organisation set up in 1961 by the Government of India to assist and advise the Central and State Governments on policies and programmes for qualitative improvement in school education.

Source: UGC committee proposes new university degree names: Bachelor of Science for humanities and commerce