The University Grants Commission (UGC) on Tuesday announced that students will now be able to pursue two full-time academic programmes in physical mode. The commission has put together a set of guidelines regarding the same, which will be put up on the official website of UGC tomorrow, i.e April 13. Earlier, the UGC regulations did not allow students to pursue two full-time programmes and they could only pursue one full-time degree along with online/short-term/diploma courses.

The guidelines will apply to all the programmes available across the country. Students can either choose a combination of a diploma programme and an undergraduate (UG) degree, two master’s programmes, or two bachelor’s programmes. If a student is eligible to pursue a postgraduate (UG) degree and also wants to enrol in a bachelor’s degree in a different domain, he/she will be able to pursue a UG and PG degree simultaneously. The class timing for both the programmes must not clash.

GUIDELINES ON PURSUING TWO PROGRAMMES SIMULTANEOUSLY

Objective

  • No hard separations between arts and sciences, between curricular and extracurricular activities, between vocational and academic streams,
  • To eliminate harmful hierarchies among, and silos between different areas of learning
  • Enabling an individual to study one or more specialized areas of interest at a deep level.

The new Scheme

  • A student can pursue two full time academic programmes in physical mode provided that in such cases, class timings for one programme do not overlap with the class timings of the other programme
  • A student can pursue two academic programmes, one in full time physical mode and another in Open and Distance Learning (ODL)/Online mode; or up to two ODL/Online programmes simultaneously
  • It is not a dual degree, but a student will get two different degrees
  • Based on these guidelines universities can devise mechanisms for allowing their students to pursue two academic programmes simultaneously
  • The multi entry-exit reform introduced under National Education Policy 2022 will be applicable whether it is in the physical mode or in the online mode, whether pursuing only a single degree or two degrees simultaneously.

Explaining the scheme, Kumar said: “If a student is doing let’s say BA (economics) as a day scholar in the physical mode, the student will also have the opportunity to do another degree programme of the same level in a nearby university maybe as an evening programme. So this is going to provide new opportunities to the students. In addition, a student can pursue two academic programmes, one in full-time physical mode and another in open and distance learning mode or online mode. The degree or diploma programmes under these guidelines shall be governed by the regulations notified by the UGC from time to time and they are also governed by the respective statutory and professional councils wherever applicable.”