Delhi University to offer 4 year degrees. The criticism doesn’t make sense…

Is Delhi University copying US undergrad format? Is this going to make one wait for another year before graduating? Should this be opposed? Should the MoHRD and others step in and block the move? Should the 4 year degree be for all students? The answer to these questions is a NO.

Is the Delhi University proposal aimed at making its degrees like the US degrees?

Delhi University said it was not moving from British-style three-year degrees to an American four-year system.

“People think that we are copying the American system. But there are significant differences. What we are trying to do is study best practice across the world and change our education system accordingly,” Singh told University World News.

“We want to make the course application-oriented so that students acquire a large number of skills. We will couple this with a good [work] placement programme. We will also give exit options which no other university in India offers,” Singh said.

Under the new, more flexible system a student leaving after two years of study will receive a diploma if the required number of credits has been completed. A general bachelor degree will be awarded after three years of study and an honours degree after specialisation during the fourth year. 

The Australian Qualification framework is exactly this… Possibly even Ireland and NZ have similar exit or pathway routes. The Delhi University proposal hence is not a copying exercise of the American structure primarily since Delhi would allow exit after two years with a diploma, after the third with a bachelors and one additional fourth year will take it to honours qualification.

While I am appreciative of this structure, I have a feeling that Delhi intends to have all students in the four year mode and allow an exit earlier if they so want. This will make the  non-honours degrees to be inferior. This will disadvantage Delhi too as students may opt for three year full degrees offered by other Indian Universities. The ideal strategy should be to enrol all in a three year General Bachelors degree and only encourage those who wish to go on to academia or a research career later to undertake the honours year. Most Indian Masters qualifications should be able to admit the graduating students of non-honours degrees too and so after the third year itself. Holding an honours is not a requirement at all for coursework driven Master degrees such as an MBA or MSc. Even Mumbai University’s Bachelor degrees are non-honours degrees. Most Indian students who study in Australia or some other countries too enrol in non-honours Bachelors and have no issues in studying for a Masters thereafter. They opt for an honours only if they intend to undertake research or move on to Masters by research or PhD as then the honours vastly helps in readiness of the student.

Lets encourage the development but at the same time, structure it in a way that the fourth year remains optional for “most” students.