Students can pursue two full-time degree courses simultaneously: UGC

In a major reform in higher education, the Centre has decided to allow students to pursue two full-time, same-level, degree programmes simultaneously, the University Grants Commission (UGC) announced on Tuesday. UGC Chairperson M. Jagadesh Kumar said that the reform is in accordance with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 that envisaged multidisciplinarity and a holistic education across the domains including sciences, social sciences, arts, humanities, and sports.

“The NEP 2020 recommends providing as much flexibility as possible to students to personalise and customise their education so that they can receive multidisciplinary and holistic education across the disciplines. So, if the students want to pursue two degrees simultaneously, they will have an option now. It all depends on the choice of students,” Kumar said. The two programmes opted by the students at the same time have to be of the same level. For instance, they can only pursue two undergraduate or two postgraduate, or two diploma degrees together.

According to the draft guidelines, the students can pursue two full-time degrees in three ways. First, they can pursue both 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. Second, they can pursue one programme in physical mode and another in online or distance mode. And, third, they can pursue up to two degree programmes in online or distance mode simultaneously.

In a major reform in higher education, the Centre has decided to allow students to pursue two full-time, same-level, degree programmes simultaneously, the University Grants Commission (UGC) announced on Tuesday. UGC Chairperson M. Jagadesh Kumar said that the reform is in accordance with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 that envisaged multidisciplinarity and a holistic education across the domains including sciences, social sciences, arts, humanities, and sports.

“The NEP 2020 recommends providing as much flexibility as possible to students to personalise and customise their education so that they can receive multidisciplinary and holistic education across the disciplines. So, if the students want to pursue two degrees simultaneously, they will have an option now. It all depends on the choice of students,” Kumar said. The two programmes opted by the students at the same time have to be of the same level. For instance, they can only pursue two undergraduate or two postgraduate, or two diploma degrees together.

According to the draft guidelines, the students can pursue two full-time degrees in three ways. First, they can pursue both 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. Second, they can pursue one programme in physical mode and another in online or distance mode. And, third, they can pursue up to two degree programmes in online or distance mode simultaneously.

Kumar said the provision will be applicable to non-technical courses affiliated by the UGC. To be sure it will not include engineering, and medical courses. “For instance, if a student is pursuing a BA Economics programme at a university or college in a physical mode, the students will also have an opportunity to do another degree programme of the same level in a nearby university or college as an evening course. The two universities or colleges should be in proximity with each other. It is not possible to pursue two programmes in physical mode from two universities located in different cities,” the UGC chairperson said.