Panaji: After becoming the first state in the country to implement the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the Goa state government has decided not to offer admissions to the fourth year of undergraduate courses in the current academic year. As a result, students enrolled now will complete their degree in three years instead of four. The state government plans to introduce the fourth year of undergraduate courses from the next academic year.
Implementation of NEP
NEP was implemented for undergraduate courses from the 2023–24 academic year, which proposed a four-year degree structure. However, students admitted under this system will finish their courses in three years. Higher education director Bhushan Savaikar said that the fourth year for the undergraduate courses will start next academic year.
Reasons for Delay
“One reason to postpone starting the fourth year for the undergraduate courses as per the NEP is that Goa University did not start master’s. Secondly, the syllabus of the fourth year of undergraduate and the first year of master’s should be the same and the syllabus is not finalised. This year only there will be a three-year undergraduate course,” Savaikar explained.
Credit System Comparison
Under the previous choice-based credit course, students studied for 148 credits in three years of undergraduate courses. Under NEP, students study for 120 credits in a three-year course. One credit equals 15 hours of teaching. Out of these 120 credits, for around 21 credits, students study subjects not related to their discipline, such as languages, courses outside their specialisation, and value-added courses. Consequently, students who studied only 99 credits relating to their discipline in their three-year courses as per NEP will pass out in 2025-26 with no option in Goa to study the fourth year.
Credit Shortfall
These 99 credits are also low compared to 148 credits that students of previous batches studied under the previous choice-based credit system relating to their discipline in three years. Even if generic elective courses in a few disciplines were not related to the discipline, there will still be a shortfall of 24 credits compared to the credits learnt by previous batches. It was expected that after taking admission in the fourth year, students would have earned a total of 160 credits with at least 139 credits of subjects in their discipline.
Expert Recommendations
Experts said that if the introduction of the fourth year is not feasible due to financial constraints, then the existing undergraduate structure should be altered. Every year, eight credits of subjects should be added from first to third year of undergraduate courses. “This will ensure that students learn their discipline properly and ensure their employability. Before the introduction of NEP, students had to sit for lectures for an average of 24 hours per week, but now the learning hours are reduced to 20 hours per week,” experts noted.
