Bengaluru: The controversy surrounding Delhi University and its four-year undergraduate programme is making its presence felt in the South, too. MHRD Minister Smriti Irani, who took the decision at the start of her term, said that the Indian Institute of Science has received a notification from the University Grants Commission, asking for details on the four-year B.Sc course offered there. Even in Delhi, the move was met with widespread opposition from student unions, which were ignored.
“The UGC wrote to us in July, asking for details on the course,” said Professor Balram, former director, IISc, who was instrumental in introducing the course during his tenure. “I replied, giving them all the information they require,” he explained. Professor Chandan Dasgupta, the dean of the undergraduate programmes at IISc, said the situation is very unclear. “I cannot say much except that if the course is scrapped, the students will be taken care of.” He did not want to comment on what exactly the UGC notification had to say and whether it called for doing away with the course entirely or merely sought details.
“The debate over a four-year course began back in 1984, among political and academic circles. All three science academies in India prepared a report on the merits of a four-year-science programme, the debate has been making. The idea is to bring science courses geared toward research on par with engineering courses, which are four years as well,” Professor Balram said. “Some parts of course at IISc are taught by the engineering faculty and a whole year is dedicated to research.”
The UGC, he pointed out, specifies that Bachelors degrees should be a ‘minimum of three years’, to prevent fly-by-night universities that offer quick fix solutions. “Delhi University has a 150,000 students affiliated with it and some of the smaller colleges don't have the wherewithal for an extended course tenure. However, IISc does and the institute has made quite a large investment, bringing in the best faculty for the students, most of whom are on scholarship.”
The course has about 400 students now, four years after it was first introduced. “I don't think it’s right to club IISc with other universities in the country,” said Prapanch Nair, a student who was part of the student council at IISc and the organising committee of Samanway, the institute's first recruitment mela. “It has been designed very differently, it’s not at all taxing and is largely based on practical learning. IISc should find a way out of this somehow, because the response from industry has been very good. Companies are coming forward for campus recruitment and the students also go off on good internships.”
