Colleges to catch up with 4-year FYUG roadmap: Director Colleges
Srinagar, Jul 15: The Director Colleges, J&K, Tuesday said that the degree colleges have to catch up with the delayed varsity-driven roadmap for the implementation of the 4th year of the Four Year Undergraduate (FYUG) programme.
Addressing students during the inaugural ceremony of the week-long Faculty Development Programme (FDP) ‘Emerging Research Trends in Science’ organised by Government College for Women, M A Road, here, Director Colleges Prof Sheikh Aijaz Bashir said that the 4th year of the UG degree was slightly difficult.
“For a UG degree, we had three years of course, but now the fourth year demands an honours programme and a research programme. So there are two clear verticals defined in it,” he said.
Bashir said that regarding research, he had been writing to the universities continuously to provide a roadmap for this, saying that the Higher Education Department was entitled to implement the scheme, while the university is entrusted to provide a roadmap.
“Unfortunately, things have not moved the way they should have moved. They are moving now, but they should have moved much earlier, and so we are also trying to catch up,” he said.
The Director Colleges said HED has received details from the University of Kashmir (KU) and the University of Jammu (JU), while the Cluster University of Srinagar (CUS) was also doing something on the subject.
“But we need to understand the statutory requirement because for HED to implement the fourth year, our job is to know the statutory requirement, that is, if we have a 12-credit research project in the programme, how that research project will move,” he said.
Bashir said HED had to get an understanding of what kind of guidance and template was required.
“UGC guidelines are slightly tougher, and we need to tweak those guidelines. Universities need to support us because when we start with a new system, we have certain kinds of shortcomings, and those shortcomings are to be looked into,” he said.
The Director Colleges said that HED had been requesting the universities to give the statutory provisions in terms of the implementation of the research part of the 4th year of FUYG programme.
FYUG programme is a restructured undergraduate degree introduced as part of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, under which the students pursue a 3-year degree, a 4-year honours degree, or even a 4-year honours degree with research.
“We will be offering honours not in all the colleges but in selected colleges (1:29), and there will be a horizontal movement of students,” he said.
Addressing the college professors, Bashir urged the younger faculty members not to take their service in terms of emoluments but their contribution towards the students and the department.
“Do not look at me, look at yourself, how much you can contribute. Work differently now. The old system of being concerned only about taking classes is over. You have to take ownership of the college,” he said.
The Director Colleges said once a professor enters the college gate, he should forget about the family and should not be in college based on biometric attendance.
“Let the biometric attendance go anywhere, be there based on your engagement with the students. Your engagement with the (2:19) students should be your attendance, not the biometric attendance. Biometrics can hold you in college, but it will not make you work,” he told the college professors.
Later, talking to Greater Kashmir, the Director Colleges said that HED had 145 colleges across J&K, out of which some newly established colleges were still operating from makeshift arrangements, while some other colleges were in infancy.
“But their buildings are coming up as things are moving very fast. We have been putting a lot of funds into the higher education sector. The academic blocks for new colleges are coming up,” he said.
