RASHTRIYA UCHATTAR SHIKSHA ABHIIYAN (RUSA) CHOICE BASED CREDIT SYSTEM (CBCS)

CBCS:

Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) is an instructional package developed to suit the needs of students to keep pace with the developments in higher education worldwide taking him/her out of isolated compartmentalized learning environment which clearly indicates for each level of certification learning effort required on the part of the students in term of terms of credits to be earned as well as participation in instructional hours to be spent through either regular mode or through distance education mode.

NEW CHOICE BASED CREDIT SYSTEM (CBCS) COURSES OF STUDY:

Note: Executive Council of Himachal Pradesh University has approved the adoption of New CBCS of UGC on 30/05/2017 from academic session i.e. 2016-17.

Advantages of the Choice Based credit system:

  • Shift focus from the teacher-centric to student- centric education.
  • Students may undertake as many credits as they can cope with (without repeating all courses in a given semester if they fail in one /more courses.
  • CBCS allow student to choose inter –disciplinary. Intra- disciplinary courses, skill oriented papers (even from other disciplines according to their learning needs, interests and aptitude) and more flexibility for students.
  • CBCS makes education board- based and at par with global standards. One can take credits by combining unique combinations.
  • CBCS offers flexibility for students to study at different times and at different institutions to complete one course (case mobility of students). Credit earned at one institution can be transferred to another institution.

Outline of Choice Based Credit System: That course is defined as the core course which a student needs to study as compulsory course.

  1. Core Course: A course, which should compulsory, is studied by a candidate as core requirement is termed as a core course.
  2. Elective Course: Generally a course which can be chosen from a pool of courses and which may be very specific or specialized or advanced or supportive to the discipline /subject of study or which provides an extended scope or which enables and exposure to some other discipline /Subject /domain or nurtures the candidate’s proficiency /skill is called an Elective Course.
    • Discipline Specific Elective (DSE) Course: Elective courses may be offered by the main discipline /subject of study is referred to as Discipline Specific Elective. The University /Institute may also offer discipline related Elective courses of interdisciplinary nature (to be offered by main discipline /subject of study).
    • Dissertation/Project : An elective course designed to acquire special/ advanced knowledge, such as supplement study/ support study to a project work, and a candidate studies such as course on his own with an advisory sup0port by a teacher/ faculty member is called dissertation/ project.
    • Generic Elective (GE) Course: An elective course chosen generally from an unrelated discipline/subject, with an intention to seek exposure is called a Generic Elective.
    • S.: A core course offered in discipline /Subject may be treated as an elective by other discipline /subject and vice versa and such electives may also be referred to as Generic Elective.
  3. Ability Enhancement Courses (AEC): The Ability Enhancement (AE) courses may be of two kinds: Ability Enhancement Compulsory Courses (AECC) and Skill Enhancement Courses (SEC). AECCCourses are the courses based upon the content that leads to knowledge enhancement for instance; (i). Environmental Science and (ii). English/MIL Communication. These are mandatory for all disciplines, SEC courses are value –based and /or Skill based and are aimed at proving hands –on training competencies, skills etc.
    • Ability Enhancement Compulsory Courses (AECC): (i) Environmental Science. (ii) English Communication/ MIL Communication.
    • Skill Enhancement Courses (SEC): These courses may be chosen from a pool of course designed to provide value- based and /or skill- based knowledge.
    • Introducing Research Component in Under- Graduate Courses

Project work/dissertation are considered as special course involving application of knowledge in solving a real life situation or difficult problem. A Project/Dissertation work would be of 06 credits. A Project/Dissertation work may be given in lieu of a discipline specific elective paper

IMPLEMENTATION

  1. The CBCS may be implemented in central /State universities subject to the condition that all the stakeholders agree to common minimum syllabi of the core papers and at least follow common minimum curriculum as fixed by the UGC. The allowed deviation from the syllabi being 20% at the minimum.
  2. The University may be allowed to finally design their own syllabi for the core and elective papers subject to point no. UGC may prepare a list of elective papers but the universities may further add to the list of elective papers they want to offer as per the facilities available.
  3. Number of Core Papers for all universities has to be same for both UG Honors as well as UG Programme.
  4. Credit score earned by a student for any elective paper has to be included in the student’s overall score tally irrespective of whether the paper is offered by the parent university (degree awarding university institute) or not.
  5. for the introduction of AE Courses: They may be divided into two categories:
    • AE Compulsory Courses: The universities participating in CBCS system may have common curriculum for these papers. There may be one paper each in the 1st two semesters/1Year (i) English/MIL Communication. (ii) Environmental Science.
    • Skill Enhancement Courses: The universities may want to offer from a common pool of papers decided by UGC or the universities may choose such themselves in addition to the list suggested by UGC. The universities may offer one paper per semester for these courses.
  6. The University/ Institute may plan the number of seats per elective paper as per the facility and infrastructure available.
  7. An under-graduate degree with Honors in discipline may be awarded if a student complete14 core papers in that discipline. 2 Ability Enhancement Compulsory Courses (AECC) minimum 2. Skill Enhancement Courses (SEC) and 4 papers each from a list of Discipline Specific Elective and Generic Elective Papers respectively.
  8. An under-graduate Program degree in Science discipline may be awarded of a student completes 4 core papers each in three disciplines of choice. 2. Ability Enhancement Compulsory Courses (AECC), minimum 4 skill enhancement Courses (SEC) and 2 papers each from a list of discipline Specific elective papers based on 3 disciplines of choice selected above, respectively.
  9. An undergraduate program degree in humanities/Social Science/Commerce may be awarded if a student completes 4 core papers each in 2 disciplines of choice. 2 core papers each in English and MIL respectively, 2 Ability Enhancement Compulsory Courses (AECC), minimum 4 skill Enhancement Courses (SEC), 2 papers each from a lots of disciplines specific elective papers based on 2 disciplines of choice selected above respectively and 2 papers from the list of Generic Elective papers .10 for purpose of computation of work load the following mechanism may be adopted
    1. 1 Credit=1 Theory period of 1 hour duration
    2. 1Credit=1Thtorial period of 1 hour duration
    3. Credit= 1 Practical period of 2 hours