By Ann M. Koenig,
滨苍诲颈补鈥檚 has followed up its recent action forcing the University of Delhi to discontinue its new 鈥渇our-year undergraduate program (FYUP)鈥 and return to a three-year bachelor鈥檚 program, by notifying the prestigious 16 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore that they too must abandon their four-year bachelor鈥檚 degree programs.
The IITs are autonomous engineering institutions governed by a specific act of parliament and funded directly the central government of India, not the UGC. Some top IIT administrators question the authority of the UGC鈥檚 action, while noting the essential roles that their institutions鈥 degree offerings play in developing opportunities for research and innovation for Indian鈥檚 brightest students. Dual degrees are also popular at the IITs, and these will also be scrutinized by the UGC.
It is assumed that the UGC will also review four-year engineering degrees offered by universities.
A compromise was reached with the IISc, which will return to a three-year Bachelor of Science (BSc) but offer an option for a fourth BSc research year. In 2011, the IISc received permission from UGC to add a fourth year to its BSc to strengthen students鈥 research skills. Now both a three-year BSc and a fourth-year research component will be available. Critics have noted that no such compromise was offered or suggested in the UGC鈥檚 dealings with the University of Delhi.
The UGC is also targeting that are offering four-year undergraduate programs. One institution, the non-profit , which had been authorized by the UGC to admit students to its first four-year liberal arts degree program in 2011, planned to take the matter to court. The UGC鈥檚 directive is reflected on the Web pages of , a private nonprofit institution on the outskirts of Delhi. Originally planning to welcome its first cohort of liberal arts students into its four-year degree programs this August, Ashoka has changed the structures of those programs to three years by order of the UGC, as explained on its page.
While the UGC had approved four-year programs at higher education institutions in the past, a change in the national political environment appears to have affected the UGC鈥檚 autonomy. The higher education news source has several articles relating to the .