The Ahmedabad-headquartered Gujarat University (GU), the largest and oldest public university in Gujarat, in a major move, announced that it will offer dual degrees to undergraduates.
The university has claimed that under this initiative, 20 undergraduate programmes will be launched.
GU has 67 departments and offers 152 undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, diploma and certificate programmes. At present, the university has around 15,000 students. With a total of 325 GU-affiliated colleges across Gujarat, the university boasts of faculty members in Arts, Commerce, Science, Education, Medical and Management streams, among others.
How will it work?
The 16-member Executive Council of the GU, in its meeting on Thursday, decided to offer dual degrees in 20 programmes on its campus. Regular students of BA, BCom, BSc, BBA, and BCA can opt for a second undergraduate degree under one of the 20 programmes, as per the University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines, and get a dual degree. The programmes will be formally launched from the new academic session 2025-2026. An official announcement by the university is expected in the coming days.
The Executive Council will comprise three heads of departments, nominated by the Vice Chancellor (V-C); four principals of affiliated colleges, nominated by the VC; four teachers from affiliated colleges, nominated by the VC; four seniors nominated by the state government; and one representative from the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry . The council will have the V-C as the chairperson, and the member secretary as its registrar.
What is the aim of the initiative?
Vice Chancellor Neerja Arun Gupta told The Indian Express that the GU thought of offering double degrees to students to “save time” and reduce “administrative hassles”. Authorities revealed that the move also aims at “financial and academic autonomy” and dealing with the cutting-edge competition with foreign universities. “The fee revenues of the university will increase. Also, amid increasing competition from foreign universities, which offer some of these programmes, the move will help retain students at Gujarat University,” a university official stated.
Two Australian universities have set up their campuses and are offering fintech and cyber security-related programmes at GIFT City in 2024. A British university is scheduled to set up its campus this year.
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The benefits for students include better preparedness for competition as it offers choice and flexibility for them to choose between offline and online, and vocational and academic courses.
Who can avail it?
In curent scenario, students usually opt for a second degree programme once they graduate from one course as universities cannot offer migration in the middle of a programme. Majorly integrated programmes also result in loss of time for students.
After the implementation of the National Education Policy 2020, University Grants Commission (UGC) allowed students to pursue two full-time degrees simultaneously, in April 2022. GU has introduced a four-year undergraduate programme in 2024-25 for BBA students at 12 colleges, lateral entry, and multiple exit and entry, among other NEP provisions.
On a pilot basis, the provision has been restricted to 10 seats in each of the 20 programmes. For instance, an undergraduate in Sociology can pursue a Yogic Science course and Naturopathy or a student of History can take Heritage as their second degree.
How to pursue two degrees?
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Students can study two full-time degrees in offline mode if their class timings don’t overlap. They can also opt for offline classes for one full-time degree and online classes for another. Students can pursue up to two online or Open and Distance Learning programmes at the same time.
UGC’s ruling to allow students to study two degrees simultaneously is part of an effort, through the NEP 2020, to provide flexible educational options for students. “The second or dual degree programmes will run from the university campus. There is no MoU as all programmes are run by the GU. We have opened departments for undergraduate college students to run bachelor programmes. For instance, Life Sciences and Nutrition programme will be run by Life Science department, Yogic Science and Naturopathy by the Education department, Regulatory and Documentation by medical colleges. We want them (students) to come here (GU campus) to feel the (university) environment,” GU V-C Neerja Arun Gupta said. The V-C said that while the regular courses are majorly run in colleges in morning shifts, these 20 programmes will be run in afternoon shifts. In any case, the NEP has limited study hours for a higher education student to three hours, the V-C pointed out, adding that the NEP also allows universities to offer up to 40% of courses online.
Where will it be offered?
Overall, 280 GU-affiliated colleges will offer dual degrees across programmes, except engineering law, education and medical owing to respective Council limitations.
