Will dual degree system benefit students?

In the spirit of New Education Policy-2020 which calls for multidisciplinary and flexible mode of education for all, UGC announced a dual degree programme for both UG and PG levels on April 12. The facility, available across all courses or combination of courses, is expected to help students get two degrees simultaneously and thus improve their employment opportunities. When The Hans India spoke to people on the issue, many agreed that benefits outweigh the demerits of the new system.

Double degree means double benefit

The dual degree is one of the best courses now-a-days and is a double advantage for knowledge enhancement. Usually, this is a curriculum offered in collaboration by two different universities or by two departments in the same university. This essentially means a one-degree programme that offers double benefits of learning, up-skilling, and career choices. First, it provides cross-cultural and crossover exposures. It possesses interdisciplinary and intra-disciplinary knowledge and excellent adaptive skills in the multidisciplinary research world or competitive job market. The dual degree makes a student a multi-skills person who is required to tackle multi-tasks at the workplace.

- Prof B Suresh Lal, Principal, University College, KU, Warangal

Kudos to the government

Definitely it's a good decision. Kudos to the Government of India for implementing dual degree options to the students. A student can pursue two degrees simultaneously which in turn would definitely benefit him to choose a path of his choice at a later stage. Besides this, a student can exit a degree course after pursuing one year and get a certificate and after completion of two years would get a diploma. Major worry would be to the institutions, as they have to maintain the student teacher ratio based on the sanctioned intake.

- Dr P Ramesh Reddy, AO, KITS, Warangal

A welcome move

The dual degree programmes enable aspirants to acquire two degrees simultaneously. Though it was introduced by UGC in 2016 with certain constraints, it has revised the regulations and formally recognided the joint degrees in institutions.

As per revised regulations, students will be allowed to choose two physical UG or PG courses or a combination with online courses at a time. This initiative seems to be in line with implementation of National Education Policy and encourages the students to gain knowledge in two different domains as a result of which they can compete for the opportunities in both the fields. However, attendance management, preparation and coordinating exam schedules will be a challenging task for students.

- Dr G Raj Kumar, principal, Swarna Bharathi Institute of Science and Technology, Khammam.

A win-win situation for students

The double degree programme allows to pursue two different courses together and get the experience of both in lesser time than it would have taken to study them one after the other. Students will get a head-start and a competitive edge over others as a dual degree offers an added value to student CV. A dual degree helps develop students interdisciplinary filed of knowledge, as well as improves well-rounded skill set which can be applied to an abundance of various industries and sectors.

Studying at two universities in two countries will improve connections and networking skills of students will flourish. Meeting new course colleagues, professors and lecturers from around the works is not only a advantage during studies, but it can also be an huge benefit to a student after his/her graduation.

- Dr Amit Bindaj HOD, Department of ECE, SBIT College Khammam