Autonomous colleges awaiting guidelines for 4th year

Under the NEP structure, students doing three-year bachelor degrees have the option of continuing for a fourth year. NEP structure came first to autonomous colleges under SPPU in 2022 and a year later in affiliated colleges. Though a little less than four months are left for the beginning of the 2025-26 academic year, the autonomous colleges in Pune remain waiting for guidelines as far as implementation of the fourth-year programme for students.

According to The Indian Express, Professor Avinash Moharil, principal of the autonomous Sir Parashurambhau College (S.P. College), said that his institute is ready with the syllabus for many courses for the fourth year. But guidelines from the government and SPPU regarding whether the course will be offered to the granted section of students and appointment of teachers for the same are still not clear.

“One thing is quite clear that only the departments having a postgraduate department will offer this kind of course. We now need clarity from the government whether the course is to be offered to the granted section. Then will it be considered as a course in natural growth? Because in the government resolution itself is written that it will not be considered as a granted course or additional workload. We still need to appoint teachers for it. So whether we are going to at least get clockhour bases (CBH) teachers as we get for the graduate courses is yet to be clarified,” said professor Moharil.

The professor said that the feedback of the students and how many of them want to opt for the course in the fourth year is also very important. “Right now, students are cautiously taking decisions or they are a little confused about the whole scenario. But in my opinion, everything will probably get settled in a month.”

Making a similar point, a student studying at an autonomous school said, “We have no clarity from our professors at this point as they are themselves confused. I will be graduating very soon and I am not able to make a decision about whether to opt for the fourth year or not.”

SPPU Pro Vice Chancellor Parag Kalkar told The Indian Express, “We have our guidelines ready and we just have to pass them in the academic council. Some guidelines will be given by the state government. They have a MahaSARC committee led by the Vice Chancellors. Their guidelines are also ready and once they will come, we will release our guidelines within a week. The government guidelines have to come first as we have to make sure both the guidelines don’t clash and that our guidelines cover the aspects that are remaining.” The release of the guidelines will happen in a month’s time at most, said Kalkar, adding that any colleges reaching out with queries have already been given clarity. Kalkar also deliberated upon the academic vision for the next year in five broad points, namely pioneering NEP 2020 implementation by scaling into fully a multidisciplinary framework, digital governance excellence through 100 per cent paperless administration, democratic access to education by scaling the CDOE, bridging the employability gap through integrated AEDP, and innovation-led research.