Gujarat witnessed a major reform in higher education on Friday with all the nine universities in the state accepting the choice-based credit system (CBCS) in-principle.

In a meeting held at Saurashtra University (SU), the universities decided to introduce the system across the state from the next academic year. Gujarat will become the first state in the western region to adopt CBCS. The system will allow students study subjects of their choice along with the core subjects of their faculty. This means a Chemistry student can also study Mathematics, while a Social Science student can opt for Journalism as his or her elective.

Saurashtra University Vice-Chancellor Dr Kamlesh Joshipura, who chaired the meeting, said: “All the nine universities have decided to adopt the system from next year.”

The vice-chancellors came to three conclusions in the meeting. First, semester system will be introduced in the postgraduate programmes in all the colleges. Not all the programmes under the nine universities — SU, Bhavnagar University, Junagadh University, Gujarat University, M S University, Sardar Patel University, Central University, South Gujarat and North Gujarat University — follow the semester system at present. The first task for all these universities will be to bring all the programmes under semester system.

Second, the universities have in-principle agreed to introduce the CDCS from next year. However, each university is free to decide about the time of implementing the system, depending on resource availability.

And third, a common guideline has been prepared for CBCS, which can also be modified by the universities as per their requirement and conditions.

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