Students can now pursue two UG or PG degrees simultaneously, says UGC chairperson

Vibha Sharma

New Delhi, April 12

Students can now pursue two UG or PG degrees simultaneously, either both in physical form or in a combination with one online course, University Grants Commission Chairman M Jagadesh Kumar today said

TheUGC in its latest meeting approved simultaneous dual degrees courses for students in India, allowing them to complete courses either at the same university or from different universities at the same time. The UGC will issue detailed guidelines in this regard tomorrow, Kumar said

“As announced in the new National Education Policy (NEP) and in order to allow students to acquire multiple skills, the UGC is coming up with new guidelines to allow a candidate to pursue two degrees programmes in physical mode simultaneously. The degrees can either be pursued from the same or different universities,” Kumar said.

“The idea is to provide as much flexibility as possible. These guidelines are part of the NEP and aimed to customise and personalise education. It is a great opportunity for students to expand their skill sets,” he said

These can be full-time degree programmes or a combination, for example with a diploma.

The programme will be implemented from the current session

It is not mandatory for universities to follow the guidelines.

Students can opt for this scheme of simultaneous degree programmes either from the same university or a different institute.

The commission has put together a set of guidelines, which will be put up on the official website of UGC tomorrow

Earlier, the UGC regulations did not allow students to pursue two full-time programmes and they could only pursue one full-time degree along with online/short-term/diploma courses.

Students can either choose a combination of a diploma programme and an undergraduate (UG) degree, two master’s programmes, or two bachelor’s programmes.

The aim is to give students as much opportunity as possible to pursue multi-disciplinary programmes of the same level, said the UGC chairman