Hyderabad: Starting this year, a unique cluster system will give students in select Government Degree Colleges (GDCs) the flexibility to opt for courses and resources from different colleges.
For an instance, if a student is interested to take a psychology course but his/her institution is not offering it, the same can be chosen from another government degree college within the cluster system. On completion, students will be given credits allotted to the particular course.
Accordingly, plans are being drawn to implement the cluster system by grouping four or five GDCs that are geographically closer. Initially, the initiative will be rolled out in GDCs in Hyderabad and one more district in the State on a pilot project this year. Not just courses, the institutions will be pooling and sharing resource materials and infrastructure in the given system. The objective is to achieve optimal utilisation of resources in the institutions.
Dr BR Ambedkar Open University has already offered its e-resources and course material to all State universities as part of the new initiative. Also, as the new system provides for mobility of students and faculty within the cluster, it will do away with the age-old rigid system of academics in higher educational institutions.
An expert committee constituted by the Telangana State Council of Higher Education (TSCHE) to study the cluster system for colleges, courses and sharing material has recently met and discussed modalities and intricacies in transferring of the credits and sharing resources within the system.
“To start with, the cluster system will be implemented in GDCs, including in autonomous ones this year. We will study the pros and cons of the new system before extending it to other colleges. The expert committee will meet again to chalk out modalities for introducing the cluster system in colleges,” a senior TSCHE official said.
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