Hyderabad: Osmania University PG courses undergo major changes

Hyderabad: From slashing credits, increasing marks for internal assessment to bringing in uniformity in the question paper pattern, the Osmania University (OU) has made major changes in the PG courses which will be applicable from the academic year 2022-23. All conventional PG courses, except for professional ones, to have a total of 80 credits as […]

Hyderabad: From slashing credits, increasing marks for internal assessment to bringing in uniformity in the question paper pattern, the Osmania University (OU) has made major changes in the PG courses which will be applicable from the academic year 2022-23.

All conventional PG courses, except for professional ones, to have a total of 80 credits as the varsity has reduced credits by 16 from 96. The varsity increased the number of electives, which will be offered in third and fourth semesters of the coursework, from three to five.

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Among other changes approved by the OU’s Standing Committee meeting, which was held on Saturday, is the making of a project and research methodology paper mandatory for all PG students, who now have to take up their project work in the final semester.

Doing away with practice of different question paper patterns for different PG courses, the university has brought in a uniform pattern for the semester end exams comprising part-A and B sections.

As per the new assessment system, the internal assessment marks have been increased from 20 to 30, while the semester end exams will be for 70 marks instead of 80. Another major change in the internal assessment is scrapping of objective type questions. Henceforth, the internal assessment will be subjective only.

“As per the UGC guidelines, there should be 70-80 or 85 credits for the PG courses. So, we have decided to assess students for 80 credits. As the National Accreditation and Assessment Council (NAAC) grading is due for 2024, it is essential to make changes to the syllabus and assessment as these changes are also considered during the grading,” a senior official said.

The university administration is planning to implement a new system wherein any undergraduate degree holder will be able to pursue any postgraduate course like MA, MSc, MCom. This system, on a pilot basis, has been implemented for admissions to Political Science, Public Administration, History, Economics, English and Telugu from this academic year.