Telangana: Bucket system in UG education comes under fire
The BSc subject experts suggested scrapping the bucket system, contending that it has been causing significant imbalances in the admissions. They also suggested capping seat intake to 60
Hyderabad: The bucket system, allowing students to pick and choose their subjects in undergraduate education, has come under fire from the subject experts.
The experts contend that the system has been causing significant imbalances in the admissions. They said the demand for subjects like computer science has been witnessing high enrollment, while the less popular subjects in the arts are struggling to fill seats.
During BSc Science syllabus revision committee meeting organised by the Telangana Council of Higher Education here on Saturday, the experts pitched for scrapping the bucket system and wanted reverting to old practice of rigid course system with fixed combination of subjects like BSc Botany, Zoology and Chemistry and BA History, Political Science and Public Administration.
Introduced in 2021, the bucket system allows students’ to choose their subjects from the list of four buckets in the same faculty. For instance, a student opting for a BA programme can pick combinations from buckets A, B, C and D, which have a pool of subjects.
The experts also suggested capping seat intake in the programmes to 60. This, according to experts, will ensure that enrollments are not imbalanced with demand courses witnessing a high number of students, while the less popular subjects with fewer or no enrollment.
Another reason that the experts backed their pitch for removing the bucket system is repetition of subjects. For instance, in the BSc Life science programme, bucket B has Bio-Chemistry and bucket C has Biological Chemistry, which are the same subjects. Another instance they cited is food and nutrition subject, which is being offered with similar syllabus under eight different titles, including food and nutrition, food science and quality control, food technology, nutrition and dietetics.
To ensure there is no duplication, experts pitched for retaining the Bio-Chemistry and removing the Biological Chemistry subject. Similarly, they proposed retaining Food Technology and Nutrition and Dietetics and scrapping the remaining subjects.
The committee decided to roll out a template for 150 credits for BSc Science, which will be uniform for all universities, and reduced one credit for seminars, which will now have only one credit. For projects and internships instead of four credits, the committee decided five credits.
New BSc programmes suggested for academic year 2025-26
• Computational Pharmaco Chemistry
• Analytical Instrumentation
• AstroPhysics
• Forestry
• Cyber Security
• Forensic Science
