Indian Colleges Offer Integrated / Dual Degree Courses To Woo Students
Several universities and affiliated colleges across India have started to offer integrated courses in various engineering, science and management programmes. An integrated course is where a student gets two degrees at the end of the course, while in dual degree courses you get the bachelor level degree after 4 years and the master’s level degree after 1 year. Sometimes, the two degrees are of two different levels such as PG Diploma + Master’s, while in other cases, the two degrees can be of two different streams such as B.Tech + MBA.
The acceptance of integrated and dual degree courses by Indian students is increasing. More students are getting attracted towards such combined courses because of three reasons: first they save academic period of one year, second they save tuition fees and third they get two degrees at the end of the course duration. However, in 2014, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has laid down a bill asking higher educational institutes offering integrated courses to increase the duration from five years to six years and change the curriculum of integrated courses from the academic year 2014-2015. While most universities have amended the programme, some IITs and NITs are yet to follow the rule.
Under UGC, an institute can start such an integrated programme only when it can ensure that the syllabus is not compromised by more than 20%. As of now, more and more universities in India have started to offer integrated courses. The trend is catching students as the market demand is pointing towards requirement of more students with greater skills in particular field. Colleges offering combined courses know that the demand of integrated courses may grow at pace if they are modified as per the needs of potential recruiters.
For example, recently, Great Lakes Institute of Management (GLIM) has announced that the varsity will set up a university to offer integrated programme in engineering and management. The course is expected to begin from academic session 2017. VIT University in Vellore campus also started offering a double major in engineering from 2012-13 onwards. Top engineering institutes in India IITs also offer five-year BS and MS dual-degree course in physics, mathematics, computing and economics. The eligibility criterion is 10+2 and the admission is based on performance st IIT-JAM entrance test.
The combined courses such as computer science + electronics and B.Tech + MBA are preferred by many students as it helps them understand industry trends better. Moreover, when it comes to recruiting students, MNCs and large enterprises prefer students with dual degrees. So the idea of offering integrated courses to woo students seems to have provided better results for universities in terms of placement numbers.
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IGNOU also offered distance, correspondence and dual degree programme to their students
Currently IGNOU University also offered Dual Degree course to their students