Karnataka withdraws 4-year honours degree, reinstates 3-year programme

Karnataka government withdraws four-year honours degree, reinstates three-year degree programs based on SEP Commission's recommendations.

Bengaluru

Following the recommendations of the State Education Policy (SEP) Commission’s interim report, the Karnataka government has withdrawn the four-year honours degree, which was part of the National Education Policy (NEP), from the 2024-25 academic year.

The Higher Education Department issued an order on Wednesday (May 8) regarding this. It also reinstated the three-year degree programmes, which existed until the 2021-22 academic year.

But the changes would have no impact on the students currently enrolled in the 2021-22, 2022-23, and 2023-24 batches under NEP. They would continue in the existing system until they complete their graduation. 

The order said that in case the four-year honours degree courses are not available in the colleges they are studying in, the students have been asked to select a college from the list of colleges identified by the respective universities.

Defending its decision, the government said the SEP Commission, headed by Prof. Sukhadeo Thorat, held extensive public consultations over three months, in addition to meeting with the vice-chancellors, deans, and heads of the boards of studies of various universities and college principals, as well as stakeholders in four revenue divisions. 

“The recommendations are based on historical experience, the principle of overall interests of the students, equity, social justice and equal opportunity to students from different socio-economic backgrounds. The commission said the reason for the change in the structure and duration of degrees to four years shows that the objective is the desire to bring parity with the global education systems, especially the United States system, to facilitate the admission of undergraduate students to do a master’s degree abroad,” said the order.