UGC Committee recommends broad guiding principles to be adhered to specify the nomenclature of degrees

UGC has published Recommendations of the Expert Committee to Review the Notification on the Specification of Degrees and Suggest New Degree Nomenclature(s). The Committee recommended broad guiding principles to be adhered to specify the nomenclature of degrees in the future by the UGC, which includes:

1. Given the provisions for Multiple Entry and Multiple Exit in Higher Education, the National Credit Framework (NCrF), and the Curriculum and Credit Framework for Undergraduate Programmes (CCFUP) as envisaged under the NEP 2020, it would be appropriate to recognize qualifications at the level of undergraduate certificate, undergraduate diploma, and postgraduate diploma also.
2. A student may be considered for the award of a qualification (like a certificate/diploma/degree) once the required number of credits have been earned, irrespective of the minimum duration of the programme.
3. The degree nomenclature may be modified to be in sync with international norms. Accordingly, in case of specialisation or a major subject at the undergraduate level, the programme nomenclature on the degree certificate awarded to the students may also be written as “Bachelor of Arts/ Bachelor of Commerce / Bachelor of Science in specialisation”. For example, a Bachelor of Arts in Music may also be a free to offer interdisciplinary and innovative specialisation in these programmes.

An undergraduate degree programme of four years duration shall be either of the following:

1. An Honours degree programme with nomenclature having (Hons) in parenthesis, like BA (Hons), BCom (Hons), or BSc (Hons), as applicable
2. An Honours degree programme with research components embedded into it and its nomenclature shall have (Hons with Research) in parenthesis, like BA (Hons with Research) and BCom (Hons with Research), as applicable
3. A four-year undergraduate degree programme in any discipline may also have a Bachelor of Science abbreviated as BS as a specified nomenclature. This nomenclature shall apply to all disciplines like Sciences, Engineering and Technology, Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences, Business Administration,
   Management, Commerce etc.