15-06-2025
Senate members seek clarity on picking minor courses for FYUGP in Calicut varsity
A group of Senate members in the University of Calicut has sought clarity on the recent direction from the Higher Education department on picking minor (subsidiary) courses for four-year undergraduate programmes (FYUGP) in affiliated colleges.
In a letter to Vice-Chancellor (V-C) P. Raveendran, Senate members V.M. Chacko, P. Sulfi, E. Sreelatha, Manoj Mathews, R. Jayakumar, and G. Sunil Kumar pointed out that according to the clause 7.2.13 of the regulations for the FYUGP, students in 34 departments including English, Malayalam, Hindi, Arabic, Commerce, Economics, Biotechnology, Hotel Management, Tourism, and Afzal-ul-Ulama were earlier allowed to study minor courses in a discipline different than their major (main) courses from the same departments. They claimed that the University Grants Commission (UGC) had not barred granting major and minor courses in more than one subject from the same department. However, a controversy was created by calling this option 'self minor course', and the university had been directed to change the provision, the Senate members said.
They alleged that the issue had not been properly discussed so far in the elected bodies of the university, and subject experts had not been consulted either. They said the confusion arose from equating various departments with distinct disciplines, whereas a single department could encompass multiple disciplines. For example, the Department of English could include disciplines such as English Literature, Functional English, and Cultural Studies. Each of the 34 departments mentioned above could similarly contain different disciplines. It was up to the academic forums of the university to define the term for the purpose. The Senate members added that the university was not mandated to accept any decision that contradicted this.
At Mahatma Gandhi University, they claimed, students are allowed to pursue minor courses within the same department in which they are studying their major. Expert committees are constituted for various disciplines to offer both major and minor courses. The Senate members urged the V-C to allow students to choose minor courses aligned with their major subjects. Otherwise, students would be forced to study subjects they were not interested in. They said this goes against the UGC's directives and the National Education Policy. 'The issue is likely to be taken up at the Senate meeting scheduled for June 25,' claimed sources.
