Kerala higher education to have cluster system

Updated on: Thursday, November 17, 2011

The Kerala State Higher Education Council is introducing more flexibility in the choice-based credit and semester system introduced in the undergraduate level.

Since the number of subjects offered in each college is limited at present, the council is creating college clusters aimed at sharing resources and facilities, including laboratory, library, and auditorium. Faculty exchange programmes are also being planned.

A governing body will be constituted for taking policy decisions on behalf of the cluster. All colleges in the cluster will be equal partners.

However, following the opposition from the aided college managements, the number of clusters are being restricted to three in Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Kozhikode respectively.

The council has called a crucial meeting of aided college managements on November 16 to discuss the issue. This will be followed by another meeting of the committee comprising all pro vice-chancellors on November 17 to discuss CBCSS.

The KSHEC member secretary, Mr P.Anver, told Deccan Chronicle that the meetings were part of the council’s initiative to discuss issues relating to the higher education sector. Meetings have also been planned with various other stakeholders .

As per the CBCSS scheme, a student has to acquire 120 credits for successful completion of a bachelor’s degree. Each course will offer up to four credits. But they will not be counted for the mandatory 120 credits.

The new cluster system will have four kinds of courses — common courses, core courses, complementary courses and open courses. The common courses and the complementary courses will be done in the first four semesters. The last two semesters will be exclusively for core courses.

Kerala higher education to have cluster system

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