A ‘royal course’ with options galore

The clichéd expression that good students go for honours courses and not so good join pass course is not true anymore.

Profspeak
Tanvir Aeijaz
Ramjas College

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The clichéd expression that good students go for honours courses and not so good join pass course is not true
anymore.

Since BA pass course transformed into BA Programme from academic session 2004-05, there has been an upgradation in its status vis-à-vis other courses. Once euphemistically called 'royal course', as getting admission and passing out was easy, the BA programme has now become quite a sought after course, with cut off percentages rising every year.

The BA Programme is a meticulously designed package that offers the widest range of choices in its course structure and after completion bestows numerous opportunities for career planning.

The distinction between honours and programme is like the distinction there is in bureaucracy between generalists and specialists. Doing an honours in any one of liberal arts or social sciences, say, history, political science or economics, one specialises in that discipline with the aim to have an incisive and holistic understanding of the subject because of sheer love for it.

Content
The restructured and revised syllabi of BA Programme starting from 2004-05 academic session onwards contains four categories of courses to be studied in three years — discipline courses, foundation courses, application courses and
language courses.

A student who joins the programme studies two classical disciplines, for instance political science and economics amongst various subjects offered under the rubric of discipline courses.

The idea is to build the essentials of the two major disciplines that would facilitate in grasping the subjects offered in foundation courses and application courses, for example, if one chooses political science as a discipline course, one studies the basics of political theory, Indian Constitution and politics and administration and public
policy.

Career options
After graduating in the programme course, one possesses sufficient knowledge and understanding to plan career by either pursuing further studies in some professional course or applying straight away for jobs in the
interested field.

It prepares one for IAS exam, as this exam requires basic understanding of two major disciplines.

With such a large array of options, one can choose journalism, film studies/making, law, management and its specialised sub-discipline areas, voluntary organisations and of course further studies for teaching and research.