BA Programme: An array of new subjects

In 2004, the Delhi University introduced the BA Programme, turning the BA Pass Course into history. This new programme was similar to the old one in some ways, but there were significant differences between the two.

In 2004, the Delhi University introduced the BA Programme, turning the BA Pass Course into history. This new programme was similar to the old one in some ways, but there were significant differences between the two. The new integrated, interdisciplinary BA Programme was an attempt to make undergraduate education "more relevant to the immediate environment," and introduced a whole array of new subjects offering choice to students.

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The BA Programme broadly consists of discipline, language, foundation and application courses. Students have to study four subjects every year consisting of two discipline courses that have to be studied in the first, second and third year and usually comprise subjects such as Economics, History, Political Science, English and Hindi Literature, Advertising, Family Welfare, Mathematics, Sanskrit and Music.

In the first year, these two discipline courses are accompanied by two language courses, English and Hindi, for instance. Language courses are divided into three streams, according to the level at which a student has studied the language at school.

In the second year also, the student studies four subjects. Along with the next level of the two chosen discipline courses, a student is expected to pick any one of the two languages studied in the first year. Instead of the second language, he/she is expected to choose one of the four foundation courses: Language Literature and Culture; Contemporary India, Economy, Politics, and Society; Human Rights, Gender and Environment; and Social Enquiry.