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UGC draft rules suggest mandatory internships for undergraduate students
The UGC has issued draft guidelines recommending mandatory internships for undergraduate degrees with an aim to improve students’ employability.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has issued draft guidelines recommending mandatory internships for undergraduate degrees with an aim to improve students’ employability, and help them understand the importance of research , even while earning credits from them.
The draft of “guidelines for internship/research internship for undergraduate students” has been issued in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 that emphasizes the inclusion of research and internships in undergraduate curricula to provide opportunities to students for active engagement in on-site experiential learning. The commission on Tuesday released the guidelines in the public domain and invited comments and suggestions from stakeholders.
“Graduates face many difficulties after graduation to enroll in the workforce. Recent graduates are lacking knowledge, practical skills, and experience which are mandatory requirements demanded by employers for recruitment…The internship is one of the important apparatuses that help in improving these employability skills and can help in generating competency, capability, professional working skills, expertise, and confidence among the students for employability and developing interest/passion for research,” the guidelines stated.
Currently, internshipa are not a mandatory component for all undergraduate courses, and are mostly limited to technical and professional programmes.
UGC Chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar said that the hands-on experience will help reduce the gap between academic learning and work, enhancing their understanding of concepts. “I believe that it is essential for students to gain a wide range of skills, including communication, teamwork, problem-solving, and time management. Internships proposed in UGC guidelines help students obtain soft and technical skills highly valued in the workplace. Through these internships, higher educational institutions should aim at enabling students to build a professional network, connecting with professionals and potential mentors,” he said.
According to the draft norms, the undergraduate internships will be of two types–those aimed at employability and others aimed at developing an aptitude for research . For students pursuing a three-year UG degree an internship of 60 to 120 hours duration after the fourth semester will be mandatory, and for those who will opt for a four-year degree a research internship during the eighth semester will be a mandatory component.
Students can earn up to 12 credits from these internships,the guidelines added.
Under the guidelines, the research and development (R&D) cell of each higher education institute will appoint a coordinator or create a well-defined mechanism for smooth coordination and functioning of internships across diverse disciplines.
The guidelines also recommended evaluation of the students during the internships. “The interns will be evaluated by the research internship supervisor based on their efforts and research output, or the interns will be evaluated through seminar presentation or viva-voce at the HEI.”
