Committee makes minor change in CBCS grading system

A 14-member committee appointed by the Delhi University (DU) Vice-Chancellor, Yogesh Tyagi, to revisit discrepancies in the Choice Based Credit Systems (CBCS), has come up with only a minor change in the grade computation method as the panel red flagged the demand of adding marks opted by the students on their marksheet.

According to the sources on the campus, a panel consisting of academicians, and experts on the grading system was appointed by the V-C. The panel has suggested a new formula of computation of the marks to change it in grades.

Earlier, the grading “normalisation formula” was being calculated on the “standard deviation” method, but with the implementation of the suggestion of expert panel, the calculation of the grade will be based on the “absolute formula”. The former methods were being calculated on 120 basis points, but with the adoption of new formula the credit points for grades will be awarded out of 100 points.

However, the Delhi University Teachers association (DUTA), and several students associations were demanding to change into a makeshift change in the CBCS system as it was not differentiating between the students with higher number to and students who get lower marks. Mainly, the protest was lodged mostly from the science, and math streams. Commenting on the panel’s suggestion on the CBCS, Nandita Narayan, DUTA president said: “We welcome the step taken by the current V-C but our demand has not been meted by the panel on CBCS. Our demand was simple, that the marksheet should include both grade and the marks which are necessary for accessing a students’ performance,” Narayan added.

Last year, DU had implemented the CBCS for undergraduates after the University Grants Commission (UGC) had come up with the CBCS programme in which the students have a choice to choose from the prescribed courses, which are referred as core, elective or minor or soft skill courses and they can learn at their own pace and the entire assessment is grade-based on a credit system.