Gauhati University has decided to adopt Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) at the Undergraduate Level from the Academic Session 2019-20. This internationally recognised system is more students centric and has several advantages over the previous system. UGC recommended this system in 2015 to usher in a paradigm shift in higher education sector of the country. Under this system, students are given much wider choice of Courses and brought Ability Enhancement and Skill courses in the curriculum to be compulsorily studied by all the undergraduate students. The system is also very flexible in the sense that it allows students to choose inter-disciplinary or multi-disciplinary courses as well as it permits students mobility to other institutions. The system also calls for adoption of a uniform grading system by the Universities across the Country. Courses and Credits under CBCS: Credit indicates hours of instruction. 1 credit is equivalent to one hour of classroom

instruction for theory classes and 2 hours of instructions in practical classes. Under CBCS, the Courses and their respective credits are shown below:

1. Core Course: These are discipline specific compulsory papers to be studied by the students. The papers under this category are going to be taught uniformly across all universities. All the papers under this category will carry 6 credits each.

2. Elective Course:Two types of elective courses are included under CBCS.
3. i) Discipline Specific Elective (DSE) Courses: These elective papers are related to the Core disciplines chosen by the students. Students will have to select the required number of DSE papers from among the choices available in an institute. These courses/papers will have 6 credits each.
4. ii) Generic Elective (GE) Courses: Students will have to choose these elective papers which are not related to their core discipline(s). This will give the students exposure beyond their main discipline of choice. These papers will

also have 6 credits each.

3. Ability Enhancement Courses: These Courses are aimed at increasing ability and skills of the students to enhance their employability. There are two components –
4. i) Ability Enhancement Compulsory Courses (AECC): All the students will have to study two courses/papers carrying 4 credits each.
5. a) English/MIL Communication;
6. b) Environmental Studies.

ii) Skill Enhancement Courses (SEC): The students will have choice of selecting the required Skill courses based on their interest from the pool of the courses offered by the Institute. These courses will have 4 credits each. Requirement of Courses and Credits for a UG degree: Under CBCS, the UG degrees will be called Honours and Regular instead of Major and General in the previous system. The minimum requirement courses and credits for an UG Honours or Regular degree is indicated below: