UGC to Require Outcome-Based Education Curricula

The University Grants Commission (UGC) on 17 June 2020 required all public and private universities to follow a standardized outcome-based curriculum template.  The said template was approved in the 157^th meeting of the Commission in an effort to bridge the gap between the job market demand and supply of skilled graduates passing out from universities. To ensure the target objective, universities should adopt and practice outcome-based education model.

Outcome based education (OBE) is an educational theory that bases each part of an educational system on outcome achievement. By the end of the educational experience, each student should have achieved the goal or desired outcome. These templates on OBE Curriculum will guide the universities to develop their own curriculum, based on the outcome or the desired goal to be achieved by the students as they graduate. Hence, these templates should not be considered as uniform for all the universities but rather as a reasonable standard guideline for educational process.

ULAB is now in the process of complying with the new directive.  It aims to:

1. update its Curriculum Design and Review manual;
2. train faculty on the new templates;
3. undertake course mapping exercises based on the new template;
4. formulate the curricula of the various programs based on the new template;
5. finalize and submit the OBE curricula to the UGC before the end of the year.