Now, 450 hours of internship must for 4-year UG course

A minimum of 450 hours of internship each for the first and second year, a dedicated portal and necessary logistics such as internet and working facilities to be set up by institutes, are part of the draft guidelines that the University Grants Commission is releasing for research and internships for four-year undergraduate programmes.

The draft ‘UGC Guidelines for Research Internship with Faculty and Researchers’ will soon be made public for stakeholder feedback, and is in part of the National Education Policy 2020. UGC chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar said that the guidelines will ensure students are skilled.

“The ability to integrate classroom knowledge to practical problems is important and this time can also be used by students to learn how to be part of teams and how to collaborate with people with different skill sets and experience,” Kumar said.

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The higher education body, Kumar said, will encourage higher education institutions to put processes in place for providing internship opportunities to students.

As per the guidelines, a minimum of 20 credits out of the required 160 credits of the four-year degree programme will be set aside for research and internships.

“The internships of 8-10 weeks of 10 credits, after 2nd or 4th semester, will be mandatory for the students desirous of exiting with a certificate or diploma, respectively,” the guidelines state.

Students who continue will have the option of undergoing research internships after the second and fourth semester to enhance their research capabilities, by engaging as interns in their own institutes, research institutes or industrial R&D labs.

For research internships, 1 credit can be earned through a minimum of 45 hours of engagement in internship activities in a week. This means an engagement of 450 hours for the assigned credits of 10. Students will need to have a minimum of 10 credits of research internship after the first as well as second year of degree programme which needs to be completed in two months. First year students will earn a certificate, and second year students will earn a diploma.

On their part, institutes will need to provide a centrally operated portal for students where they can search for internships after a mandatory registration. They will also have to provide necessary logistics and support for research internships such as state-of-the-art facilities, working space, internet facility, etc.