WORKING OF CAFETERIA MODEL OF CURRICULUM [BHARATHIDASAN UNIVERSITY]
The Bharathidasn University, soon after its establishment in 1982, set upon itself the task of restructuring the Undergraduate and Post- graduate Courses. The syllabi and course structure for various disciplines were reformulated with a view
[a] to make them more application oriented;
[b] to train the students to think independently and also expose them to real world situations and
[C] to provide the students with adequate opportunities of learning a wider variety of subject-mix and thereby bringing out their individual potentialities to the maximum.
The First two objectives, namely, Application Orientation' and 'independent thinking' have been sought to be fulfilled respectively by means of introducing
[a] several job-oriented innovative courses; and
[b] Project Work as a compulsory component of UG as well as PG curriculum. The third objective of giving the students greater freedom in the choice of subject-combination is achieved to some extent by a Cafeteria-model as explained below.
A student in the Under-graduate course shall choose a Core Subject(Major) in which he shall do six Papers; he shall select two Allied Papers and two Applied Optionals from the respective list of Papers prescribed for each Major; and he shall do a Project Work (involving field survey / practicals as the case may be). All these Papers and the Project Work will be related to (allied with) or part of the Care Subject chosen by the students.
Apart from the above set of Papers the student is expected to do an Extra-Disciplinary Paper (ED paper) which is outside his Core Subject. For instance, a student in 'Economics may take a course in any of the following subjects outside his discipline: General Science, Computer Application, Adult Education, Futurology, Extension Education, Community Development, Physical Education, Public Administration, Practical Banking, Management Accounting etc. There is a wide range of choice for any particular
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student; he can select any Extra-Disciplinary Paper depending upon his tastes and preferences; in this system, a. student in Chemistry may know something of Practical Economics if he is interested; a student in Physics may take an ED paper in Music if he has a taste for it; a student in Botany may do a course work in Accounting if he finds it interesting and useful for him.In short, there will be no restriction whatsoever on the students in their choice of ED paper.
The modus operandi of the above Cafeteria Model: Each Department shall design and offer one or two courses which is informative and practically useful, specially meant for those student outside the Department. If there are, for example, 15 Departments(Subjects) in a College, there shall be atleast 15(more than that in many cases) ED courses available in that College. Any student, irrespective of his Core Subject, can take any of the 15 or more ED courses. The class adjustment is also smooth and harmonious. At fixed hours, all the Departments in the College will be conducting the ED Classes simultaneously, so that all the students are fee to attend Course / Class they choose to.
The above experiment has been very popular among both the teachers and the taught. Some students find their ED courses even more interesting than their Core Courses. In some of the Autonomous College affiliated to the Bharathidasan University, the Credit System is in operation, by which the student is faciliated to take as many courses as possible and maximise the Credit. The Classes for such extra Courses are, of course, conducted outside the routine working time.
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