Fully Flexible Credit System (FFCS)™
in VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu
Salient Features of FFCS
- Choice in the order of selection of courses for each semester
- Choice in the timings/time slots in the selection of courses
- Choice in the selection of number of courses per semester
- Choice of preparing his/her own Timetable and Academic Plan for each semester suiting his/her academic ability and interest
- Balanced curriculum with engineering, science, humanities and management courses
- Ample opportunities to do inter-disciplinary courses
- Possibility of altering course plan each semester depending on individual's academic ability
- Soft on slow learners by offering important/common courses in all semesters
- Provision for Registration/Re-registration for summer term courses
- Opportunity of Research experience
Present day students like to make decisions on their own and like to plan their future by themselves. Employers expect students to have multi-disciplinary competency, leadership skills and be ICT ready. But student aspirations and demands of the workplace have become highly diverse. The present rigid, fixed-credit system of learning offers very little flexibility to students in choosing the courses of their liking and helps little in becoming a well-rounded person. As part of continuous improvement in providing quality education, VTT University is taking the next step in this direction by introducing the Fully Flexible Credit System (FFCS)™ into its academic curriculum. By this, students can register for courses according to their interests and academic ability in completing them. FFCS allows students to decide their academic plans and permits them to alter it as they progress in time. Under FFCS, each Programme will have baskets of courses classified under University Core, University Electives, Programme Core and Programme Electives. At the end of the Programme, each student is expected to have the following credit distribution in various disciplines: Engineering (64%), Science (20%), Humanities (8%), and Management (8%). Ample options are given to choose interdisciplinary courses from other Engineering Schools which will help the student develop additional skills, under the University Electives. The slot-based timetable, coupled with a campus-wide Course Registration in each semester helps individual students to choose the course they want to study, the time of attending a theory/ lab class and even the teacher. Thus, students can make their own time table and each student in a class may have a different timetable of his / her own. Depending on the interest developed by students while studying for a degree in another or their own discipline, students can choose a 'Minor' or 'Honours' specialization respectively which will be offered as a combination of Core and Elective courses, across Schools. University Electives will definitely be an attraction to students to extend their knowledge beyond their specialization. Students having high grades will also get a chance to complete the credit requirements earlier and can take up Teaching / Research Assistants hips in their final year of studies. They can also pursue student / research project in parallel. Other features of FFCS include: Add or Drop of registered courses to balance workload; Course Withdrawal to maximize grades; Course Auditing to gain additional knowledge; Registering for M.Tech. level courses for in-depth experience; Course Substitution option; Grade Improvement; Credit Transfer for course migration, etc. _
