Pitfalls in the Syllabus of B Sc (Honours) Microbiology Courses Proposed under Choice-Based Credit System by University Grants Commission, India

Recently, the University Grants Commission, India has provided a structure of the model curriculum for B Sc (Honours) programme in Microbiology. It is based on the choice-based credit system pattern aiming to improve the academic standards and quality of microbiology education in the country. The structure of the programme has been divided into core courses, discipline-centric elective courses, generic electives, ability enhancement compulsory courses and skill enhancement elective courses. Most of the basic papers related to microbiology are well covered under the core courses and care has been taken to include the recently published books as references. However, certain terms that could bring confusion among the teachers and students have been included, and some topics that are important to microbiology are missing. The subject contents offered under the generic electives seem to be mere repetition of the core courses. Here, I provide a few suggestions to improve the standards of the above-mentioned programme.