Rajabazar: There will be no change in admission regulations under the new choice- based credit system, Calcutta University has announced.

But many college principals are worried how students will be able to pick subjects of their choice if the regulations remain what they have been for years.

The choice-based credit system that will take effect in July conceptually promises to allow someone who has studied philosophy and not physics at the Class XII level to take up physics as an elective subject in college. The old admission rules wouldn't allow that, though.

In the absence of that choice, the change will in effect be just a semester system, several principals said after a meeting with officials of Calcutta University to discuss the admission regulations that will be in place at Rajabazar Science College.

"The university made it very clear at the meeting on Saturday that the regulations for admitting students to all our undergraduate courses will be exactly the same as they used to be. This means that students won't have the option of choosing several subjects that are not related to their main honours paper," said the principal of a college.

"In the absence of this freedom, we could face problems if any student demands to study an unrelated subject as an elective paper,"

The choice-based credit system was supposed to bring with it the flexibility of picking elective subjects across disciplines and a freedom to choose from a wide variety of subjects.

Several principals Metro spoke to said it won't be possible to maintain the promised flexibility with the same admission regulations that were applicable to the old 1+1+1 system.

Dipak Kar, pro vice-chancellor (academic), said that considering the large number of affiliated colleges and students involved in the university's undergraduate education system, it was difficult to extend complete flexibility to the choice-based credit system at this stage.

"Students will be able to pick from wide range of subjects within the disciplines that are already there. The university will gradually offer the same flexibility across disciplines in the next few years," Kar said.

The provisions in the existing admission regulations do not allow someone who has not studied subjects like physics, chemistry, biology and computer science at the Class XII level to study any of these subjects at the undergraduate level as either honours or elective papers.