With the academic session of July 2019, the Indira Gandhi National Open University has adopted the Choice Based Credit System introduced by the University Grants Commission. The Choice Based Credit System provides flexibility for the students to study the subjects/courses of their choice and offer easy mobility between different institutions in the country. There are two programmes under CBCS: viz. B. A. (General) [BAG] and B. A. (Honours) [BAH]. While the BAG programme was launched from July 2019, the BAH is launched from January, 2020.
While IGNOU has been one of the earliest to introduce credit based academic programmes with a wider choice of courses, with the CBCS, it is now introducing semester system and point based evaluation system under a 10 point grading system. The Programme Code of B. A. Economics (Honours) is BAECH. This programme is of 148 credits. The distribution of credits under the different type of courses is as follows:
The programme can be completed in a minimum period of three years (six semesters) or in a maximum period of six years. A credit is equivalent to 30 hours of study time. This comprise all learning activities (i.e. reading and comprehending the print material, listening to audios, watching videos, attending counselling sessions, teleconferencing and writing assignment responses). Most courses of this programme (CCs, DSEs and GEs) are of six credits. This means that you will have to put in 180 hours (6 × 30) of study time to complete each of these courses. The programme also has 4 Ability Enhancement and Skill Enhancement courses, each of four credit weightage (2 courses each). These require a total of 120 hours (4 × 30) of study time.
The objectives of the programme are based on and follow the spirit of the philosophy and objectives of the National Education Policy (NEP). It seeks to provide not only cognitive skills in students, but also enhance the social, emotional and ethical dimensions in their personality. The programmes aim to provide a solid grounding in some core areas, discipline-specific topics, and provide interdisciplinary courses, and present skill-based courses and vocational courses. The overall objective is to mould learners to be efficient, well-functioning, and ethical members of society.