Paritosh Gaiwak
Paritosh Gaiwak
Course selection is quite important and plays a crucial role in the kind of academic experience a student takes in an upcoming semester along with determining the trajectory for a student. Most of the courses that students take, subject to the requirements of the degree, play an important role in building the profiles of students in the areas of their interest.
There are some difficulties in the course selection. For instance, some courses are offered only during alternate years, hence every master’s student has only one opportunity to take that course, and due to the degree requirements sometimes it is difficult to take that course.
Another difficulty is choosing courses from some other department, which requires several permissions and is generally restricted to students from that department. A similar problem is the level of courses that a graduate student can take. For instance, a master’s student can take only two 400 level courses, the rest need to be 500 or 700 level courses.
From among the problems listed above, I feel the departmental restrictions are severe. There are many courses which a student might want to take from a different department to fulfill their passion, build their profile or simply to explore. The departmental restrictions thwart all of them.
If the departmental and course level restrictions are removed, it will have a great advantage for the students in terms of the efforts that the student make, the effect of their efforts on their career trajectory, and keep them motivated to perform well during the university too.
Personally, I want to pursue a career in data science and predictive analytics, and there is a course which aligns perfectly with my professional interests. But it is offered by the business department, and there is no official provision to allow me to take that course.
I have tried to communicate with the instructor and the department, and they have told me that it is generally not allowed, but they will consider me if there are any spots left empty in the class. I will come to know of it only in December, and based on my experience I am not very positive about my chances. If there was some rule/provision to allow this to happen, it would have been much more straightforward and also would bring a degree of certainty and satisfaction for me.
This situation has a two-fold negative impact on the student. First, the student feels demotivated as he/she does not get the opportunity to study the subject of their choice, along with the project(s). Second, the student must exert themselves in a course which they like lesser than the other course, and they may not like it at all. This causes stress and anxiety since the student would feel they are not pursuing something that would make them more marketable.
It is understandable that departments want to prioritize their students over those from another department, and it is desirable for the university that students take the majority of their courses from the department in which they enrolled. However, imposing a rigid restriction on a student might not be beneficial for the student in the long run.
One way to deal with this problem is by allowing students to audit courses from a different department if they cannot be allowed to take the course for credits. The logistics of the course can be designed to cause minimum strain on the department yet allow the interested students to learn from that course. Another approach to solving this problem could be to make the courses for students from different departments to offer lesser credits (e.g. 1.5 instead of 3).
If students can take courses from different departments, it will prove to be beneficial both for their profile and career and allow them to work on the projects more to their suited to their interests. This will keep them motivated, give them a sense of freedom and generate a goodwill for the university. All these factors will work to the betterment of the university and in the long run, will prove to be beneficial for the university.