Education | New rules may allow ‘double degrees’

The adoption of a new credit system at local universities may allow students to obtain “double degrees” and “double majors.”
Yesterday’s detailed discussion of the Higher Education Bill, which passed its first reading in February 2015, discussed the possibility of allowing parallel studies in two tertiary education courses for students with high grades.
Another of the advantages attributed to this new system is the possibility for students with missing credits to be able to complete those units and finish their courses in a timely manner.
The president of the 2nd Standing Committee of the Legislative Assembly (AL), Chan Chak Mo, said that the legislation’s aim is to give some flexibility to both students and universities to manage this whole process, and rejected the idea that this may result in a lower-quality education.
“If the student can pass the exam or test, fine. It has nothing to do with the number or quality of courses. A student can be a hard worker and if he wants to take another course and has good grades after his first year, and if he can manage the scheduling, it is all right,” Chan said, quoted by TDM.
One of the requirements of participation in this system is having an average grade result of “very good” or having revealed “special capabilities” during the first year of studies.
Questioned as to whether this system” might be “too flexible,” Chan considers that it is the role of the government to define those limits. He added that the committee’s “main problem” was “to ensure that the courses with a duration of less than four years could be recognized, and that has been solved.”