The North-Eastern Hill University Teachers’ Association (NEHUTA) has warned students to avoid the fourth year of the new Four-Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP), advising them to stick to the traditional system due to the university’s failure to establish a clear transition to postgraduate studies. NEHUTA president Lakhon Kma told reporters that students completing their third year currently face a “safer option” by enrolling in the existing two-year master’s programme. He cautioned that continuing into the fourth year of FYUP involves significant risk, as NEHU has yet to finalize the mechanism for the proposed one-year master’s degree.
“If students exit after the third year and pursue the two-year master’s programme, their academic path is clear because that system is already in place. But if they continue into the fourth year, there is uncertainty since the university has not prepared the transition mechanism,” Kma said. Criticising the university’s approach, Kma stated that NEHU reversed the logical “bottom-up” implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP). Instead of evolving semester by semester from the undergraduate level, the university introduced changes at the postgraduate level first, disrupting natural academic progression. The association highlighted that the university is now struggling to redesign its syllabus and academic structure to link the FYUP’s fourth year with postgraduate courses. Kma noted that NEHU cannot immediately phase out the two-year master’s programme while the transition remains incomplete.