Telangana's new cluster college system, Here's all you need to know about it.

Starting this year, the cluster system will be implemented in nine autonomous degree colleges in Hyderabad.

The new system, on a pilot project, will be introduced in Osmania University College for Women, Koti, Nizam College, Government City College, Government Degree College for Women, Begumpet, Raja Bahadur Venkat Rama Reddy Women's College, St. Ann's College for Women, St. Francis College for Women, Bhavan's Degree College, Sainikpuri, and Loyola Academy.

It is the grouping of two or more degree colleges that are geographically closer without displacing their advantage of resources including human, physical and financial. The idea is to offer quality education besides access and more career opportunities to students for pursuing their higher education. This new system will be executed between the institutions through an agreement

The cluster system, which will be multidisciplinary in approach, allows students to opt for courses that are not being offered in their college but available in other institutions within the cluster. This will help in the mobility of students from one institution to another institution.

For example, a BA History, Economics and Political Science student of one institution can pursue a Psychology or Mass Communication course being offered by another institution or vice-versa. However, students will be allowed to choose only one course while the core ones remain the same. Also, on completion of the course,



requisite credits will be transferred to the students. Initially, this will be introduced for second-year degree students.

The system will also facilitate the exchange of faculty members between the degree colleges. This means that a Physical Science faculty of one institution can teach in another institution.

By clustering the colleges, the institutions can pool and share their resources like the library, infrastructure, best practices, and other human resources. For example, students of an institution can get access to a rich collection of books and laboratory facilities available in another institution.

On a pilot project, nine autonomous degree colleges in the city will be in this new system. The colleges include Osmania University College for Women, Koti, Nizam College, Government City College, Government Degree College for Women, Begumpet, Raja Bahadur Venkat Rama Reddy Women's College, St. Ann's College for Women, St. Francis College for Women, Bhavan's Degree College, Sainikpuri, and Loyola Academy.

The colleges were asked to study and prepare a report within 15 days on how courses and resources could be shared besides preparing a timetable for offering courses between the institutions.

As all the colleges are under Osmania University, the university will be monitoring the implementation of the cluster system while the Telangana State Council of Higher Education will guide the colleges.