New Delhi — Acceding to longstanding demands by academics, India’s university regulator has decided that universities must offer semester-based courses with a system of course credits based on student choice, the Indian Express reported. Students will also be allowed to take courses at different institutions than their home university and receive credit for those classes.

The regulator, the University Grants Commission, has told universities that the changes must be in place within two years, the newspaper said.

Until now, universities did not divide the year into semesters and held annual examinations at the end of each academic year but none in the middle of the year. That schedule meant there was no continual evaluation of students. In addition, undergraduate degrees had rigid curricula, with majors in one discipline barred from taking courses in an unrelated field or at a comparable institution. Students registered at one university were forbidden to take courses at another, and credits were not transferable. —Shailaja Neelakantan