michjay ramsdon raoula

[Karren Bangura]

Universities in Bangladesh provide Bachelor degrees through credit hours. Each course is assigned the same or different number of credit hours. Students complete a required number of credit hours by taking a certain number of compulsory and where applicable, optional courses. This is the scenario for all universities in Bangladesh- public and private. However, the manner of course offering differs between public and private universities. The course offering in public universities is essentially a closed credit system, while that in private universities is essentially an open credit system. It may be helpful for students making a decision to go to university to know about these two types of credit systems.

Three different semesters exist in undergraduate programmes. These are: bi-semesters; tri-semesters; and an annual semester. The same university may have more than one semester. Irrespective of the number of semesters in an academic year, course numbers appear in three or four digits. The first digit (e.g., 101) indicates a course that has been designed to be taken in the first year of the undergraduate programme. A course with four digits e.g., 1101 is a course that has been designed to be taken in the first semester of the first year. Similarly, 200, 300 and 400 courses are designed to be taken in the second, third and fourth years. As a general rule, 100 & 200 level courses are foundational courses that are pre-requisites for advanced courses at 300 and 400 levels.

The central difference between closed credit and open credit systems is in the degree of freedom students have in course selection (CS). Under the closed credit system, students have minimal freedom, while under the open credit system students have wider flexibility in making a CS decision.

Under a closed credit system, the department or institute predetermines certain criteria of a CS decision for the student. These are designed within the syllabus of course offering. Six important criteria for each semester or academic year include: (a) what course will be taken; (b) in which semester the course will be taken (timing); (c) how many courses will be taken in a semester; (d) how many courses will be related to the honours and how many will be related to allied subjects; (e) who will be the course instructor; and (f) on which day and in what time slot the course will be offered. A closed credit system may include optional courses for specialization in a particular field. Students have freedom in their CS decisions, but even then the department or institute determines in which year (semester) they will take these courses; the course instructor and at what time of the week and time slot in the day.

Open credit programmes include a set of optional (elective) courses. Students are not obliged to take all these courses. And thus departments and institutes are not obliged to offer all of these courses. Optional courses are offered on the basis of availability of qualified instructors and when possible. Another inter-related factor is optional courses require students have completed certain compulsory (core) courses. If not, the student does not qualify to take the optional course; and has to wait for it to be offered in a future semester. These factors can contribute to a student over-running four years.

How do the two systems fare? Under the closed credit system all students face the same institutional constraints. If the institutional performance is good, all students benefit; otherwise, not. Under the open credit system, students need to plan well before a semester, receive favourable assistance from advising, and carefully choose optional courses when offered such that over-running four years does not arise.

Once a commitment to one of the two credit systems has been made, the decision is sunk. There can be no turning back. This decision will influence future outcomes in life. As students prepare to enroll in universities in Bangladesh between now and January-February next year, taking time out and assessing closed and open credit systems may well prove to be a very good investment in life.

The history-based way gives you auditing. The history table should store the transaction (as you describe), a timestamp, the balance before the transaction happened, and ideally a way to track the funds' source/destination.

Adding and deducting credits implies that you might also need to be aware of where these credits came from and where they went. Any time you get into a situation like this, whether it is with currency or some other numerical quantity that needs to be tracked and accounted for, you should consider using a double entry accounting pattern.

The plutus plugin provides a complete double entry accounting system for use in any Ruby on Rails application. The plugin follows general Double Entry Bookkeeping practices. ... Plutus consists of tables that maintain your accounts, entries and debits and credits. Each entry can have many debits and credits. The entry table, which records your business transactions is, essentially, your accounting Journal.

sometimes, You'll need to unify several transactions under one roof. I suggest to create a third table called 'tokens' that will be the payments manager and you'll unify those grouped transactions under that token.

A big selling point that many private universities emphasise to prospective students is their open credit systems. Contrary to a rigid and structured closed credit system, students are given more flexibility in choosing their courses under an open credit system. However, despite the pros that open credit systems come with, a few fundamental pitfalls can threaten to make your academic life even more of a struggle.

For starters, the preconceived structure of closed credit systems gives students a clear roadmap to follow while earning their degree. This structure is beneficial for freshers and first-year students who may not correctly understand how course progressions work. The closed credit system allows them to keep a manageable course load and helps them finish their degrees on time.

On the other hand, the freedom to choose courses at your own discretion can lead to students not having a clear idea of progressing academically. Usually, the freedom to choose by yourself generally leads to two scenarios: students become ambitious to graduate early, take on additional credits and an immense workload, and ultimately burn out (guilty as charged). Alternatively, students can also take the relaxed route, take minimal course loads, and spend more money and time in university than they should.

However, the most ironic problem with the open credit system is the difficulty students face in trying to get the courses they want. Thanks to the flexibility of choosing courses, there's almost always a mismatch between the number of interested students and seats available. Hence, it's often difficult for first-year students to get courses they want, as older students with more completed credits often get to them first. It's not uncommon for many students to be stuck in a maze of too many open electives and GED courses for their first few semesters before being able to enrol in a course relevant to their major.

The flexibility of open credit courses also makes it difficult to make and maintain friendships beyond the surface level. Thanks to all the options available, it is usually tricky to match courses with your friends. Even if you plan and coordinate together, getting seats in the same section is extremely difficult. Consequently, you form a large circle of acquaintances rather than a closed circle of meaningful friends, making it challenging to garner a sense of belonging in your institution. On the flip side, the batch system followed by closed credit universities means that most people get to know each other better, foster more substantial and meaningful friendships, and even develop some sense of institutional pride.

Undoubtedly, there are still numerous benefits to studying in an open-credit system. The flexibility in choosing courses can sometimes play out in the student's favour, allowing them to customise their academic roadmap to their convenience. Students also end up improving their planning and strategising skills by mapping out their own course paths. Finally, the ability to take courses at your own discretion means that you have the ability to improve your grades through retakes and repeating courses in which you may not have performed optimally the first time around.

These pros, however, do not negate the very real problems that open-credit university systems have, and universities should definitely move to address these concerns and help to reduce the pressure, competition, and uncertainty that students in open-credit systems face.

Open credit systems in the country have been around since the establishment of private universities. Under the open credit system, university students can exercise the freedom to take any course they wish to but it comes with its own set of challenges.

While the closed credit system might sound like it involves an unfruitful prohibition, many students actually benefit from the pre-constructed structure. Not having to spend time evaluating all the options they have for a single semester during their course advising phase is certainly a benefit. In fact, any private university student can attest to how stressful the advising phase can be. Without actually being advised by counsellors, many of the younger graduates often struggle.

It is important to acknowledge that students possess varying thresholds for being able to withstand academic pressure. So, being able to adjust course selection is a major advantage in later stages when they are able to better understand their needs and strengths. For those struggling, it is always advised to speak to a faculty member or senior in the department who may be able to share insights and guidance on how to proceed.

The added perks of being able to take one's desired set of courses under the open credit system mean a student is able to register for a course that does not fall under their major's requirement. While this option is usually overlooked due to financial constraints, it does provide them with the unique opportunity to learn about matters that are of personal interest to the student. Additionally, not having to conform to a set number of courses is a major gain and the stress of the advising season becomes a worthwhile trade-off.

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