Ashoka Overhauls Foundation Course Policy, Met with Student Pushback

On June 3rd, 2026, students were informed that the Office of Academic Affairs (OAA) had revamped the Foundation Course (FC) Policy to mandate the completion of all nine FCs within the first two years for upcoming batches. Following departmental notifications, OAA informed the student body through a mail sent on June 30th, 2026, nearly a month later. The OAA cites the reason behind this change as ensuring “FCs serve their foundational purpose early in the undergraduate journey” alongside flexibility in academic exploration and timely graduation. However, students have concerns regarding the communication of this change and how it affects their subject trajectory.

According to the OAA presentation shared by the departmental representatives to the students, under this framework, UG 2026 students are required to complete Introduction to Critical Thinking (ICT) in addition to at least five FCs in their first year, and must finish the remaining three by the end of their fourth semester. The expected distribution is 4+2+2+1 FCs across the first four semesters. If a student wants to retake an FC to improve their grade, they can only do so after they have passed all nine FCs. Additionally, FC registration will become a mandatory requirement for course registration. "Course registration will be considered complete only when FC registration requirements are met," stated the OAA. 

The OAA introduced a FC completion timeline recommendation for the current cohorts, urging the UG '27 batch to complete their FCs by Monsoon 2026, the UG ’28 by Spring 2027 and the UG '29 by Spring 2028. They have also introduced separate sections of FCs for first year students (FY Section) and senior students (SY Section) to accommodate the demand of students completing their FCs in the upcoming Monsoon semester.

The announcement, however, has been met with pushback from students across batches, with concerns centred on three pressure points: the restriction of FC choice, clashes with prerequisite-heavy major trajectories, and the manner in which the policy was communicated.

A central grievance is that FC sections at Ashoka are not interchangeable. "I’ve always looked into which professors I most enjoy in terms of syllabus or course material. I’ve also definitely put off certain FCs in the hope of taking them with certain professors later," said Aditi Ponnammal (UG ‘27), an English and Creative Writing major. Anant Kalkonde (UG ‘29), planning to major in Sociology and Anthropology, who has completed six of his nine FCs, shared,  "The top reason why I pick an FC is the professor, and then the course material." He also raised a concern about the downstream effects of segregating FY and SY sections: In Kalkonde’s view, seniors who enroll in FCs, particularly during the Monsoon semester, often do so out of a genuine interest in learning from a specific professor, which naturally creates a dynamic classroom environment where engaged and invested seniors coexist with curious first-years. “Segregating the student body lowers the experience quality of these FCs.” Another third-year Economics and Finance student shared that with the new timeline pushing students to take whatever FC sections are available rather than wait for a preferred professor, they now risk losing their choice of preferred professor altogether, particularly since the professor in question may end up teaching the course only to incoming first-years.

For students in prerequisite-heavy departments, the concerns run deeper. A rising second-year Economics student argued that the administration's claim that the policy creates "more flexibility" in later semesters is "patently false." Since Economics core courses are offered only in alternating semesters, missing one means a full year delay. "For the next batch, that's going to be six FCs, two core courses—already eight out of nine courses fixed. If a student also needs calculus and an English improvement course that they cannot opt out of, that is ten out of nine. Their trajectory has no possible way to start at the normal time." 

Dhruman Gupta (UG '27), the Computer Science Representative, flagged a parallel conflict: a first-semester CS student taking compulsory calculus alongside the new FC requirement would face five courses in their second semester, the maximum. A request for this exemption has been sent to OAA. “We haven’t gotten any response yet”. Devasheesh Saxena (UG '28), the History Representative, noted that rising third-years planning a thesis had built their trajectories around lighter semesters during research periods, often reserving remaining FCs accordingly. "That option has been taken away," he said, adding that three to four thesis students in his batch are directly affected, with some fourth-years facing direct clashes between mandatory courses and the designated FC time slots.

The sharpest criticism, though, is reserved for how the policy was introduced. The announcement did not arrive through a direct email from OAA to students. Instead, it filtered through departmental WhatsApp groups and student representative email chains from June 3rd, and formal emails by representatives going out only on the night of Friday, June 5th. Kalkonde said he first learned of the change through the student community group, where a fellow student representative described the policy as something OAA had brought to representatives in a meeting. Many students learned it from representatives who are their friends. "A vast majority of students are not going to know about this. That's a communication failure from OAA," said a second-year Economics student. "If they want feedback, they should have sent it out in a mail to all of us." This gap was compounded by the timing of many departments' mid-elections for incoming representatives. Saxena said that representatives were given little more notice than students themselves, he said, describing an email from the OAA requesting a meeting on June  1st with the agenda outlined only as “new registration policies.” Teesha Arora (UG ‘27), Minister of Academic Affairs (MAA) for the 2025–26 term, confirmed that the Ministry learned of the policy at the same joint meeting as the Board of Representatives (BoR), also attended by Professor Bikram Phookun, Dean of Academic Affairs, and Professor Anuradha Saha, Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs, with no advance word given to the Ministry beforehand. Arora refused to comment on the timing since these deliberations took place not exclusively with OAA but higher ups as well including management board. . Gupta confirmed that the CS department received no prior consultation.

At that meeting, representatives raised concerns about academic trajectories and interdisciplinary majors. They were asked to collect feedback from their departments and submit sample curricula in consultation with HODs by the end of July. The Ministry and several departments have since engaged with gathering feedback from students through an open form. But the precise mechanics of this process remain frustratingly vague. It is unclear which aspects of the policy are genuinely open for revision and which are effectively settled; and when, or through what channel, students can expect to hear an outcome. Arora, while optimistic, offered no concrete timeline, noting only that it would be “best to wait” and see how implementation proceeds. For students planning for the Monsoon 2026 semester, this is a significant ask given that the same administration did not consult student representatives in making the policy. Additionally, the email from OAA hardly showed any change in implementation from the one shared previously.

The policy's stated goal is to make Foundation Courses serve their foundational purpose– to ensure students engage with them meaningfully, early, and with genuine curiosity. Whether mandating their completion achieves that is a different question entirely. "By giving students freedom to pick the FCs, you had a crowd that wanted to be in that FC and put in effort. Now, they become a chore–the opposite of the exploratory space they're supposed to be," said Kalkonde.

The Edict has reached out to the Dean of Academic Affairs for comment and will update this article when a response is received. 

[Edited by Antara Kulkarni, Ananya Mahnot and Anamta Hussain]