On January 7th, Ayush Sharma (UG’26) raised a clarification on the Ministry of Academic Affairs’s (MAA) open WhatsApp group. The text, simple and direct, read “. . . can someone confirm whether the interdisciplinary Philosophy and Computer Science major is a B.A. or a B.Sc?” In the days since, chaos and confusion have reigned amongst second and third-year students with prospective or declared majors in the interdisciplinary Philosophy and Computer Science (PHICS) programme.
The Computer Science undergraduate student manual and Ashoka University webpage, list PHICS as a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) (Hons) degree—presumably owing to it having CS as a constituent discipline. However, representatives of the MAA upon Sharma’s query contacted Philosophy HoD Professor Danny Weltman as well as CS HoD Professor Subhashis Banerjee. Both faculty confirmed later the same day that the degree always counted as a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) (Hons), and not a B.Sc.
This revelation has disoriented the academic trajectory of second and third year PHICS majors, who are already a significant portion of the way through their degrees. Sharma, who had completed all the requisite CS courses for a PHICS degree, wrote to the CS and Philosophy departments early on January 8th: “For a long time, I was under the impression that PHICS was a B.Sc degree and had planned by academic trajectory for the next semester accordingly. . . . If I choose to take additional CS courses, I will be left with Philosophy requirements later, and those CS courses won’t contribute to my degree.”
Sharma switched from a pure major in CS to the interdisciplinary PHICS major owing to his interest in Philosophy. Originally slated to pursue a year-long capstone thesis is Philosophy starting Monsoon 2025, he is now uncertain about his future trajectory. “. . . Explaining to my employers that, you know, [I] have a B.A. in Computer Science— it becomes an extremely tough job,” he tells The Edict.
His peers in PHICS all also believed the degree was a B.Sc, he says, owing to the information in the CS curriculum document and Ashoka website. “All interdisciplinary CS majors are B.Scs, and hence [I thought] this would also be a B.Sc,” says Kashyap J (UG’26), a fellow third-year PHICS major. He expects the university authorities to change the degree to a B.Sc “. . . simply because . . . I’m doing more CS courses, and I think I need to get the due [credit] for that.”
PHICS being a B.A. “does not exactly express the true nature of the things you deal with,” Sharma similarly argues. According to him, “If anything, it is actually more technical than a CSENT degree because it has Theory of Computation [CS-1349], which many professors would agree . . . is a more fundamental and highly technical course than something like Design Practices [CS-1350].”
The Edict has learnt neither of the department student representatives were aware of the degree being a B.A. before this situation unfolded. “We don't have a handbook, but a curriculum document which we update every once in a while, provided to us by the department. This and the website were sources for [listing PHICS as a B.Sc],” the CS reps tell us on mail. As for the Philosophy handbook, it merely “contains a link leading to the Ashoka undergraduate Philosophy programme webpage, which only lists the requirements of the degree,” say the Philosophy reps. “It is the Ashoka University webpage that mentions it as both, hence leading to the confusion.”
In addition to hindering students’ employment prospects, the B.A. classification also poses a significant roadblock to students wishing to pursue graduate studies in Computer Science within India. “If I were to stay in India,” says Sharma, “I cannot pursue a master's in Computer Science if I do not have a B.Sc, plus I cannot give exams like GATE (A/N: Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering) . . . because you need a B.Sc for that.”
While the GATE exam recently began accepting B.A.s from a ‘government approved degree programme’ as valid qualification, the degree remains implicitly unpopular. Even universities that don’t require the GATE tend to propagate a bias towards B.Sc degrees for their perceived STEM-friendly attributes, Vedant Gautam (UG’27) speaks from anecdotal experience. “The B.Sc tag sort of matters simply because [universities] assume that since you've done a B.A., you don't have enough technical courses to do a master's degree in Computer Science,” Kashyap concurs.
In contrast, many universities outside India in locations like the US or UK seem to be more accepting of B.A. degrees for graduate admissions in CS. According to Professor Banerjee, “Usually [for graduate studies in Computer Science] it is the courses that count and not the degree. It is unlikely that any graduate program will differentiate between B.A. and B.Sc.”
On the family front, Gautam adds, Indian parents find a B.A. degree “hard to deal with.” Having to inform parents that a degree they initially believed to be a B.Sc is in fact a B.A. is likely to be an unpleasant conversation, Kashyap says: “It’s a very societal thing . . . a B.A. is sort of just looked down upon, I think, at least, in my surroundings. But, personally, I don't think I'm really affected by [PHICS being a B.A].”
All of the students interviewed by The Edict expressed frustration about the lack of clear communication from both parent departments about the classification of the PHICS degree, with the CS undergraduate curriculum document even explicitly listing it as a B.Sc. “This was an inadvertent error, possibly due to the fact that all the other CS interdisciplinary majors are BSc. This was an oversight, and we are sorry about this,” Banerjee conveys to The Edict on mail.
“I don't think it ever occurred to us to include the degree classification in the handbook,” says Professor Weltman. PHICS has “always been a B.A.” he says. As for information dissemination, the department “talk[s] about the major in the academic expos we hold, and in advising meetings and so on.” The undergraduate student handbooks of 2023 and 2024 are the only documents The Edict came across classifying PHICS as a B.A. degree.
Both the Computer Science and Philosophy departments are open to considering a reclassification of PHICS as a B.Sc based on student demand, Banerjee and Weltman independently confirmed to The Edict. As and when a decision is arrived at, the website and undergraduate curriculum documents will be modified accordingly, they say. Banerjee writes,“We will explore the possibility of having both options (B.A. or B.Sc). Neither of the two departments have any objection to it. However, this may require a string of approvals.”
Indeed, proposed interdisciplinary majors require approval from the Ashoka University Academic Council, Board of Management (BoM), and Board of Governors, with the Haryana government as the apex authority. Should both departments and the academic council agree to reclassify PHICS as a B.Sc degree, it is unclear what the timeline on an approval from the BoM and governors would look like— and consequently, whether a change could be implemented quickly enough to not derail the trajectories of third-years graduating this May.
In the weeks following his first conversation with The Edict, Ayush Sharma has switched out of PHICS into a CSENT interdisciplinary major, which earns him a B.Sc (Hons) degree. “I spoke to Professors Bannerjee and Weltman . . . who told me there could be an option for [PHICS being converted to] a B.Sc, but this could take some time— about 6 months, as [the departments] will have to design a new curriculum, which will then have to go to the Haryana government for approval.” The appraisal process itself, faculty told him, could take anywhere up to two months to a year; at the end of which the Haryana government could still choose to reject the proposal.
Knowing for certain he wishes to sit for placements and secure a job “as soon as [he is] out of college,” Sharma feels switching to a B.Sc degree with CSENT, and keeping Philosophy as a minor, supports his employment prospects.
“It’s definitely saddening, because I lose out on something I’m very passionate about— Philosophy— and it kind of defeats the purpose of [the PHICS major], because a student who works very hard in their CS courses still ends up with a B.A.”
The writers are Managing Editor, AY 2024-25 and Staff Writer, News.
Edited by Aditya Roy.
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