New Delhi, Jul 10 (PTI): Delhi University teachers on Friday raised concerns against the university's decision to restructure the credit-point in the fourth year of the Undergraduate Curriculum Framework (UGCF), alleging that the changes were introduced without the approval of statutory bodies.
The criticism comes after the university issued a notification on Friday, revising the credit distribution for the fourth year of the Four-Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP), increasing dissertation credits from six to 10 and reducing the number of Discipline Specific Core (DSC) papers.
"Courses listed under Discipline Specific Core (DSC) in semester VII and VIII across all UG programmes under UGCF 2022 may be removed and be listed hereafter under the Discipline Specific Elective (DSE) pool of that discipline in the respective semesters," the notification mentioned.
It added that from academic session 2026-27 onwards, students will have to choose to study only three courses each in semester VII and VIII along with the academic track. The options will be three DSEs from the pool, or two DSEs and one Generic Elective (GE), or one DSE and two GEs.
"The four credits that were assigned to the DSC shall be added to the academic track i.e. Dissertation/Academic Project/ Entrepreneurship tracks, thus making it ten credits instead of six credits earlier. Accordingly, academic tracks shall carry a total of twenty credits (ten in semester VII and ten in semester VIII).
Anumeha Mishra, assistant professor at the Faculty of Law and an elected member of the Academic Council, alleged that the changes were introduced through a Registrar's notification by bypassing the Academic Council and Executive Council.
"By pushing through a drastic restructuring of the UGCF via a Registrar's notification and bypassing the Academic Council and Executive Council entirely, the University has completely disregarded the proper process. This decision will unrealistically burden fourth-year students," Mishra said.
Mithuraaj Dhusiya, an elected member of the Executive Council, also criticised the move, calling it a "top-down approach".
"This top-down approach where a handful of people decide arbitrary changes in the academic structure with no discussion in the statutory bodies, Academic Council and Executive Council , is very unfortunate," he said.
Dhusiya also objected to replacing a core paper with an elective, alleging that it could adversely affect the quality of education and reduce the stable academic workload available to departments and teachers.
Delhi Teachers' Front (DTF) secretary Abha Dev Habib questioned the university's decision to implement the changes without convening meetings of the Academic Council or Executive Council, asking whether such a major policy decision warranted the use of emergency powers.
In a statement, Habib alleged that reducing the only compulsory discipline-specific core paper in the fourth year would weaken students' academic foundations while increasing dissertation credits from six to 10 would add to their workload without adequate academic support.
She further claimed that the existing requirement for teachers to supervise up to 10 dissertation students, in addition to their teaching responsibilities, was impractical and that the revised framework could increase stress among students and teachers.
(PTI)
This report was published from a syndicated wire feed. Apart from the headline, the EdexLive Desk has not edited the copy.