Principals meet for smooth transition

With new academic session set to begin from July 21, the Delhi University has started to make some headway in restructuring courses run under the four-year undergraduate programme.

The 12-member Principals’ Committee, commissioned by the university, met on Tuesday to work out modalities of migration to the three-year programme for students admitted in 2013. 

Teacher and student bodies had been accusing the university of not taking required steps to restructure the courses.

“Under the collective pressure of students and teachers, the terms of reference of the Monitoring and Advisory Committee set up by the university consisting of 12 principals have been expanded to include the restructuring of FYUP courses,” said Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) Nandita Narain.

She added that concerete steps should have been taken immediately after the rollback of FYUP on June 27. Meanwhile, the university has asked the committee to submit its recommendations by Friday. 

To set the ball rolling, DUTA asked the university to convene a meeting of the course committees and statutory bodies – academic council and executive council – without much delay, in order to ensure that the revised and approved course structure for students admitted under FYUP is ready before the commencement of the academic session. 

The teachers’ association on Tuesday also staged a dharna at Arts Faculty and criticised the VC for ‘abdicating’ his responsibilities towards the students admitted under FYUP. 

“The DUTA has forwarded its suggestions for restructuring to the committee and hopes that due statutory processes would be followed by the university,” the teachers’ association said in a press statement. 

The University Grants Commission also called a meeting of the Standing Committee on Tuesday to advise the university on migration to the three-year programme. According to sources, the committee recommended structuring of 14 main and two concurrent or 12 main and four concurrent subjects.