The four-year undergraduate programme (FYUP) is likely to undergo its first change in the structure of foundation courses within just a year of its implementation. According to sources in the University of Delhi, the criterion under which marks for projects are allotted may be changed to allow students more creative space.
Assessment rules allot 75 marks to foundation courses based on 20 marks for semester-end examination and 55 marks for continuous evaluation which includes 25 marks of project work, 15 marks for presentation and 15 marks for group discussion. The project work, however, takes up most of the time of the student, say sources. They added that students are not allowed to choose one topic for more than one foundation course’s project. Each of the eight foundation course in the first year have its separate project which means that the student has to do in-depth research on four completely different topics each semester. This leads to most of them faring badly during the evaluation either due to lack of time or half-baked information.
In order to take care of this problem, an official from the university said that a plan was being formulated now to allow students to take up one topic for projects in all foundation courses for the semester. “This will help the students because they will be able to focus on one topic properly. It would remove the information overload that a child had until now because of the different topics. For example, if a child chooses to do his project on Old Delhi, then he/she can do research from his course’s point of view and take out four different projects on Old Delhi, each with its own perspective,” said an official.
However, this change in the rules is reportedly still under talks among the top ranks of the university. “No decision on it has been taken so far. It is only a speculation that the change may take place since students have complained regarding this before,” sources said.