While the Delhi University's four-year degree course offers to ease tensions of students by giving a 'second chance' to anyone taking a hiatus from their course, many in the university are of the opinion that it will give rise to 'real dropouts' as students who opt for jobs out of economic compulsions will never get back in again.
The already existing problems of infrastructure and the social system of the country where people hardly study in the latter years are some of the factors working against the newly introduced course structure, they added.
Emphasising on the loss to academic basics due to focus on foundation course under this four-year degree course Nandita Narian, the head of Mathematics Department at St. Stephens College said that the student will have to do a repeat of what has already been learned in school under the foundation courses. "There are 20 papers in the four-year course. It is a combination of foundation course and main subjects. There will be very little of academic subjects and if a student comes back after doing the two-years it will be difficult to carry on without revising the basic subjects again. It is just a flowery presentation. Under the three-year course as well, if a person had a paper left to clear he could have cleared it in few years by coming back," said Narian.
"Every year, there are thousands of students who want to enroll themselves in Delhi University but not all get admissions. If those who do are allowed to drop out after two years, it will be injustice to those who don't get admitted. Government spends a lot of money on infrastructure in the university. If students are allowed to go and come back this way, that investment will be wasted," said another teacher.
However, Alka Sharma, the DU Registrar, said the course has been framed thoughtfully and there was no question of alienating the students from studies. "Having two diciplines instead of one is delighful and there is nothing to worry. Earlier a person with economics could only get into Economic honours while now they can opt for it along with Mathematics if they wanted. There are many students who come to universities and colleges to study for getting a job. Not everyone wants to go for higher studies or research. The course has been built in a way considering the economics of students in the country," she added.