The University of Delhi has planned a major revamp in its existing four year undergraduate programme (FYUP). Sources in the university have revealed that during the meeting of the Delhi University’s task force on Friday, it was decided that in most likelihood FYUP will be turned into an integrated five year post-graduate programme.
According to sources, students will now have the option of taking four exits. “Students would be able to leave after two years with a Diploma, three years with a Baccalaureate, four years with an Honours degree and five years with a Masters degree. Additionally, if a student wants, he/she can stay on for two more years and get a PhD. These changes have been recommended by the task force at the moment and will be brought to the table during the Academic Council meeting on Saturday. If approved, changes will be made in the 2014-15 batch itself,” said a source.
The task force was formed by Vice-Chancellor Dinesh Singh before implementing the FYUP and consists of 61 members including teachers, heads of departments and Deans of faculties and is headed by the pro-VC. All decisions regarding the FYUP are first recommended by the task force and then approved by the Academic Council.
If sources are to be believed, this change in structure comes in view of the recent letter the university received from the University Grants Commission (UGC) asking for a review and reconsideration of the FYUP. There has been a big uproar about the programme in recent days and with the BJP coming to power, the movement to scrap FYUP has grown stronger. Memorandums by several students and teacher unions have also been presented to the Minister of Human Resource Development Smriti Irani.
“The task force held a meeting in view of the UGC’s letter to review the programme.”
“Since, the main contention of the programme was the additional fourth year, the task force decided to make it an integrated five-year post-graduate programme,” said a source in the university.
Other than this change, there are major changes in the Foundation Courses as well. Sources said that the earlier 11 Foundation Courses will now be cut down to eight. “Of these, four will be compulsory and four will be optional. Additionally, marks will be awarded on the basis of attendance. There will also be 22 papers for the Discipline Course-I and the earlier non-credit course of Integrated Mind Body Heart (IMBH) will now be a credit course,” sources said.
While no university official was available for comment, a clear picture should emerge after the forthcoming Academic Council meeting. The meeting will begin at 9 am on Saturday.