New Delhi: Delhi University has been asked to issue fresh assessment guidelines for fourth-year undergraduate research after increasing the credits assigned to dissertations, academic projects and entrepreneurship work, raising the evaluation weight to 400 marks in each of the final two semesters.
In a letter dated November 6 to Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh, the Democratic Teachers' Front said a July 10, 2026 notification increased the credit weight of the dissertation, academic project and entrepreneurship track from six to 10 credits per semester, beginning with the 2026-27 academic session. The component now carries a total of 20 credits across the seventh and eighth semesters.
The teachers' body said the existing evaluation rules were framed for the earlier six-credit arrangement. Notifications issued in September 2025 and January 2026 had capped the assessment at 240 marks. With the increase to 10 credits per semester, the research component will now carry 400 marks in each semester.
The front has called for revised assessment guidelines for both semesters before students begin their research work.
It also cautioned the university against treating the higher credit allocation as a reason to impose additional academic expectations on undergraduate students. The body said students should not be required to produce Scopus-indexed research papers, books, book chapters or patents, or present papers at national and international conferences merely because the credit weight has increased.
Instead, assessment should take into account the duration of a student's engagement with the research, its depth and quality, and the practical possibility of publication, the letter said.
The demand comes amid wider concerns over the four-year undergraduate programme introduced under the Undergraduate Curriculum Framework in 2022. The framework allows students to exit after three years with a degree or continue into the fourth year for an honours degree with research. It also introduced multidisciplinary subject combinations.
The first cohort to complete the fourth year has reportedly faced difficulties securing admission to the one-year postgraduate programmes introduced by DU in 2026-27.
Figures cited in media reports indicate that around 23,000 students entered the fourth year in 2025, while nearly 14,000 applications were received for the one-year postgraduate programme. The programme had roughly 3,000 regular seats, including those at the School of Open Learning.
Admission priority rules have also drawn criticism. Applicants with a four-year honours degree featuring a research or entrepreneurship component in the relevant subject were placed ahead of multidisciplinary graduates who had majored in that subject. As a result, a multidisciplinary graduate with a higher CGPA could be considered after an honours graduate with a lower score.
Gaurav Sharma, a Hindi honours graduate with research from Kirori Mal College, said he continued into the fourth year on the advice of his teachers but could not secure a postgraduate seat. He is now pursuing a part-time course in Portuguese.
Priyanshu Pandey, a multidisciplinary BSc graduate from Rajdhani College who majored in electronics, said he had studied nearly twice as many subjects as students in the three-year programme but was still unable to secure a seat.
The Delhi University Principals' Association has separately flagged declining interest in the fourth year. It reported that around 30 per cent of students continued into the fourth year in 2025-26, with enrolment expected to remain low in 2026-27.
With inputs from media reports