Amid stiff opposition, the Academic Council meeting of the Delhi University approved at least 40 per cent of the total courses for the Four-Year Undergraduate Prog ramme (FYUP) on Tuesday.
The much-awaited meeting of the council remained inconclusive and will be convened again on Wednesday. During the 12-hour long session, the Academic Council approved the courses of Science, languages and Interdisciplinary subjects.
The major subjects under these courses include Anthropology, Biomedical Sciences, Botany, Chemistry, Geology, Food Technology, Polymer Science, Physics, Zoology, Biochemistry, Microbiology, English, Hindi, Arabic, Persian, Budhhist, German, French, Italian, Spanish, linguistics, Philosophy, Psychology and Biotechnology.
The issues that will be taken up on Wednesday are the remaining subjects and ordinances pertaining to admission and examinations in the four-year course.
“The ordinances ranging from the infrastructure, examination system, admission processes, work load in terms of practicals and tutorials will be discussed. We are expecting major changes from two to eight ordinances in the new proposal,” said one of the members of the Academic Council.
Meanwhile DU Registrar Alka Sharma confirmed that another milestone would be achieved in the Executive Council’s meeting scheduled for May 9. She said the academic decisions depend largely on the Academic Council, while the status of infrastructure would be decided by the Executive Council. However, she maintained that since everything is interconnected, the EC members will have to further look into the amendments made by the Academic Council in order to approve it.
“More than one-third of the courses have been cleared by the Academic Council. Each course was discussed threadbare with at least 30 minutes devoted on each course. The standing committee which is a body of the council had discussed the minor changes and corrected them in a two-day meeting. It helped the council to take the decision on the approval of the course. A section of teachers that opposed the four-year course were also heard in the meeting and it was made clear by them that they will teach the subject. However, they kept pushing for their dissent to be taken note of,” said Umesh Rai, the Director of the South Campus and the member of the task force constituted for the FYUP. “Before the standing committee discussed, the entire syllabi were worked on by 1,500 to 2,000 teachers from various colleges of the University. It first went to the committee of courses, then to the general body constituted of teachers from all departments,” he said.
Six of the members out of the 26 elected members of the Academic Council marked their dissent in the meeting. “We have put our foot backward. The other members present there were mocking us but they cannot ignore the points which challenge the logic of adding one more year to the three year in a poor country like ours,” said Mridula Arora Jha, the Associate professor at PGDAV College.
Earlier in the day, a section of teachers and students opposing the FYUP shifted their focus to the Union HRD Ministry. “The idea has come from the ministry. The pace with which the whole change has been imposed clearly shows the VC is working on the directions of top-notch ministers. We are going to expand our protest through awareness. It is time that all the universities indulge and ask question on this hasty implementation of the course. This is not just happening to DU but the situation reveals that it is going to be implemented across the country. It will lead to an ugly disparity between the students of privileged and underprivileged classes,” said Maya John, a PHD researcher in History at the university.