Row as College of Art parts ways with DU

NEW DELHI: Members of Delhi University’s executive council (EC) and academic council (AC) on Tuesday wrote to vice-chancellor Yogesh Singh seeking his urgent intervention in the matter of the Delhi government merging the College of Art with Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD) last year, a move that has been contested by the DU administration.

In their letter to V-C, 11 members from the university councils sought that admissions to the College of Art for the upcoming academic year be conducted under the aegis of the Delhi University as the college was yet to be de-affiliated from DU.

Both the College of Art and the AUD are fully funded by the Delhi government. The Delhi cabinet merged the college with AUD in March last year. Education minister Manish Sisodia had then said the government was authorised to take a decision regarding a college owned by it.

The letter by DU teachers comes in the backdrop of a notification issued by AUD on Wednesday, declaring that admissions to Bachelor of Fine Arts and Masters of Fine Arts courses at the College of Art will be conducted by AUD for the academic session 2022-23.

“Such an unfortunate action is in contravention of the Acts and Statutes of Delhi University and also violates the decision of the EC which has duly rejected the de-affiliation of the College of Art from Delhi University,” wrote the signatories.

They also noted that the lieutenant governor (LG) Anil Baijal had ruled that any step towards merging College of Art with AUD was subject to the college’s de-affiliation from DU.

In a letter dated January 28, the Delhi government’s department of training and technical education wrote to the vicechancellor of AUD stating that the LG has agreed in-principle to merging College of Art with AUD and initiating the process of admissions for the 2022-23 session, subject to the college being de-affiliated from DU. However, DU V-C Yogesh Singh confirmed that the College of Art was still affiliated to DU and the varsity had written to the college principal last month, directing the college to initiate the admission process under DU. “We will take legal advice and look into the matter,” said Singh.

DU registrar Vikas Gupta also confirmed that the de-affiliation has not been done till date. Seema Das, DU EC member, said, “DU has not even given a go-ahead to the de-affiliation process. In such a situation, the college cannot admit students under AUD. Both students and faculty are opposed to this.”