Evening shift Btech students at DTU demand ‘ full-time’ status

ROW ERUPTS Students accuse varsity of withholding information about ‘part-time’ nature of course

NEWDELHI: Students enrolled in the Bachelor of Technology (Btech) evening shift course at Delhi Technical University (DTU) accused the university administration of “withholding” information about the “part-time” nature of their course.

The students are demanding their course be declared as a fulltime from the academic sessions 2017-18 and 2018-19.

The DTU, Delhi’s first engineering college, was given the status of a university in 2009. The university offers courses includingbtech,mtech,phdandmba in its morning shift. Besides, it offers a four-year B Tech course in the evening shift.

Earlier, only diploma holders and candidates having one or more year of work experience were eligible for B Tech course in the evening shift. However, in 2017, the DTU removed the clause and allowed freshers to take admission in the course.

The students alleged that the university neither mentioned the nature of the course in its prospectus nor did it clarify the same at the time of admission.

“As per the norms of All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) freshers are only allowed to enrol in full-time engineering courses. With the removal of the prerequisite condition of work experience it was apparent that it’s a full-time or regular course. We had also sought information through RTI in June to know the status. In a response, dated July 20, 2018, we were told that the course is regular,” said Aparnendu Tripathi, a second year B Tech student in evening shift.

However, the students of batch 2017-18 and 2018-19 said they got to know that the nature of the course in September when applied for a Delhi government scholarship form. “We were surprised when we were asked to mark our course as part-time in the form,” Tripathi said, adding that the students again approached the administration but did not get any response.

“We again filed an RTI and received a response, dated September 19, 2018, saying that the DTU evening degree is a part time degree of four-year duration,” Tripathi said. HT has copies of both the RTI responses.

The students said that they have been writing to the administration since September demanding “full-time” or “regular” sta- tus for their course. “We had also met Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia on Monday and raised our concern. He assured us that he would look into the matter,” said a first year evening course student.

DTU vice-chancellor Yogesh Singh said that there was “some confusion” among students and he would soon meet them to clear doubts. “If we are holding classes for a course it means it’s a regular one. However, we cannot call the course as full-time course because of the duration of teaching hours are less. We expect students who enrol in the evening course to work as well as well. The students will get normal Btech degree in the course. I am meeting them in a day or two and will take the matter,” he said.

If we are holding classes for a course it means it’s a regular one. We cannot call it a full-time course because of the duration of teaching hours are less... I am meeting them in a day or two and will discuss the matter. YOGESH SINGH, DTU vice-chancellor