DU may reintroduce 4-year UG courses
The Delhi University (DU) may reintroduce an option to pursue four-year undergraduate (UG) programmes from the upcoming academic session of 2021-22 as part of its attempt to incorporate the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, officials said on Sunday. A committee constituted last year to form the guidelines for implementation of the policy in DU has submitted its recommendations on the structure of undergraduate courses under the four-year model. According to the proposed structure, students should get the option of pursuing threeyear honours or four-year honours in a discipline or a four-year honours in a discipline with research. VC (acting) PC Joshi said the recommendations will be sent to the university’s statutory bodies for their approval. The university had once before, in 2014, introduced the Four-year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP) but it was later scrapped.
NEW DELHI: The Delhi University (DU) may reintroduce its four-year undergraduate (UG) programmes from the upcoming 2021-22 academic session, officials said on Sunday.
The programme will return as a part of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. A committee that was constituted last year to formulate the guidelines for the implementation of the policy in DU has already submitted its recommendations on the structure of bachelors courses under the four-year model.
The university had once before in 2014 introduced the Four-year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP). It, however, was scrapped by the government after protests by students and teachers the same year.
According to the proposed structure of undergraduate programmes submitted by the committee — which is known as the National Education Policy 2020 Implementation Committee (NIC) — students in DU will now get the option of pursuing three-year honours or four-year honours in a discipline or a four-year honours in a discipline with research.
DU acting vice-chancellor PC Joshi said the recommendations will now be sent to the university’s statutory bodies — academic council (AC) and executive council (EC) — for their approval.
“The university has extensively worked on it in the last 6-7 months and we are ready to implement it now. We are only waiting to get nods from the statutory bodies. I don’t think there will be an issue in the implementation, since we are not replacing anything. We are only adding on to the existing. It’s in fact in sync with what we are already running,” he said.
When asked about the necessity of introduction of four-year programme, Joshi said, “The University will introduce the four-year courses following the recommendations as laid down by the NEP. The move will be a positive one for students since it gives them more opportunities.”
Under the new programme, students will get multiple exit options. For instance, they can exit after one year and get a certificate, after two years they will get a diploma and after three years they will be awarded an honours degree.
These exit options have also been advocated by the NEP, 2020.
The committee has also recommended changing the names of the existing programme courses such as BA/BCOM/ BSC programmes to Honours courses.
If implemented, these programmes will be known as the Bachelors of Science (Honours), Bachelors of Arts (Honours) in Humanities and Social Sciences, and Bachelors of Commerce Studies (Honours).
Several EC and AC members said that proper discussion on the recommendations is required before implementation.
EC member Seema Das, who was also a member of the NEP Committee, said, “Initially, the NEP committee had proposed to do away with honours courses. They decided to accommodated this after my strong objections and retained all honours degree courses and also upgraded existing programme courses into honours courses. As per the assurance, these recommendations shall only be implemented after proper discussion in the statutory bodies.”
Principals of several DU colleges said that they will have to upgrade their infrastructure in order to accommodate students for four years.
“The colleges still have another three years to plan and make whatever changes we will require once students enter their fourth-year,” said Manoj Sinha, secretary of Delhi University Principal Association (DUPA) and principal of Aryabhatta College.