Now, pursue one full-time, one distance course at Delhi University

NEW DELHI: With many elected teachers of the Academic Council dissenting, the proposal of Delhi University on a twinning degree scheme with foreign universities was deferred, as was the proposal to give students the option of doing 40% of the semester course online. However, the dual degree programme in which students can pursue one full-time and one distance course was passed even with the dissension of 15 members.
The meeting, presided over by vice-chancellor Yogesh Singh, also removed the extra rules for promotion of assistant professors, associate professors and professors and decided to follow the University Grant Commission’s 2018 regulations on the matter.
Under the twinning programme, students were to enrol in any course in DU or its constituent colleges and be allowed to study for a semester in a foreign university and earn credits from the host institution that would be counted towards the requisite credits for grant of a degree in DU.
AC member Mithuraaj Dhusiya said, "After we strongly protested against the twinning degree programme, the university was forced to take back the proposal. They admitted that homework needed to be done on this issue before it could be placed in the AC for discussion."
As for the approval proposal on the dual degree, the dissenters feared that this could lead to “dilution of the academic process, making academics more about a mere collection of paper degrees than a rigorous exercise in learning and critical thinking”.
The promotion rules were also discussed, especially the norm that for promotion from assistant to associate professor, a candidate should have published at least four publications during the assessment period, with at least two publications in Scopus indexed journal. AC member Megh Raj said, “All of a sudden, the university changed the rules in violation of UGC regulation. UGC says the candidate should have published one research publication in peer-reviewed journals or UGC-listed journals.”
The VC informed the meeting that 6,115 promotions had been given and 3,441 new appointments made so far in the university and the colleges.
There was also massive opposition to DU wanting to allow students to pursue 40% of the semester courses online. AC member Maya John reported, “It was decided to postpone the issue of MOOCs and online courses. Several technicalities still have to be addressed. The AC will be reconvened on the agenda item Strategic Plan 2022-47 as members did not want a rushed discussion on long-term planning.”
Singh said at the AC meeting that in the 2023-24 academic session, 68,583 admissions were made at the undergraduate level, 11,196 for PG courses and 784 for doctoral studies. An amount of Rs 1,00,61,057 was distributed among 1,009 students under the financial support system for 2022-2023, while 98 orphan students were given full fee waiver.