Introduced with shocking haste in 2013, the FYUP replaced the standard three-year duration Honours and Programme courses. Although its permission was not sought, the UGC was later prevailed upon to give its consent to the FYUP, even as it deviated from the 10+2+3 National Education Policy which provides the basis for the maintenance of standards in higher education. There was tremendous interference from the previous ruling party in ensuring that the FYUP is bulldozed into acceptance at all levels. Despite this, its introduction was met with popular protest among students and teachers and widespread criticism from significant sections of the intelligentsia, academia and the media. Till date, the UGC has not bothered to do a quality-audit of the FYUP. Neither has it committed any fund or infrastructure to help colleges and departments of the University to cope with the burden of the added year.
Although the FYUP imposed a huge additional financial burden on students from families with modest incomes, there was no debate within the statutory councils of the University to reflect on its feasibility. Even the lop-sided structure of this new undergraduate programme, which makes students repeat school-level content in all subjects in the first two years (Foundation Courses) has alienated a majority of students and teachers in the University and resulted in a marked decline in class-attendance.The structure also favours subjects and courses with instant commercial appeal over the more traditional subjects in the arts and humanities. Teaching and learning in the Indian languages, especially Sanskrit, Tamil, Punjabi and Bangla have been hit hard as a result of this commercialization. These departments are on the verge of closing down in many colleges as few students are encouraged to study these courses. The multiple exit-points provided in the FYUP will also put pressure on women from poorer families and backward sections to discontinue their studies and assume traditional responsibilities.
The DUTA undertook a systematic exercise of collecting feedback from students and staff associations in which the unpopularity of the FYUP and the deep resentment towards the University Administration for having forced it through, were revealed. Most students see the FYUP Foundation Courses as a sheer waste of time and unhelpful in imparting any professional skills or fresh knowledge. More than four thousand students attended a Protest Rally organised by the DUTA along with several student organisations in February2014 that was addressed by leaders of various political parties, including Shri O.P.Kohli of the BJP, Sh. SitaramYechury of CPI-M, Sh. Tarun Kr. Mandal of SUCI-Communist and Sh. Ashutosh of the AAP.Completing a year since its implementation, the students of the FYUP batch feel that it has made their academic involvement unserious. The DUSU has also demanded a roll-back of the FYUP and has been consistently agitating against it.
Academic dilution due to the hastily revised syllabi under the FYUP has resulted in a steady erosion of DU’s academic prestige. Today, DU is suffering under a self-imposed state of Emergency in which dissenting voices are being steamrollered through threats and punishment. Teachers and students who have vocally expressed disagreement over the FYUP are being targeted and victimised on the flimsiest pretexts. This unhealthy situation will spell doom for the University unless the new Government intervenes as soon as it is formed and halts the continuation of this damage, in public interest.
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