DUTA Slams DU VC’s Academically Insincere Decision to Force Hasty Changes in UG Curricula
In a frightening repeat of ill-conceived and discredited academic reforms that were pushed through with haste in the recent past, the DU Vice-Chancellor has ordered the University’s departments to revise the UG Curricula as per the Learning Outcomes-based Curricular Framework (LOCF) within 3 months. The DUTA has learned that that DU VC has decided to abandon any credible academic application of mind and impose the LOCF that seems to be thoughtlessly derived from a controversial and widely criticised Outcomes-based model prevalent in State-funded US universities.
The UGC’s LOCF itself is open to consideration, scrutiny and critique. The system is pushed by standard outcomes-based incentives (rewards and punishment). Recent attempts by the MHRD to restrict research, apply quantified performance parameters through a Tripartite MoU, push towards loan-funding and financial “self-reliance” also stem from this approach. The LOCF will invite greater interference from Governments that will be tempted to dictate acceptable ‘outcomes’ for universities. Outcomes-measurement is a huge private industry in US which swallows a significant amount of US education budgets. It will force universities to offer market oriented self-financing courses. The UGC LOCF document also shows a total disregard for the inclusive character and unique priorities of public-funded universities.
The DUTA finds it unfortunate that VC Professor Yogesh Tyagi has not allowed UG course revisions proposed by several Departments to be tabled in the Academic Council for over a year now. It is disturbing to see that the notified schedule for LOCF is nothing short of a hurried and insincere exercise wherein the University expects the entire process of UG Syllabi and Curricula Revision across all subjects to take place within 3 months, i.e. between 13.03.2019 and 20.06.2019! The task groups notified for various levels of revisions are neither as per the Statutes and Ordinances nor as per democratic norms organically evolved by Departments for wider consultation. For example, the notification says that the first draft will be prepared by HoD, Department Convenor, “three best” teachers and two top students (to be identified by the Dean, exams). While there is no position labelled as “Department Convenor” in DU, the inclusion of “three best” teachers makes the exercise arbitrary, prone to bias, and undermines the role played by the General Body of teachers in deciding course revision and carrying forward the work through several committees working on different papers. While it is necessary that the Choice Base Credit System, as forced on Universities by the Government, needs to be revisited and revised by universities, it is equally important that universities exercise their academic autonomy and best practices to evolve curriculum.
The decision to include students in the exercise of preparing the draft is mere tokenism, especially at a time when students will be preparing for their semester exams and submitting their assignments/projects for internal assessment. The DUTA and DUSU have been demanding the restoration of students’ representation in the Academic Council as per Statute 7(I) (xiii), but the VC has not made any effort in this direction.
Students have suffered irreversibly because of hurried half-baked exercises imposed one after another at Delhi University over last one decade. Failures of Semester System, FYUP and CBCS are still haunting the University. Conceptual and systemic flaws of these systems have been masked by marks inflation and grading formulas. This has damaged students’ learning experience and demotivated them. The DUTA views these “reforms”, which have lead to academic dilution and corruption of examination system, as deliberate attempts to dismantle public funded higher education in favour of private universities.
The DUTA also sees this hurried exercise as an attempt to divert attention from the expansion necessary in terms of infrastructure and man-power to retain standards in EWS expansion. Universities are soon going to suffer from shortage of space and faculty and will fail to cater to the enhanced number of students.
The DUTA finds the DU VC’s farcical eleventh-hour move to comply with UGC’s diktats academically unacceptable. It warns the VC to desist from foisting any such exercise on the departments and faculties without adequate debate and discussion on the desirability and feasibility of such models. It also warns the UGC from its repeated attempts to undermine the academic autonomy of universities, take centralised and unilateral decisions on curricular matters and micromanage teaching-learning processes. It appeals to the DU VC to immediately withdraw his instructions on the LOCF-based Curricular revision and start a genuine process of consultation with the Academic Council, college teachers, departments and faculties on the best ways to address issues related to the quality of undergraduate education within Delhi University.
The UGC’s LOCF itself is open to consideration, scrutiny and critique. The system is pushed by standard outcomes-based incentives (rewards and punishment). Recent attempts by the MHRD to restrict research, apply quantified performance parameters through a Tripartite MoU, push towards loan-funding and financial “self-reliance” also stem from this approach. The LOCF will invite greater interference from Governments that will be tempted to dictate acceptable ‘outcomes’ for universities. Outcomes-measurement is a huge private industry in US which swallows a significant amount of US education budgets. It will force universities to offer market oriented self-financing courses. The UGC LOCF document also shows a total disregard for the inclusive character and unique priorities of public-funded universities.
The DUTA finds it unfortunate that VC Professor Yogesh Tyagi has not allowed UG course revisions proposed by several Departments to be tabled in the Academic Council for over a year now. It is disturbing to see that the notified schedule for LOCF is nothing short of a hurried and insincere exercise wherein the University expects the entire process of UG Syllabi and Curricula Revision across all subjects to take place within 3 months, i.e. between 13.03.2019 and 20.06.2019! The task groups notified for various levels of revisions are neither as per the Statutes and Ordinances nor as per democratic norms organically evolved by Departments for wider consultation. For example, the notification says that the first draft will be prepared by HoD, Department Convenor, “three best” teachers and two top students (to be identified by the Dean, exams). While there is no position labelled as “Department Convenor” in DU, the inclusion of “three best” teachers makes the exercise arbitrary, prone to bias, and undermines the role played by the General Body of teachers in deciding course revision and carrying forward the work through several committees working on different papers. While it is necessary that the Choice Base Credit System, as forced on Universities by the Government, needs to be revisited and revised by universities, it is equally important that universities exercise their academic autonomy and best practices to evolve curriculum.
The decision to include students in the exercise of preparing the draft is mere tokenism, especially at a time when students will be preparing for their semester exams and submitting their assignments/projects for internal assessment. The DUTA and DUSU have been demanding the restoration of students’ representation in the Academic Council as per Statute 7(I) (xiii), but the VC has not made any effort in this direction.
Students have suffered irreversibly because of hurried half-baked exercises imposed one after another at Delhi University over last one decade. Failures of Semester System, FYUP and CBCS are still haunting the University. Conceptual and systemic flaws of these systems have been masked by marks inflation and grading formulas. This has damaged students’ learning experience and demotivated them. The DUTA views these “reforms”, which have lead to academic dilution and corruption of examination system, as deliberate attempts to dismantle public funded higher education in favour of private universities.
The DUTA also sees this hurried exercise as an attempt to divert attention from the expansion necessary in terms of infrastructure and man-power to retain standards in EWS expansion. Universities are soon going to suffer from shortage of space and faculty and will fail to cater to the enhanced number of students.
The DUTA finds the DU VC’s farcical eleventh-hour move to comply with UGC’s diktats academically unacceptable. It warns the VC to desist from foisting any such exercise on the departments and faculties without adequate debate and discussion on the desirability and feasibility of such models. It also warns the UGC from its repeated attempts to undermine the academic autonomy of universities, take centralised and unilateral decisions on curricular matters and micromanage teaching-learning processes. It appeals to the DU VC to immediately withdraw his instructions on the LOCF-based Curricular revision and start a genuine process of consultation with the Academic Council, college teachers, departments and faculties on the best ways to address issues related to the quality of undergraduate education within Delhi University.
| Rajib Ray President, DUTA Vivek Chaudhary Secretary, DUTA Attachment: Steps for course revision at Undergraduate level – Link UGC Public Notice: Quality Improvement Programme – Link Suggestions for subject specific Learning Outcomes based Learning Outcomes-based Curriculum Framework for Undergraduate Education – Link |
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