Press Statement: 7 July 2014
DUTA demands Urgent Restructuring of 2nd and 3rd year course of 2013 batch: Condemns Shocking Inaction by DU Administration
Following the official declaration that the FYUP was being rolled back, made on 27.6.2014, it was the duty of the Vice-Chancellor to immediately start the process of restructuring the courses for the students enrolled in 2013. The Vice-Chancellor ought to have started the process of course restructuring at once through the AC, EC, Faculties and Committees of Courses of the departments in order to ensure that it is completed before the commencement of the academic session on 21st July. The batch of students who have suffered the most due to hasty experimentation of the worst kind deserve urgent attention so that they can be provided the best possible courses in the 2nd and 3rd years and can be brought on par with the pre-FYUP Honours programme.
Even in the case of B.Tech and BMS courses, where clear guidelines from the UGC were issued on 29 June and 30 June respectively, the University has made no move to safeguard the careers of these students.
The callous attitude of the VC towards these students is unpardonable.
The task should have indeed been initiated on 21.6.2014 when the UGC order stating that FYUP was at variance with the national policy was received. Instead all are witness to a sordid drama: announcement of resignation, not going through with resignation, organising a formula of a blended FYUP signed by persons close to him as an appeal by eminent persons, not displaying revised admission schedules prominently on the website, and reported statements by officials that the restructuring is the UGC’s headache. Assignment of teaching work to teachers, timely appointment of teachers and preparation of time-table so that teaching can start on commencement of the academic session require the process of restructuring to be carried out without any delay.
While we demand that the UGC send the minutes of the deliberations of the Committee it has constituted to advise the University of Delhi on migration to the three year structure, the application of mind on the issue should have already started. Instead of convening the meetings of the AC & EC on 28.6.2014 merely to approve the Vice-Chancellor’s decision on the roll-back, the meeting should have been utilised to simultaneously initiate the process of restructuring. After waiting for a week, hoping that Prof. Dinesh Singh will wake up to the enormous responsibility towards students, 12 members of the Academic Council have submitted a requisition for a meeting of the Academic Council.
Prof. Dinesh Singh has convened many meetings of the Academic Council on emergent basis on regular, non-urgent, matters. We demand that he convenes the meeting at once on this most urgent matter. He has no right to hold on the office of the Vice-Chancellor of a university and play truant, obstruct and jeopardise the careers of thousands of young students.
Statute 11-G of the Statutes of the University of Delhi makes clear the responsibility of the Vice-Chancellor. As the principal Executive and Academic Officer (clause 1), he is charged with the duty to see that the Act, the Statutes, the Ordinances and the Regulations are duly observed. Section 4 of the Act stipulates providing instruction in branches of learning as the first function. Clause 3 of the same Statute grants the power to convene the meetings of the Authorities such as the Executive Council and the Academic Council in order to carry out or further the provisions of the Act, the Statutes and the Ordinances.
Since Prof. Dinesh Singh has wilfully failed to carry out the basic responsibilities of the office he holds and both his actions and inaction is threatening the very purpose of the University and are inimical to the interests of students of the University, he should not continue in office.
We urge the Hon’ble President of India in his capacity as the Visitor of the University of Delhi to take cognizance of the institutional collapse and intervene immediately by expressing his displeasure and issuing direction to the University to carry out the task of restructuring earnestly and expeditiously keeping in mind the interests of the students enrolled in 2013.
DUTA Executive Meeting on Restructuring
The emergent meeting of the DUTA Executive held on Saturday, 5 July discussed various suggestions for the restructuring of courses for the students admitted to FYUP in 2013. The following broad parameters were recommended for the Academic Council and the Committees of Courses of various subjects to keep in mind while restructuring the courses of the 2nd and 3rd year for the batch admitted in 2013:
1. At least 14 papers from the main discipline / Honours course should be offered over the next two years (so that students would study a minimum of 18 papers of the main discipline in three years).
2. Departments may use the Honours papers prepared for DC-I or pre-FYUP Honours papers to prepare the course work (sequence of papers) for 2013 FYUP batch. Preparation of new papers and syllabi at this juncture should be avoided.
3. At least two papers from disciplines other than the main discipline should be offered (equivalent to the level of the two concurrent papers studied by pre-FYUP students), for which tutorials must also be offered.
4. The appeal by President DUSU and other students’ organisations that, to avoid over-burdening, a student should not have to offer more than four papers per semester, should be given sympathetic consideration. In any case the number of papers per semester should not be more than what it was in the pre-FYUP courses.
5. Optional papers, wherever present in the pre-FYUP Honours courses, should be restored.
6. There should be no Research Methodology papers, Foundation and Applied papers in the second and third year, or any period for CA.
Given the complete lack of sensitivity on the part of the administration towards the future of the batch of students of 2013, the DUTA, along with all student groups, will hold a Dharna at the Arts Faculty Gate on Tuesday, 8 July from 2 – 4 pm to press for an immediate meeting of the Academic Council to resolve the issue.
Nandita Narain, President
Harish Khanna, Secretary
https://duta.live
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