New Delhi:
Lakhs of students are currently stranded because Delhi University has put its admissions process on hold. Admissions were meant to start today, but a massive controversy over the university's four-year undergraduate programme has left faculty and students utterly confused about what happens next.
Here is your 10-point cheat-sheet to this story:
Delhi University - which has about 60 colleges - introduced a four-year under-graduate programme (FYUP) last year amid opposition from several associations of students and teachers.
Now, the University Grants Commission, the government agency that funds universities and coordinates and maintains college education standards and policies, says Delhi University must cancel its four-year degree immediately. (UGC Gives Ultimatum to Delhi University over Four-Year Programme)
The agency says that the four-year programme violates the nationwide policy and requirement for an undergraduate degree to be completed in three years.
Delhi University says that the order violates its autonomy. It says the University Grants Commission is entitled to offer advice, not order changes.
The central government has refused to intervene and requested the warring sides to arrive urgently at a settlement. "I am not at liberty to comment," said Education Minister Smriti Irani this morning.
Admissions to Delhi University were to start today, but colleges have refrained from releasing the cut-off list - the first step in the process - that informs students of the marks needed for each course. (Read)
Elsewhere in India, students get an honours degree in three years. At Delhi University, an honours degree in Arts or Science, which would denote specialization in one subject like Economics or English, involves an extra year. After the first two years of their course, students are eligible for a diploma. After three years, they get a bachelor's degree.
Critics of the four-year programme argue that it forces students to spend the first two years studying general "foundation" courses, similar to the US college system. They say the current schooling system in India (the 10+2 scheme) allows students to enter college primed to choose a specific subject or discipline.
Nearly 60,000 students who started in the four-year programme last year are worried about their future. The University Grants Commission is working on a plan to help them migrate to a three-year degree.
That plan needs to be finalized before the next academic session begins in August.
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