New Delhi:
The Delhi University Vice Chancellor Dinesh Singh's ambitious academic announcements have not gone down well with a section of teachers, who are fuming at neither being consulted nor being informed about plans that would have a bearing on the future of the varsity.
A day after the Vice Chancellor (VC) told the media that the institution was planning a four-year B Tech (humanities) course under a meta-college concept, teachers said they feared such radical announcements from the top would wreck the future of the University.
"Till date there has been no debate or discussion on the four year undergraduate programme, in any statutory body - be it Staff Council, Committee of Courses, or Faculties. No vision papers on the same have ever been circulated amongst the teachers in this regard for their feedback," said the DU teachers association (DUTA) in a statement on Saturday.
According to the proposals, the four-year course will allow students to pick and choose subjects of their choice, choose to study in different colleges in different semesters and effectively design their own degree.
The course to be introduced this session, will pave the way for proper four-year undergraduate courses from 2013.
The DUTA said it believed the Vice Chancellor was compromising the future of the students and the varsity in general "in his zeal to follow diktats of Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal".
A similar clash had occurred between the varsity administration and the teachers when the semesterisation process was introduced.
"This is a manifestation of a nexus in play between Sibal and the VC to prepare us to sign MoUs with foreign Universities. We see it all as an extension of the six education bills that are currently in the parliament," said DUTA Executive Member Abha Dev Habib.
"We fear if such a situation persists DU will quickly die," she said.
The DUTA said the new system announced by the VC is intended to redefine the entire academic structure at DU.
"It is unfortunate that the VC plans to impose yet another major change without holding consultative processes regarding the feasibility and desirability of such a shift with the university community," it said.