ABVP activists celebrate after the Delhi University (DU) finally scrapped the controversial four-year undergraduate programme (FYUP), at North Campus in New Delhi on Friday.
Fresh admissions to Delhi University (DU) for the 2014-15 academic session under the three-year course will commence from Tuesday, a week behind schedule following the row over the controversial four-year undergraduate programme (FYUP).
The university announced the new schedule on its website late this evening.
As per the schedule, the first cut-off list by the colleges will be released at 9 am on July 1 and based on it students can take admission in the colleges of their choice till July 3.
The next cut-off list will be announced on July 4 followed by six more such admission lists.
The admissions were to begin from June 24 but were delayed due to the row over FYUP between DU and University Grants Commission (UGC).
Over 2.7 lakh students had applied for admission under the now scrapped FYUP to more than 54,000 seats in 64 colleges of the varsity.
The admission schedule came on a day when a 12-member committee of principals deliberated on how to go forward with the admission process and submitted their report to Vice Chancellor Dinesh Singh even as uncertainty continued to plague B.Tech students.
A day after Vice Chancellor Dinesh Singh announced the rollback of FYUP, the Academic and Executive Councils of the university passed a resolution to implement the three-year structure from the new academic session.
In the Academic Council meeting, 65 members voted in favour of the three-year course while six dissented.
In the Executive Council meeting 16 supported the changeover while two opposed, EC member Abha Dev Habib said.
Even though the admission schedule was out, there was no clarity on how the four-year B.Tech and Bachelor in Management Sciences courses will be dealt with.
There are over 2500 students who have already completed one year in these streams.
The panel of principals came up with three proposals which include the suggestion of not holding new admissions to B.Tech and BMS programmes.
"The committee has prepared three proposals which have been submitted to the VC. We will discuss the reports with him after which a final decision will be taken," J M Khurana, Dean of Students' Welfare, said.
Another committee member S N Lakshmi said, "New admissions for B.Tech and BMS courses will not take place as they were not in existence in 2012-13," she said.
When asked about the fate of those already enrolled into these courses, Mr Lakshmi said it was not for the committee to decide but their interests too will be taken care of.
Hundreds of students of Delhi University staged a protest outside the HRD Ministry and submitted a representation demanding that the six B.Tech courses introduced last academic session should not be scrapped.
The Ministry has assured that students' interest will be kept in mind and University Grants Commission would be coming out with a statement on this issue.
B.Tech students also staged a protest in North Campus of DU and took a rally from the VC's residence to his office.
Some students tried to enter the VC's office, but were stopped from doing so by Delhi Police and Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel.
The agitating students demanded that their course should not be converted to B.Sc. "We had enrolled in DU for a four-year B.Tech programme and we expect to obtain the same.
"We have no problems if all the other courses are of three years' duration. But our course should remain a four-year course," Arjun Malhotra, a student of B.Tech in Computer Science, said.
Another B.Tech student Rajesh Choudhary said, "We don't want Delhi University to scrap the B.Tech course. If B.Tech gets scrapped, our future will get destroyed. We will not sit silent till our demands are met."
Delhi University yesterday decided to scrap the FYUP after UGC mounted pressure on it to roll it back.
The VC had issued a statement asking principals of various colleges affiliated to the varsity to start admissions for the new session under the three-year format.