Students shout slogans during a protest over controversial FYUP at Delhi University campus on Tuesday.
Hundreds of students plan to march to the heart of the capital today to seek President Pranab Mukherjee's intervention in a standoff over the Delhi University's controversial four-year undergraduate programme, which has stalled college admissions.
The university's defiance after another order to scrap its controversial four-year undergraduate programme signals a prolonged wait for nearly three lakh of students who begin college this year.
The University Grants Commission or UGC, the central funding agency that coordinates college education policies, wrote to the University again last night saying that admissions must begin under a three-year degree format instead of the Four Year Undergraduate Programme or FYUP introduced last year amid opposition from students and teachers' groups. (
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Colleges say they cannot begin admissions without permission from the university. (
Delhi University Keeps Admissions on Hold)
The UGC says the four-year format is a violation of the nationwide policy of a three-year undergraduate degree.
Most of Delhi's 60-odd colleges have reportedly said they are ready to migrate to the old three-year pattern, but the university's Vice Chancellor Dinesh Singh has refused to consider it.
"Unfortunate that the DU VC's ego is overriding the future of lakhs of students," said Siddharth Nath Singh, a member of the ruling BJP. The government has refused to step into the dispute for now.
A group of academicians, said to be supporters of the Vice Chancellor, have proposed a three-year honours programme and an extra year of research as a middle path. But Mr Singh, reportedly, has not agreed.
Colleges see a way out of the mess in the Delhi High Court, which is likely to take up two petitions on the four-year degree in July. (
Delhi University to Hold BMS Entrance Test)
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 after the UGC said they have to migrate to a three-year pattern.