Under the banner of New Education Policy (NEP), the University of Delhi is prepping up to have something new on stage from the next academic session. The varsity is thinking of bringing back the Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP).
After the announcement of NEP, a special committee was formed to decide the various changes to be brought and the guidelines for the implementation of the NEP. National Informatics Centre (NIC), the implementation committee has met 18 times now since October. In the opinion of DU Vice-Chancellor (acting), “The university has extensively worked on it in the last 6-7 months and we are ready to implement it now.”
However, the decision is still a proposal. It will be sent forward to the Academic Council and the Executive council for their approval. As per the administration, “The university is trying its best to implement some of the recommendations, without making too many changes, by the next academic session.”
Understanding the Dynamics
Under the new rules (if applied), a student can pursue a three or four-year honours degree in a discipline or in a discipline with research. It will come with multiple exit points. A student can get a certificate after pursuing it for one year and a diploma after two years. An honours degree would be provided on completion of three or four years of study.
The system of multiple exits will be supported by the Academic Bank of Credit, where credits of students will be recorded and restored in the Digilocker.
A name change that will happen without Yogi Adityanath as its part will be of BA/BCom/ BSc programmes. The committee has recommended Bachelors of Science (Honours), Bachelors of Arts (Honours) in Humanities and Social Sciences, and Bachelors of Commerce Studies (Honours) as their new names.
If a student chooses to get an honours degree in a discipline, they will be required to study four generic elective (minors) papers in the fourth year. The student shall also study two discipline-specific elective papers. A research dissertation will have to be completed on their major discipline of study. This will be accompanied by an inter-disciplinary research dissertation on the major and minor disciplines of study.
Whereas, if a student’s choice is to get an honours degree in their discipline with research. They will be required to study four generic elective (minors) papers in the fourth year. These would be accompanied by two discipline-specific elective papers.
There are several additions as well with the goal of making degrees multi-disciplinary. Two language and literature courses will have to be taken up in the duration of four years. Of these, one must be an Indian language. A social and emotional learning course for promoting well being and health. Along with this, ethics and culture, innovation will be mingled in the curriculum via these additional courses.
The fate of FYUP so far
The FYUP was introduced at the University of Delhi in 2014 but was scraped off in the same year. A major reason was the constant protest by students and teachers. The Democratic Teacher’s Front (DTF) has opposed this reintroduction by pointing out the “colossal failure of the past”.
The acting Vice-Chancellor, PC Joshi said that multiple exit points will be beneficial for students from the marginalised background who would want to discontinue studies temporarily due to their circumstances. DTF argues that such exit options encourage and institutionalize the system of drop-outs. This applies especially to the students coming from socially and economically underprivileged sections, particularly women.
Another thing that is worth pondering upon, is the infrastructure that would require remodelling for the accommodation of students. Additional teachers will be required. This is still a proposal on paper, whereas in reality, the University of Delhi, which even grapples with OBEs, hasn’t declared results for various courses and not so far on the memory lane, DU was even out of paper to print its degrees.
We will have to wait until this proposal gets clearance and goes through other rounds of discussion. If FYUP is brought back to the campus, one thing’s sure that the upcoming batch will face loads of complications.
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