Delhi University has given approval to four-year undergraduate programme. Twenty-one members of the executive council met to discuss the changes in the syllabi, course structure, admission process, evaluation process and promotion criteria that were approved the night before by the Academic Council (AC).
The AC passed the courses with six dissents (with 86 members voting in favour of FYUP) and the EC with two (19 for FYUP). With these approvals, all formal requirements as per the University of Delhi Act, statutes and ordinances have been complied with and the university is all set to launch the programme.
The AC and EC have also cleared changes to grade nomenclature and the names, associate baccalaureate, baccalaureate and baccalaureate with honours, have finally been junked in favour of diploma, bachelor and bachelor with honours/BTech, respectively.
The AC had also decided to extend the span period. Now the time allowed to a student to complete a course is up to 10 years. The change proposed in the agenda was six years from the year of admission in the first semester, irrespective of whether the students will be awarded a diploma, bachelor degree or bachelor with honours/B Tech degree, provided the student has completed all requirements to become eligible for appearing in the University examinations as per rules.
The executive council had passed various draft ordinances pertaining to admission, examinations and 44 courses in a matter of three and a half hours. It is unfortunate that a major overhauling is taking place without allowing the Executive Council to scrutinize the agenda papers.