Delhi University (DU) will witness the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) from the next academic year, after Executive Council (EC) gave the final approval to the decision in a late night meeting held Tuesday. Three members dissented. This means DU will have a four year undergraduate programme from the academic session 2022-23.
The Academic Council had earlier passed the agenda on August 24 with 16 of the 26 elected members dissenting against the decision. They also alleged there was no discussion and they were asked to just submit the dissent notes.
“The NEP has been passed in the meeting today. It will now be implemented from the Academic Session 2022-23. Detailed discussions took place on the matter. Three people even dissented which we have noted,” Registrar Vikas Gupta said.
EC members Seema Das, R P Singh and Ashok Aggarwal dissented on the matter. While Das is an elected teacher representative, Singh and Aggarwal are members of the University Court in the EC.
“I found it extremely unfortunate that a major restructuring was passed without responding to important issues raised by members. How can restructuring of UG courses be delinked with PG restructuring? Merits of FYUP are not clear, why should students pay for an additional year if the indepth study of a discipline in 4-year UG course remains what it is today in a 3-year undergraduate Honours course,” said Aggarwal, an advocate.
Singh, also an advocate, said, “We said that social justice will not be done if it becomes a four year undergraduate course because not everyone will be able to afford the fourth year. We also brought up the issue of a possible reduction in the workload of teachers.” In their dissent note, the trio said the NEP was “a blue print for privatisation and commercialisation of education” and that its implementation in DU would lead to the “destruction of leading public funded university of India”.
