3 Course Structures in Delhi University (DU): Is it Chaos in the Making?

The Delhi University on Monday (20th July, 2015) welcomed a fresh batch of undergraduate students who will study as per the new Choice Based Credit System (CBCS).

With a string of changes introduced in DU’s programmes in the last three years, all the three under-graduate classes of the University will follow different course structures this time.

The first year students will study as per CBCS, the second year students will be taught under the normal semester system of the university and the third year batch of students will follow the now defunct Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP).

In addition, students at DU’s School of Open Learning (SOL) will follow the annual system.

Teachers at the varsity have warned that the three course structures at DU will lead to a lot of chaos. They say courses will overlap, students will be burdened and there are not enough teachers to carry forward the changes.

“We are being pushed to adapt to new schemes without consultation. We will have to make time tables keeping in mind that many courses would overlap and teachers may not be available to teach the overlapping courses,” university’s executive council member Abha Dev Habib said.

In the last three years, the university has overhauled its undergraduate programme thrice. The latest, CBCS, will allow students to take optional courses outside their subject as well as college.

Rudrashish Chakraborty, who teaches English at Kirori Mal College (KMC), said courses in Indian and European classical literature were to be taught to CBCS, second year and third year students.

“Not every college will have the experts to teach all three years at the same time. This poses a problem,” he said.

Rajesh Jha, a teacher of political science at Rajdhani College, said that the university had turned into a laboratory for experiments, which would hit the students hardest.

“All the three systems are different...  Before we could make up for the FYUP fiasco we had CBCS being forced upon us,” Jha said.

Meanwhile, the colleges have geared up for the new sessions with the orientation schedules and timetables.

"Our timetables and orientation details have already been posted on our website. Our orientation programme will include a brief about the rules and policies of the college and various activities and clubs available at the institution," Principal, Miranda House, Pratibha Jolly said.

To facilitate the smooth implementation of the CBCS, the varsity has constituted a CBCS Oversight Committee (CBCS-OC) to be headed by the dean, Faculty of Science and whose members include several deans as well as some Principals.

Vice chancellor Dinesh Singh will be visiting a few colleges to welcome the freshers. The colleges have also adopted strict measures to check ragging on its campuses.

"All colleges have been asked to form anti-ragging squads and we have established two control rooms to deal with such complaints. Officials from Delhi Police and DTC have been taken on board to check incidents of ragging. The students are advised to use public transport and raise the issue with authorities if they are subjected to any form of ragging on campus," a senior varsity official said.

SK Garg, principal, Deen Dayal Upadhyay College said, "The students will be informed about mechanism to check ragging so they know whom to contact in case of any problem and do not face inconvenience. We will be monitoring ourselves too to keep a check on such incidents."

The Delhi University admission process is still underway and another cut-off list is expected to be announced to accommodate more aspirants.

Source: hindustantimes.com