Amid the day-long confusion and chaos due to the ongoing tussle between the University Grants Commission (UGC) and Delhi University (DU) over the four-year undergraduate programme (FYUP), admissions to colleges for this academic session have been deferred.
SK Garg, President, DU Principals’ Association, said, “We have resolved that till unambiguous guidelines are sent by the authorities, admissions will be deferred.” There is conflict between the DU and UGC guidelines, with the latter sending out a notice to colleges on June 22 asking them to admit students for the three-year undergrad, not the FYUP that was introduced last year.
“As of now, there is no clarity on the admission process. It will not start from Tuesday,” Garg added.
The UGC on Monday afternoon held a meeting with a 10-member standing committee, which met for the first time, to discuss how to facilitate movement of students from FYUP to a three-year programme. It also deemed admissions to the FYUP as illegal.
Meanwhile, Nandita Narain, President, Delhi University Teachers Association, told Business Line , “Regarding the admissions for the fresh batch this year, we feel there is no need to invite fresh applications and cut-offs can be declared on past trends.”
For the benefit of students, there will be four papers in each semester, she added. “The foundation courses and application courses stand scrapped, while BTech students will be allowed to continue with the four-year structure,” Narain said.
The principal of a North Campus college, on the condition of anonymity, said, “We have received no communication from the Vice-Chancellor’s side. While UGC’s directive to go back to a three-year programme will not affect cut-offs much, there will be slight variation in the number of seats as the BSc programme and BA programme courses will be back. Things will get clearer in 2-3 days.”
The DU, a Central university, has about 54,000 seats, and has received about 2.75 lakh applications from across the country this year.
On Monday, protests were held in Delhi University and outside the Ministry of Human Resource Development by supporters and opposers of the FYUP. According to news reports, HRD Minister Smriti Irani, after a meeting with UGC officials, said she would not intervene in the matter and the DU and the UGC must sort out the matter.