Delhi University VC Interview: “4 year UG programme will be launched with proper planning”

Delhi University is going through a transformation phase with the plan to implement the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and starting new centres under the Institution of Eminence (IoE) tag. The undergraduate and postgraduate admission is also going on with students preparing to get into the university. Shiksha.com caught up with Prof PC Joshi, Vice-Chancellor (Acting) of the university to understand its plans and how DU is preparing to welcome students with strict COVID-19 precautions.

Q. How is the Delhi University planning to implement various provisions of the National Education Policy?

A. Delhi University was the first university to form a 42 member NEP implementation committee which included all the stakeholders of the university. This committee held discussions around various provisions of the NEP and after four months they submitted a report to me and we uploaded it on the website of the university. This was done for everyone to see and share their suggestions.

So, as far as implementation of the new National Education Policy is concerned a detailed and open discussion has already taken place and now we are taking it one by one to various statuary bodies as it has already gone through the high power committee.

Now, it will be taken to the Statuary Committee first, then it will go to the Academic Council and we have decided to implement the NEP from the next session onward.

Q. By next session you mean 2022?

A. Yes, it will be implemented from 2022 as we need some time for preparations. At first, we will get it passed by our statuary bodies and then we will have time to adjust, make changes if there are some changes to be made so that by next year we are ready with all the provisions of the NEP which are to be implemented.

We are looking at provisions like three or four years of graduation, one and two years of post-graduation, academic bank of credit, multiple entry and exit options.

Q. There are concerns around Four Year UG courses as the last time when it was launched it had to be rolled back. A section of university teachers are not happy with reintroducing it?

A. We are making proper planning for its implementation and even after the proposal gets through the Standing Committee and Academic Council we will have further discussion on it and prepare ourselves.

We have already been discussing around the provisions of the NEP for the past year and we still have time as we are not implementing it in hurry.

Q. This year Class 12 Board results have been high. Will it also have some kind of impact on the cut-off of UG courses?

A. Last year we saw cut-off of some courses going as high as 100% and high cut-off are something usual for DU colleges and with board results being high we might expect a high cut-off this year as well.

We have also seen that many medical and engineering aspirants also take admission in DU and when their admission happens at engineering or medical college they leave. So, this year have decided that we will admit more students as per the cut-off so that even when they leave, we have an adequate number of students.

Q. Does that mean colleges will admit more students than the number of seats they have?

A. No, what I mean is that if a college comes up with a certain cut-off for a course, like 100% for a course, then all the students who have secure 100% and want to take admission in that course, all those students will be admitted.

Q. What initiatives DU has taken to help students affected by COVID-19?

A. Delhi University has decided to not charge any fee from students who have been affected by COVID-19, especially those who have lost their parents. During examinations, COVID affected students were allowed to make another attempt of examination.

We are conducting examinations online and have also made provisions of awarding degrees online, for which earlier students had to visit the university.

During this year’s Open Book Examination, the attendance was 95 percent, which was even more than the number of students who used to take examinations before the pandemic struck.

Q. When is the university planning to reopen its campuses for physical classes?

A. I think the way things are moving, barring a few states where the number of COVID-19 cases is still high everywhere it is going down. These are very encouraging, however, we are waiting for the Ministry of Home Affairs guidelines for the reopening of campuses.

We have also remain cautious and cannot let our guards down and have to remain cautious, we are also collecting data related to the vaccination status of teaching and non-teaching staff and students.

Personally, I am of the opinion that slowly we should move towards restarting classes in physical mode, without putting students and teachers in any kind of danger.

Q. It has been almost two years since DU got the IoE status. How is the university moving in that direction?

A. Such plans require changes and a lot of things are to be created, we have created several schools under the IoE scheme, their advisor bodies were created. Now we have started moving and we have distributed around Rs 5 crore among faculty members for various types of projects and have also started post-doctoral fellowships. We have started a few schools, like the School of Public Health and Climate Change.

In different schools now post-doctoral researchers would join and we would pay them a handsome salary and this would give a boost to research at Delhi University.

Q. Some of the faculty members of DU have alleged that IoE, NEP are an attempt to privatize the university? How do you look at that?

A. Under the IoE we will not be running regular courses like BA Programme or so, it will have very niche kind of courses which will be self-sustaining and these will be different from the existing courses that we have.

Coming to NEP, it is a welcome move where the universities will provide practical education along with theoretical education. As far as privatization is concerned the constitutional provisions are there and they would safeguard the interest of students belonging to various sections, like SC, ST, OBC, EWS, etc. And Delhi University will continue to admit students as per the reservation policy.

Q. Delhi University has one of the highest numbers of faculty positions lying vacant. How are you addressing this challenge?

A. The Delhi University has around 840 faculty posts lying vacant and they can be filled if we go on fast-track mode.

Q. There are around 4500 ad-hoc faculty members teaching at various DU colleges also?

A. All those ad-hoc faculty members are teaching against the vacant positions and they can be filled and once these vacant positions are filled we will not have any position vacant. The problem is that these positions have not been filled due to one reason or the other thus causing a huge backlog, but this can be covered. We also had a huge backlog of promotions, and we could cover that, similarly, if we start a faculty recruitment drive we will be able to fill all the vacant positions.

Q. How is the DU planning to improve research activity?

A. Through IoE the seed has been shown and through this, the research activities will be taken to next level. Right now it is only looking at research activity at the university departments, slowly we are going to involve our 91 colleges in the research activities.

At present DU has the highest H-Index in India, which is 219, last year it was 194, so we are moving very fast. We have also launched a scheme called Vidya-Vistar under which we have linked ourselves with various departments and colleges in India to enter into a collaborative kind of research.

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