‘Bitter experience’: DU’s 4th-year students face sudden rule changes, limited options, teacher shortage

Ankita Singhal* knew from the start she wanted to do a fourth year. A psychology student at Delhi University’s Lakshmibai College, she figured adding a research dissertation to her undergraduate studies would bolster her CV and support her application for studying abroad. But that plan is unravelling fast.

With no clarity on guidelines for years into her studies, she went by news reports that said students with a 7.8 CGPA throughout would be allowed to do a research project in their fourth year. She was careful to maintain that grade all through and, confident she was making it, started planning her research project in third year itself. But two months into the fourth year, her college announced that students need a minimum CGPA 8 to be allowed to do a research dissertation in their final year. The rest would be divided into groups and trained in academic writing. She described this as the “most absurd thing” to ever happen to her.

But she’s not alone.

A large number of DU undergraduates who have chosen to stay on for the fourth year complain they are left dealing with new guidelines, their vastly different interpretations across colleges and confusion.

In the last week of October, with just a few months left of the semester, DU dropped updated guidelines on assessment of research work, translation and entrepreneurship outcomes. Through these, language-department students discovered that translation is also an option.

Teachers’ workload has increased and the fourth year has laid bare the problems of infrastructure and resource shortage.

“Everyone is shooting in the dark,” said a Miranda House student, while a teacher quipped: “Everything looks great only on paper”. According to Delhi University officials, over 55% of DU students have opted to join the fourth year.

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Delhi University’s FYUP: 3 tracks

The four-year undergraduate programme is part of the reforms ushered in by the new National Education Policy (NEP 2020). It extends the existing three-year UG degree programme – BA, BSc, BCom and others – to four years, giving students the option to exit early with a lesser degree.

In DU, students must earn 22 credits each in the seventh and eight semesters. The curriculum includes one discipline-specific core (DSC) and gives students the following three options:

• Three discipline-specific electives (DSE)
• Two DSE and one generic elective (GE) or
• One DSE and two GE

The academic writing, dissertation or entrepreneurship component accounts for six credits; across four years, students will earn 176 credits.

A student who completes the fourth year will be awarded a Bachelor (Honours with Research, Academic Project or Entrepreneurship) of the main discipline. That’s not all. Depending on the combination of courses, students will also emerge with a “Major” in the core discipline and a “Minor” if they have completed at least seven GE courses in a second discipline, earning a minimum of 28 credits.

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Here’s an example cited in a DU circular: “A student is enrolled in B.A. (Hons.) History and decides to pursue 4th year (Sem 7 + Sem 8). If s/he successfully completes the 4th year, he/she will be awarded a Major in History. In addition, if the student successfully completes seven GEs in Political Science, he/she will be awarded a Minor in Political Science.”

The rules change for students not in honours programmes that focus on a single discipline but enrolled in multidisciplinary ones, such as BA Programme, BSc Programme and BCom.

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Delhi University has over 70 colleges and each one’s way of handling the fourth year is different. As with nearly all of NEP’s promises of choice and variety, fourth-year options available on paper are missing from actual classrooms, the plans grounded by shortage of resources.

In many DU colleges, students are simply not aware of the entrepreneurship option. In some, academic writing is a single-person exercise and in others, a group activity. Most know about research dissertations but again, the rules vary. Only Lakshmibai College has a minimum CGPA criterion which changed mid-session.

“I had been working on my proposal for six months prior [to starting the fourth year],” said Singhal. “I had chosen the topic and even conducted a literature review. I was generally very excited about it. Teachers had no idea how to go about it and what teacher would be supervising which student. They still asked us to submit proposals and they were grouping us according to the type of research in psychology we were doing. Every professor got seven students, each group including honours and programmes students. They held an assembly on the first day of fourth year. They talked about academic writing, entrepreneurship and dissertation writing. We could do academic writing in groups.”

But due to shortage of teachers, the rules were changed two months into the programme. Students were told they needed CGPA 8 for the research dissertation track. Those who didn’t have that would be moved to academic writing and placed in groups according to the projects. “This is not written anywhere in the guidelines. They have been throwing random rules every time. It is completely absurd,” complained Singhal.

However, the college relaxed that minimum CGPA requirement for an international student who said that without a research dissertation, her degree would not be recognised in her country.

Teachers pointed out that even students with “essential repeat” – those who’ve failed certain papers and must resit – have moved into the fourth year. Considering that the fourth year is for levelling up skills and understanding, they described it as “injustice to the system and the students”.

Meanwhile, students at Rajdhani College know only about research dissertation. Ayush Nirala, pursuing a BA (Hons) Political Science degree stayed on for a fourth year to improve his grade and to be able to appear for University Grants Commission – National Eligibility Test (UGC NET) right after graduation. Nirala is from Bihar.

At St. Stephen’s College, academic writing is an individual and not a group project.

“Being in St. Stephens, I am privileged to have a great faculty who is helping us with academic projects. We have had several orientations and meetings. But my friends in other colleges have expressed concern about the lack of resources. There is still uncertainty with regard to what we have to do in fourth year. The session started in August, but we got the syllabus late. There are several things for which we still require clarifications,” said an English (Hons) student from the college. For example, everyone is now silent on the internship option promised earlier. Of the 40 students in his class, 20 have opted for the fourth year.

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DU ‘did not prepare for anything’

Colleges are hamstrung by the university’s “top-down implementation approach” and lack of preparation.

“The university did not prepare for anything. Has any MOU been signed where students will be sent to learn about entrepreneurship?” asked Abha Dev Habib, physics professor at Miranda House. “Options on offer should vary from department to department. For commerce or economics, it makes sense to provide entrepreneurship. In sciences, dissertation and academic writing would have made more sense.”

Miranda House is not offering entrepreneurship or academic writing. But even in undergraduate research, the logistics have not been thought through.

“If you have asked me to guide research, I will guide in the area of my interest and specialisation. The sciences have narrow streams and a lot of specialisation. I cannot guide research in areas with which I am not familiar,” said Habib.

The college’s physics department listed the areas in which its 17 teachers have expertise in a presentation and left students to pick fields and guides. Unlike the humanities and other departments which have had many students opting for the fourth year, just 17 of the 86 in physics remained. Dev-Habib is guiding one student and co-guiding another.

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A teacher at Lakshmibai College, asking not to be named, shared her experience of the launch. “An assembly was held with the university resource person when the new set of guidelines was shared,” she said. “In certain humanities subjects, like psychology, unlike sciences, research problems or statements are not defined. Instead, a hypothesis is proposed. The university resource person said, ‘You can keep the research problem while presenting here at university and while sending for publication remove them.’ How can such things be done?”

Quality of research

In addition to the projects, there are more papers to cover and attendance is compulsory. Everyone is pressed for time. Some students said they are being encouraged to pick ‘easy’ topics.

“The problem is that in the seventh semester we have to write an article and submit a proposal. In the eighth, we have to submit a dissertation. We need time to write the dissertation. We have to also study and attendance is compulsory. It has become an issue. I am worried about the quality of the research papers,” said Nirala. Of 60 students in his class, 25 have continued into the fourth year.

Students say even professors are not clear about the guidelines. Aman Prakash Sharma, history student at Rajdhani college, added, “There are changes everyday. The policy has its own problems, but the ones who have no idea about the future are now doing fourth year. It is up to us what topics we choose. It is easier if these are topics for which there are resources available online. A friend wanted to work on the Bihar election, for which he’d have to travel to Bihar. But there is no clarity on what will happen to such research.” Of a class of 56 students, 24 are in fourth year.

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“What are the criteria to decide who is able to do research? Why have you put so much compulsory coursework?” asked Debraj Mookerjee, English professor at Ramjas College. “There is a general concern about how students will produce dissertations in six months…The way 240 marks are distributed looks magnificent on paper but we don’t know how we are going to do it.” Moorkerjee is supervising three fourth-year students. 38 of Ramjas’ 100 English (Hons) students have joined the fourth year.

Apart from the research supervisor, each student has a facilitator and an external faculty-member from a different department overseeing their work.

The general-electives burden

Many students also opted for general electives (GE), aiming to graduate with a minor degree along with the major. This has only added to the burden.

Here, too, the rules vary. For instance, some colleges are allowing students to do their research dissertation in the 'minor' discipline. While in others, students have been told their dissertation must be in their core discipline.

An English (H) student at St.Stephen’s College said, “I have a girl in my class who is from Physics (Hons) but her dissertation is in English.” But Sharma’s college insists the dissertation be in the core discipline.

And once again, options available on paper are absent in practice. Lakshmibai College students had even written to the VC complaining about not getting their choice of discipline for GE.

“Since there was a shortage of teachers this year, our department could not offer psychology as GE. They didn't have enough teachers. Many students wrote to the VC but nothing could be done. They did not get psychology as GE. Some students are getting allotted GE right now in October and we’ll probably have exams in December. It has been a very bitter experience,” said the fourth-year student.

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Habib added, “Seventh and eight DSE are very difficult papers and it should have been enough. We are able to meet them only after college hours beyond 5pm or we try to find time in between lunch breaks.”

Semester VII assessment guidelines

As per the new guidelines, students will be assessed on various parameters related to their research dissertation at the end of the seventh semester and scored out of 240.

The parameters for assessment, as notified by the university, are the following:

• Identification of research problems
• Review of literature
• Formulation of research design
• Commencement of data collection, field work or equivalent activities
• End-term assessment

The “end term assessment” will include presentation of the other details, a tentative list of chapters, and for science projects, preliminary results or pilot data. A viva-voce examination will also be held.

For those who have opted for translations, there will also be on-the-spot translation exercises. But this is just for Semester VII. DU will issue separate guidelines for the eighth and final one.

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Who’s opting for the fourth year?

A large number of students who opted for the fourth year did so with an eye to a foreign master’s degree. Others needed the time to plan their careers or a quicker route to higher education.

A Miranda House student explained: “Sixteen years of formal education is a must for overseas application. This fourth year also gives us buffer time to figure out what we want to do in our career. Even if we want to do a job, the research experience will also help in the corporate world. There are reports which say that doing a fourth year will also help us get a direct PhD.” Of the 110 students in her class, 30 are in the fourth year.

In most colleges, humanities and social science students have joined the fourth year. A student at St. Stephen’s said that in his college, most science students have exited after the third year. According to teachers, students who didn’t get admission in master’s or were unable to secure a job placement stayed for the fourth year.

*Names changed on request