DU EC 1278th Meeting: Sri Lankan PM to get honorary degree; UG spot admissions, PhD guidelines approved

University of Delhi (DU) held the 1278th meeting of its Executive Council (EC) on September 12, 2025, under Vice Chancellor Yogesh Singh. During the meeting, the council approved awarding an honorary doctorate to Sri Lankan Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya, authorised undergraduate admissions through physical admission for vacant seats, and approved PhD course guidelines starting 2025-26.

The honorary degree will be conferred during a special convocation, likely on October 17–18, 2025, coinciding with Amarasuriya’s visit to India for the NDTV World Summit 2025. Amarasuriya graduated in Sociology from Hindu College, University of Delhi, between 1991 and 1994 under a scholarship from the Ministry of External Affairs.

On UG admissions, the EC discussed vacant seats in some colleges and approved an open mop-up round to allow students to take admission directly through physical admission. The Vice Chancellor was authorised to formulate the policy.

“The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Yogesh Singh, suggested that an Open Mop-Up round should be considered for them so that students can get admission directly in the college through Spot Admission through physical admission. On this subject, the EC members authorised the Vice Chancellor to formulate a policy,” the official press release said.

DU EC 1278th Meeting: ECA and sports quota policy

For fourth-year UG programmes under NEP 2020, the Vice Chancellor recommended establishing research discussion rooms in all colleges and arranging rooms for faculty members.

Admissions under the Extra-Curricular Activities (ECA) and Sports quota were also discussed in the meeting. The Vice Chancellor stated that all colleges will have a combined 5 per cent quota. Within this, colleges may divide it in a 3:2 ratio between ECA and Sports, depending on their facilities. The executive council authorised the VC to frame the policy.

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PhD credit requirements standardised

The council also passed guidelines for Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) courses to ensure uniformity across departments from the academic year 2025-26. All departments of the university conduct PhD programmes in their respective subjects, with each offering a mandatory PhD course. It was noted that variations exist in the structure of these courses across different disciplines.

To address this, the council approved new guidelines specifying that the total credit requirement will range from 12 to 16. This includes 4 credits for Research Methodology or Advanced Research Methodology, 2 credits for Research Publication Ethics, 2 credits for Research Tools, and 4 credits for Discipline-Specific Electives. An additional 4 credits may be taken from discipline-specific electives (DSE) if required for a particular field.

“An additional 4 credits may be obtained from DSE if required. This will be applicable to the specific field and such courses should not be offered in postgraduate studies. Teaching hours of PhD courses are included in the workload of the faculty. The courses offered in the PhD course should be of a higher level than the courses offered in postgraduate programmes,” the university said.

During the meeting, the Vice Chancellor congratulated the 15th Vice President of India, C.P. Radhakrishnan, who is also the Chancellor of the university. The EC passed a resolution welcoming him.