‘DU should opt out of CUET’: Delhi University faculty write to VC about FYUP, admission delay

NEW DELHI: Delhi University’s elected academic council members, Mithuraaj Dhusiya and Monami Basu, raised issues on the Common University Entrance Test (CUET UG 2024), and Undergraduate Curriculum Framework (UGCF 2024) after the DU AC meeting today. The members submitted a note to the DU vice-chancellor demanding review of policies on the basis of their experiences and said the university “should opt out of CUET”.

“The DU administration’s hurried decision to opt for CUET without regard to the concerns raised by teachers has resulted in total chaos and delay in admissions. The decision to push for CUET was done through a report on the admissions of 2021 that ostensibly laid bare the many ills of a system of admission that was time-tested and was working reasonably well,” they said in a statement.

The teachers demanded that the university should allow colleges to apply for up to 20% excess admission in courses on the basis of their analysis of dropouts in past years.

On crowded classrooms and poor infrastructure, the teachers said: “The Admission Policy for 2022, which allowed 20% excess admissions in all courses in colleges led to excess admissions in courses in which dropout rate is almost nil. This has further skewed the student-teacher ratio in courses like BA (Hons) English, BA (Hons) History, BA (Hons) Political Science and BCom (Hons), especially in the campus colleges.”

Delay in DU admission

They pointed out that this is the third year in succession that the UG admission process has been delayed in DU owing to the CUET. The recent incidences of NEET paper leak and anomalies in the results have raised questions on the credibility of National Testing Agency (NTA).

The NTA conducted CUET UG 2024 in May and a retest was held from July 15 to 19. “With the inordinate delay in the CUET-UG results, admissions are nowhere in sight,” it said.

The Delhi University has announced the academic calendar for UG 2nd and 3rd year students, however, the first semester dates are yet to be announced. “The said academic calendar is aligned with the calendar of PG courses where the admission process is likely to be complete by the end of July.”

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UGCF, lab work diluted

Criticising the decision to implement UGCF, the professors said: “A rushed half-baked exercise has once again caused hardships to students and teachers and resulted in much feared dilution. Over 70,000 students are victims of this ill-conceived restructuring every year. Another batch will start its academic life in the same chaos.”

“It is a matter of great concern (and shame) that even after 2 years since its implementation, the University has failed to bring courses of the 4th year to the Academic Council!” it added.

Sharing their experience of UGCF, the faculty said that the reduction in credit hours for each paper has resulted in dilution of papers. “In most courses, most papers, the dilution is masked by retaining the earlier content but by allocating a reduced number of hours for its teaching. This is academic dishonesty,” the teachers said.

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“In papers with a lab component, either the lab component or the theory component remains compromised. For science disciplines Lab work has been diluted, theory has been diluted by reducing the number of hours. Only 2 hrs of lab a week, lectures reduced from 4 lectures to 3. Science is a hands-on subject.”

“In the discipline of geography- cartography paper has 8-hours practical (credit distribution: 0L,4P, 0T). This flexibility should be allowed for all courses, especially for science courses which have been asking for more practical houses. Maybe a separate paper can be introduced for practical,” the teachers said.

The teachers pointed out that the FYGP means 25% expansion in terms of students to be hosted and said that a college which gives admission to 1,000 students should be ready in terms of human resource and infrastructure to cater to another 1,000 students as continuing up to the Fourth year is a student’s choice.