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NSIT Granted University Status

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After a long period of 2.5 years, the central government finally approved to grant University status to Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology (NSIT). NSIT, located in Dwarka, is one of the premier technical institutes of India and was affiliated with the University of Delhi for its academic programs.

NSIT, now to be known as Netaji Subhash University of Technology, was inaugurated by the Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister of Delhi, Mr. Manish Sisodia, on 27th September 2018. Now running as a university, NSUT will have the autonomy to revise curriculum, create its own Academic Council, and fast-track administrative decisions. The University will remain answerable to the University Grants Commission.

At the inception of NSIT, in 1983, it was expected that the institute would eventually aim to become a university. It was granted administrative autonomy in 1986 with the direction to keep in mind this long-term goal. In 2013, a Cabinet meeting presided over by then Chief Minister of Delhi, Smt. Sheila Dikshit, gave its approval to upgrade NSIT into a university. In June 2015, the Assembly had passed the NSIT Bill (amendment) tabled by the Aam Aadmi Party government. After passing the Bill, the House had sent it to the President for his approval through the Ministry of Home Affairs. In January 2017, President Pranab Mukherjee returned the Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology Bill, which sought to accord university status to the institute, to the Delhi Assembly asking the House to reconsider and amend the legislation.

Mr. Sisodia was quoted saying, “NSUT will focus on creating job-makers instead of job seekers by including entrepreneurship and skill-based education in the curriculum. Mr. Yogesh Singh the Vice Chancellor of Delhi University added that with the university status, the institute will have the flexibility to start self-regulated courses and have full autonomy in academic and administrative matters. “Now, the government has also made it mandatory for all universities to be part of the NIRF rankings. This means several aspects of the university will need to be upgraded and worked on to score well. The university wouldn’t have been able to do this kind of work on itself if it were under Delhi University,” he said.

The Secretary of the department of technical education and higher education, Devinder Singh, said while autonomy was a good thing, it was the responsibility of the university to use the funds given to them judiciously. “It is on us to take the university forward,” he said.

“Personally it doesn’t really affect me because I, as a fourth-year student, would still receive a degree issued from Delhi University. My course structure was exactly the same as it had been since the last 10 years. My juniors had a new Choice Based Credit System providing flexibility in terms of their subjects. As of now, there’s primarily been the only infrastructural advancement. There’s this legendary fountain which hadn’t been working for decades and it took just two days of efforts to get it working, and as trivial as it may sound, even our alumni were pretty amazed by it. As the seat intake will be increased, the competition might increase in the placement opportunities as they might not increase in proportion to the seats,” Simratpall Singh, a final year student of NSIT said.

After a long trial and court run, only time will tell how this decision pans out for the University and the students.

Feature Image Credits: NSIT

Gurleen Kaur

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Journalism has been called the “first rough draft of history”. D.U.B may be termed as the first rough draft of DU history. Freedom to Express.

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