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Manish Sisodia writes to the DU Vice- Chancellor: seeks extension of the Tenure of College Governing Bodies

By Avnika Chhikara March 27, 2019

Manish Sisodia, Delhi Education Minister has written a letter to the Vice- Chancellor of DU, Yogesh Tyagi seeking the extension of the tenure of the governing bodies of all 28 government- funded colleges for a period of three months.

This move came after the tenure of the governing bodies of these Delhi Government funded colleges got over on March 8.

Terming the University’s refusal to give extension as a “politically targeted move”, Sisodia further said in his another letter written on March 20 to the VC, “The political overtone in this whole process is quite palpable and is not expected from your high academic office.”

Of the twenty-eight State Government funded colleges, twelve are fully funded while the remaining sixteen receive 5% funding from the Delhi Government. Colleges like Deen Dayal Upadhyay College, Bhagini Nivedita College, Acharya Narayan Dev College, Keshav Mahavidyalaya and others are fully funded by the state government while the rest sixteen include colleges like Gargi College and Kamala Nehru among others.

It is to note that these governing bodies are fully responsible to take all decisions for the smooth functioning of a college, including the admission and appointment process. Earlier too, the Delhi government had stopped funding in these colleges without the consensus on the GB nominees, which resulted in the teachers not receiving their salaries.

“It would not be desirable that the colleges are run without properly constituted governing bodies. It is therefore suggested that the term of the existing nominees be extended,” Sisodia’s letter further read.

Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Tyagi is yet to comment upon the matter. However, an official in the administration said that the university might take some decision on the extension by the next week.

Image credits: DU Beat archives

Shreya Agrawal

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AAP Accuses Vice Chancellor of Interfering with GB Decisions

By Prachi Mehra May 17, 2018

The deadlock of the appointment of Governing Body (GB) heads of the 28 Delhi government funded colleges between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Vice Chancellor broke in March, after a rough patch of one year. AAP alleged on 15th May that the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Yogesh Tyagi has threatened the principals of the 28 colleges under Delhi government against appointing the candidates suggested by the Delhi government for the top posts of the Governing Bodies.

AAP Burari MLA Sanjeev Jha told DNA India, “Before the AAP government in Delhi, any member from the ruling party in Delhi used to be the chairman of the governing body of Delhi University (DU), but now because it is AAP who wants to work for the people, the University has planned to hold elections to have a new chairman. Not only this, they are also putting pressure through the vice chancellor’s office, so that nobody from AAP can be the chairperson of these bodies in any college.” Some colleges under Delhi goverment are Gargi College, Kamala Nehru College, Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Maharaja Agrasen College, Rajdhani College, Maitreyi College, and Satyawati College (Morning) among others.

According to sources, the Vice Chancellor has suggested Mr. Rajiv Nayan’s name for the post in Satyawati College due to his close relations with him but the college authorities opposed this move. DU may also disqualify his membership for being a panel member of three colleges already.

In a conversation with the DU Beat correspondent, Mr. Shashi Shekhar Singh, Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science of Satyawati College stated, “A letter was sent by the Joint Registrar of the University to the principal a night before the meeting stating that the meeting has to be postponed because Mr. Rajiv Nayan has withdrawn from the membership of Aryabhatta College and the college failed to inform the University about the tie in last year’s Governing Body elections. This was the third scheduled meeting to be cancelled, 11 or 12 faculty members had written to the Vice Chancellor on cancellation of the very first meeting but to no avail. The elections had been scheduled for today, the college has no obligation to inform the University about the tie since all the members were aware of it, and elections could have been held smoothly. The University is pressurising the college and interfering in the autonomy of the college. The college is being run without its Governing Body. Absence of a Chairperson and Treasurer has led to a delay in payment of pensions. The University has no right to interfere in this matter of the college.”

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives

Prachi Mehra

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JNU Alumnus Appointed as New VC of Delhi University

By DU Beat February 22, 2016

Professor Yogesh Kumar Tyagi, who is currently the Dean of Faculty of Legal Studies at South Asian University (SAU), has been appointed as the new VC of Delhi University, succeeding Dinesh Singh. Last week, four names were given to the President for the high profile post. The names, apart from Tyagi, were JNU professor Rameshwar Nath Kaul Bemezai, former IIT professor and UPSC member Hemchand Gupta and Bidyut Chakraborty, a professor in the Political Science Department. As the Visitor to all central universities, the President went along with the HRD ministry’s choice, which was in this case, Professor Tyagi.

Yogesh Tyagi has a PhD in legal studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University and an LLM in Legal Studies from Columbia University. He said that he was very positive and would invite ideas for making the university better. He is seeking ideas from a wide range of people who are better than him and says that he will try to ensure quality education. He wants to work on a collective platform so that everyone is aware of what is going on and everyone’s opinion can be taken on any issue. He wants to create opportunities for all and deliver the best in education.

After Dinesh Singh’s controversial tenure ended on 28th of October, the office had been under the pro-VC Sudhish Pachauri. Professor Tyagi will take up the prestigious post after he is relieved of his current obligation at the South Asian University.

Image credits: The Indian Express

Arindam Goswami

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Delhi University appoints its 22nd Vice Chancellor; here are things to expect from the new VC

By Shaurya Sahai January 4, 2016

Former Delhi University Vice Chancellor Dinesh Singh’s tenure was controversial to say the least. The audience is still divided over whether he subjected DU students to guinea pig- like experimentation or whether he lit a new torch for the future of higher education in India. Today, on 10th March 2016, Prof. Yogesh Tyagi took over as the 22nd Vice Chancellor of University of Delhi. Presidents and office bearers of various organisations and groups like DUTA were present. As per the DUTA Press Release, the new VC also met representatives of unions of students and karamcharis. Our correspondent lists down the changes and reforms that the new Vice Chancellor should introduce: 1.) We expect the new VC to implement changes only once they have been thoroughly thought out. The failure of the infamous Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP), followed by the Credit Based Choice System (CBCS) has left students of these batches confused. We request the new VC to spend time researching and then creating something beneficial for the students. 2.) Delhi University faces major infrastructural problems, and being a part of an institution as renowned, we definitely expect decent surroundings. While a lot of colleges lack the basic laboratories, we have also witnessed instances of students sitting under the tents to take semester exams. This is not just shameful, but also worrisome. If the grants are put to proper use, such problems should be tackled soon. 3.) The problem of shortage of faculty has hindered proper education and learning for quite some time now. It takes days or even weeks for regular classes to start after holidays due to lack of faculty. The issues of students performing poorly due to lack of an instructor and ad-hoc positions not being converted to permanent ones need to be looked at seriously. 4.) Residential facilities for students, especially for females are not adequate. Due to insufficient college hostels and lack or rent regulation at PGs, outstation students face difficulties in living in Delhi and attending college. Despite many protests for the construction of adequate residential areas for students, there have been no noticeable results regarding this issue. Apart from finding feasible solutions to these few issues, the Vice Chancellor of Delhi University is expected to be a progressive person with the best of students in mind. Shaurya Sahai [email protected] Feature Image Source: Indian Express]]>

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Why rankings don’t matter but quality education does: A closer look at DU’s 81st spot

By Siddhi Goel May 14, 2014

Quacquarelli Symonds Rankings or better known as simply QS Rankings released Asian Universities Ranking List on May 13, 2014. While the sciences fared better by getting impressive spots (IIT Delhi-38^th , IIT Bombay- 41^st), the traditional universities such as University of Delhi, Benares Hindu University, University of Calcutta scored satisfactorily.

While rankings in general seldom matter in the overall assessment of an institution, the quality of education offered by an institute is surely a matter of concern. Once, a renowned magazine published a list of colleges in India that are at at the top for a particular course and later it was found that the college on #1 did not even offer that course! While this is not to cause ill repute to the nature of rankings and deter anyone from looking at rankings for making their personal decisions, but shift the focus from the numerical value of a rank to the qualitative assessment of an institution on the basis of certain parameters that WE deem important for OUR personal growth, not dictated by the parameters preferential to the authorities distributing ranks.

Moving on, the University of Delhi has been controversy’s favorite child for quite a while. Whether it be the FYUP or the autocratic non-democratic functioning of the Padma Shri VC, it has numerous issues that need to be dealt with. Here is my list of the changes that I would like to see in DU being implemented, which I believe can raise the quality of education, and maybe subsequently the unimportant rankings too-

1) Inclusion of a Statement of Purpose in the admissions process

Much has been said about how the Board Examination marks are not indicative of a person’s potential, except that of his potential to rote learn and present it on paper. In addition to this, what is important is that even if a student is not passionate about his subjects, he can still score decently in the Boards because of the way in which our evaluation system is structured; we don’t assess the student’s grasp over the concept, but how the concept has been put on paper.

Almost all international universities have the concept of writing a statement of purpose wherein the student is required to explain why he wants to do a particular course. This is not only reflective of the student’s passion for the subject but also helps the examiner gauge how much has the student engaged with the subject, how much has he mulled over the concepts and theories and most importantly, is he actively thinking about the subject? The amount of engagement a person has had with his subject prior to admission is also important as it is a significant marker of the future projects you’ll undertake once admitted to the University and even beyond that.

This becomes crucial in the context of improving the University’s admission of students, the research wing of the University and the larger intellectual ethos.

2) Valuing quality education over mere employability

One of the key arguments put forth by the VC in favor of FYUP was that it will increase the employability of students. While there is nothing wrong with concerns over the employment generation for the larger demographic dividend of the country, the problem arises when you begin to mould the intellect of the students in order to satisfy the larger market ideologies that are seldom governed by thirst for knowledge but rather by a production oriented approach that seeks to garner more money and eye balls through the medium of their undertaken projects. Think tanks are few in India, and for them a drive towards knowledge supersedes any other drive that the university is trying to impose upon us.

It is slowly creating a structure for students that designs them to submit to market oriented strategies rather than giving free way to the cultivation if the imagination of students. Moves such as FYUP are constant reminders of the regressive mentality of “padh likh ke afsar bano” that plagues the Indian mind. Rather, the end of education should be a refinement of one’s own intellect and personality that gives us the potential to negotiate with the world, carve our won way and create our own employments sans the “help” of FYUP.

3) The structure of the course and subsequent evaluation

Our course structure is designed in a way that even if a student has not studied the entire semester, and opens the book 2 days prior to exams, he can still score well, the reason being that the marking scheme is a set of extremely loose ended parameters that seldom negatively reinforce bad arguments and end up distributing marks. The previous Semester, I started studying 2 weeks before the exams and scored the fifth highest in college, not too bad, eh?

I’m not taking any moral stance on how many hours a student needs to put in for study, but what I’m stressing on is that a paper doesn’t evaluate how much has the student engaged with the subject. It involves a routine set of questions with a routine set of answers that can help you score decently well.

Processes such as writing term papers helps the examiner assess how much has the student gone beyond the text and made attempts to come up with his own theories and rhetoric, something absolutely essential in the process of education. There are also provisions for designing your own course in many masters level courses where you can decide what all you want to study, and except for a few compulsory credits you can custom make your course as it helps in writing your thesis in future.

4) Inclusion of radical political philosophies with the dominant ones

This might appear a little out of place but allow me to put it into context. In the 1970’s during the 2^nd wave feminist movement in India, the University was an important breeding ground for several front runners of the movement. Also, the University has been the place where radical political philosophies of Communism have taken shape and been accommodated into the larger political scenario.

But now there is an indirect polarization of political philosophies, and binaries are too quick to be created in terms of political affiliations. Also, the amount of freedom students enjoyed earlier to protest against issues has diminished, because of the advent of the autocratic administration of the university.

It is important to locate the socio-political importance of an environment that actively accommodates dissenters. A lot of students who were active in student politics in Delhi University went on to become some of the most important public commentators, social rights activists, intellectuals, and so on. Accommodation of dissent should not looked upon as a threat to establishment but as a way to create citizens who’re more aware of their identity and existence and who dare to carve their own niche in the world that is constantly seeking to kill individuality.

As a secondary thing, it is also a matter of great repute for a University in retrospect to produce people like these, who contribute to making the world a better place and bring the margins to the mainstream.

In conclusion, Delhi University till now has produced almost all of the present academia and intelligentsia of India by virtue of its professors and curriculum designed to make a student bloom to his fullest potential. What is important is to incorporate more divergent ideas and lay emphasis on the quality of education than being driven by dominant mainstream approaches.

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DU's Executive Council accepts provision for VC's Second Term

By Arushi Srivastava March 10, 2014

th, Delhi University’s Executive Council accepted the proposal to amend the Statute 11-F (4) of the Statutes of the University, where it has been proposed that now the Vice-Chancellor would be eligible to seek a second term. Earlier the statute mentioned that the Vice-Chancellor’s term can only be extended for a year at maximum at the recommendation of the Visitor i.e. the President of India. In 2009, the HRD Ministry wrote to all central universities to create a provision of seeking second terms for VCs when VCs of only 7 Central Universities could serve for a second term. The heads of the remaining CUs including DU and JNU were eligible for a single term only. This matter came up for discussion by the Executive Council of Delhi University this week. Former DUTA president and chairperson of AAD, Aditya Narayan Mishra said,” I am not opposed to any individual but on a matter of principles I believe that a five year term is a good enough to provide academic leadership to any institution. The VC as of now will only get to avail the right to stand for second term but all the procedure for electing the VC would take place according to the set guidelines.” The decision has received tough opposition and resentment by many teachers calling the day as ‘black day in the history of Delhi University’.’The V.C presiding over the meeting with an agenda that is going to be beneficial to him is very improper. It is not a good idea to perpetuate one person and not good for the University. It is against the wisdom of the parliament and the Delhi University Act and only for one person’s benefit”, said Nandita Narain, President of Delhi University’s Teacher’s Association (DUTA). With the latest amendments, the VC now has the authority to make a search committee for the next person to hold office, which would constitute three members. It would allow the Vice Chancellor to nominate two out of the three members. The visitor, who is the President of India, will recommend the remaining name. “The E.C members are a bunch of yes-men to the VC who could be manipulated by threats and scares of being targeting in hundreds of ways. This is constitutionally undemocratic when principals and Executive Council members are targeted”, said Narain. “There is a huge conflict of interest within the statute itself as only one clause of re-appointment is amended without amending the clause for setting up the search committee where the outcome can be easily influenced by the VC. A nexus can set in and the VC is sending out a signal, ‘I may continue so you better behave yourself’. I want to say that movement can’t be curbed and it will continue in all possible ways which we can think of in spite of the demoralising signals the VC is sending out”, said Abha Dev Habib, an E.C member and an Assistant Professor at Miranda House, Delhi University. The professional code of ethics for teachers as approved by the Executive Council is an exhaustive set of guidelines created by UGC in 2010 that describes the ideal code of conduct for higher education teachers. The Code of Professional Ethics makes “violations” punishable that has emerged as a cause of alarm where it mentions that “If the circumstances so warrant, the Vice Chancellor may direct the governing body of the college to initiate action against a teacher on the grounds of misconduct, failing which the Vice Chancellor may take such action as provided for in the Act, statutes and ordinances of the university.” “He has enlarged the scope of what is called‘misconduct’. He has given himself the power to take direct action against any teacher even if governing body doesn’t agree. He wants to crush any kind of dissent on the syllabi and conduct of teachers. He is ‘all in all’ which is very draconian and like being back to the period of Hitler in 1939”, said Nandita Narain on the amendments to the ordinances. Image Credit: Parandeep Goswami]]>

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10 Teachers selected for VC Fellowship Programme

By Arushi Srivastava January 6, 2014

The Vice Chancellor Fellowship Programme for the calendar year 2014 has been announced by the University of Delhi. This programme aims at drawing academic talents amongst the faculty base of Delhi University. Permanent academic employees of DU under the age of 45 have to undergo a rigorous process to be selected among the 10 Vice Chancellor Fellows. These ten fellows are then based at Cluster Innovation Centre and conduct learning and research work for Delhi University.

The fellowship majorly aims at creating technology based open learning modules for massive numbers of students on open platforms in partnership with leading institutions on a worldwide basis. It also looks at “developing meaningful ideas, ways and means of providing instruction in the Foundation and Application Courses under the new undergraduate programme through technology based platforms or through production of reading/learning material in collaboration with leading international institutions.”

For this fellowship, about 95 academics applied for the programme that was announced in November 2013. The selected teachers for this year are Mahima Kaushik (Ramjas College, Chemistry), Monika Koul (Hansraj College, Botany), Neha Sharma (Keshav Mahavidyalaya, Computer and Electronics), Anant Pandey (Sri Venkateswara College, Physics), Swarn Singh (Sri Venkateswara College, Mathematics), Priyanka Pandey (Gargi College, Botany), Pankaj Khanna (Acharya Narendra Dev College, Chemistry), Suman Dudeja (Acharya Narendra Dev College, Chemistry), Meetakshi Pant (Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Commerce) and Shankar Kumar (Hindu College, History). Sri Venkateswara College is the only college with two fellows in this programme.

“I am very elated and excited to work at this level among sharp people from different backgrounds in a good and conducive working environment. It is an exciting opportunity to look beyond one subject and produce something in a trans-disciplinary way”, said Mr. Shankar Kumar, Associate Professor at Hindu College who is selected for the fellowship. He also happens to be the only professor from humanities background among the ten chosen academics. On the research related to FYUP for the fellowship he said,” I see myself as someone associated with FYUP from its inception and the idea is to infuse the changes by content building, collaborative research and technological platforms by reaching out to a multitude of students.”

These 10 teachers will be relieved of their responsibilities at their respective colleges once they start working for the fellowship. These fellows are expected ‘to provide big impulse to five flagship programmes of Delhi University’ and ‘create learning programmes and activities that are significantly in tune with modern technology based programmes’ as per the announcement made by the Vice-Chancellor of Delhi University.

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An Open Letter to VC Dinesh Singh

By Siddhi Goel June 20, 2013

Respected Mr. Dinesh Singh,

This letter is to congratulate you on your relentless pursuits to making Delhi University a world class university. I am fully aware that due to the “hurried” changes in the degree program, you have received more brickbats than bouquets, but this letter is an exception.

It has been around three years that you’ve been elected the VC of the best university in India. In your interviews you’ve maintained that the preparations for implementing the four year undergraduate programme (FYUP) started as soon as you held office. Even then you made the smart decision to implement the semester system, just to replace it with FYUP after two years. Your uncanny future planning is admirable, sir.

You’ve claimed rather vehemently that FYUP is going to increase the employability of students. I fully trust you when you imply that by studying non-core subjects more than core subjects in the span of 4 years, a pass out will be the preferred choice. I also believe you that by giving multiple exit points and still “benefiting” from the studies, a drop out with a B.A degree will get a job without really specializing in his 2/3 years of study.

Sir, I appreciate your concern for the students who wish to study in U.S.A after completing their graduation in India. Your decision to make structural changes (increasing the span from 3 years to 4 years to suit the USA model) rather than focusing on the quality of the structure (the quality of core disciplines, lessening the burden of non-core subjects) is admirable. Because you see, spending a year extra without learning extra is the goal, USA and all.

I understand you value quality education, that’s what FYUP is all about after all, isn’t it? Therefore I applaud your decision of making students study the disciplines that are in no way related to the field they want to major in. The fact that you’re making an English major aspirant from humanities background study biochemistry perfectly makes sense. Because the value of science foundation courses is so important in literature after all, that it would have been better to delete a Shakespeare text and replace it with physics. Also, since not everyone has studied biochemistry at the high school level, college level bio-chemistry is going to be pretty much same to high school bio chemistry, so that everyone is able to study, thereby not taking college level studies a notch up. I perfectly see where you’re taking quality education with this.

You, respected sir have created an ideal university, where professors keep shouting and administrators turn a blind eye. Where students aren’t able to learn and nobody listens. Where cut offs keep rising and quality education keeps going downwards.

Congratulations sir. My heartiest wishes to you in your endeavour to achieve life, liberty and happiness, and perpetual deafness.

Yours sincerely
A student who being in second year is facing the misfortune of not studying in FYUP.

Image Credit: South Campus website

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VC cuts off power supply during film screening, DUTA protests

By Vishakha Darbha November 10, 2012

Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) along with the support of some students, decided to screen ‘The Great Dictator’, a Charlie Chaplin movie, on 9^th November. This movie was being aired outside the Vice Chancellor’s office as a satire on Delhi University and it was to be followed by a debate on the current situation. However, within the first five minutes the power supply was cut off on the VC’s order. When the protestors tried finding an alternate source of power, this was also disrupted immediately as the power supply for the entire block outside the VC’s office and DUTA’s protest area was disconnected.

The actions of the VC led to nearly 25 students and the DUTA sleeping outside the VC Dinesh Singh’s office to show their anger and resentment for not being allowed to watch the Charlie Chaplin movie. Angry slogans were chanted outside his house, yet he didn’t appear to address the party gathered outside. Around 12:30 pm the next day, students and teachers held a meeting where they demanded a public apology from the VC.

In response to the protest, the registrar of Delhi University released a statement on Saturday, 10^th of November, stating that the University regretted the complete disregard of the students and teachers who directly tapped power from exposed high-tension wires for screening their movie when the power supply was cut off initially. The statement also mentioned the fact that legal action will be taken against the offenders if such action continues. However, none of these threats seem to deter the determined DUTA and its student supporters as they promise to continue protesting until their issues are addressed.