The University of Delhi recently announced that colleges with the best fests his season will receive grants in the form of financial aid and higher NAAC rankings.
On 20 February 2017, the University Grants Commission (UGC) revealed that DU colleges must put in their best this spring as the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) will now also rank the annual fests of each college. This notice comes in light of University authorities realising that immense effort, both by students and teachers, goes into making the fests grand and entertaining for the student community.
The motivation behind rewarding colleges with the most successful fests is to promote the culture of commitment and hard work amongst students. An official of the UGC, Mr Sankalp Bharti, stated, “The students do excellent work around the year, but they are at their best during the fest season. We want to reward this behaviour. DU fests are just like DU academics – both require months of preparation.” While most students probably disagree with this comparison, it’s no secret that the students’ unions of colleges spend weeks in stress, ensuring the highest level of entertainment possible.
The UGC stated that it will give financial grants to colleges that have the best fests so as to provide the colleges and students with the incentives to conduct similarly successful fests in the future. DU is popular for its fest culture and draws huge traction as a result of star-studded evenings and celebrity performances. To maintain this reputation, the UGC has also added the likelihood of an increased NAAC rating for the colleges that come out on top this fest season. The college authorities often care more about external official rankings such as those of NAAC as opposed to providing the students with a memorable fest. For this reason, the UGC has decided to use NAAC as an incentive for better fests.
According to the notice, fests will be rated across a number of criteria. These include the audience turnout, the number of sponsored stalls, the total amount of cash prizes for all winners of the fest, and the amount paid to the star performers. A holistic analysis of all these parameters will then reveal which colleges qualify to receive their reward. While the details are yet to be finalised, there are already rumours that out of the top three colleges which will receive financial grants, the institution on top will receive an automatic A in the NAAC rankings. With regard to the fests that have already taken place this year, such as Tarang, Reverie, and Montage, the UGC officials reassured that they will take into consideration that these colleges were unaware of the new rule. Mr Sankalp Bharti stated that these fests will not suffer unfairly, and that they will be judged according to more relaxed criteria.
Let’s see whether the new move by the University will increase fest standards. Good luck to the upcoming fests!
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Image Credits: DU Beat
Vineeta Rana
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