DU has exempted its 2025-26 undergraduate batch from the 28 credit requirement for promotion, with teachers raising questions over the timing and lack of explanation for the one-time relaxation.
Delhi University’s (DU) Controller of Examinations issued a notification this week exempting students of the 2025-26 batch from the credit requirement of earning 28 credits out of 44 for promotion to the next year. The notification says the decision has been taken with approval of the competent authority and that all other provisions remain unchanged. It does not say why.
The 28-credit requirement was introduced under DU’s National Education Policy-based Undergraduate Curriculum Framework, which mandates seven papers per semester. Under the framework, a student had to pass 28 of the 44 total credits from the first two semesters to move into the second year. That bar has now been removed for one batch.
The move has drawn immediate pushback from teachers. Abha Dev Habib, secretary of the Delhi University Teachers’ Federation and associate professor at Miranda House, said the university changed the passing criteria without explaining what circumstances made it necessary. She said,
“Passing criteria for a specific batch (2025-26) are being relaxed without explaining which circumstances, hardships or systemic failure warrant such a change,”
She also pointed to a timing problem. Third semester classes began on 28 July. Results from the first-year examinations were still being declared through August. That means students entered their third semester before it was even clear how many had cleared the promotion bar, and the rule has now been changed after the fact.
Rudrashish Chakraborty, treasurer of the Delhi University Teachers’ Federation and associate professor of English at Kirori Mal College, alleged that the notification reflected incompetence in managing the growing number of papers under NEP and raised questions over whether the relaxation could benefit someone with political connections. The university has not responded to either allegation.
This is not the first time DU has quietly eased promotion rules mid-cycle. In November 2025, it decided to promote all 11,000 students in the 2024-25 postgraduate batch, including those who had failed or not appeared for exams, as a one-time measure tied to a curriculum change. The pattern of one-time exemptions, issued without public explanation and after students have already moved into the next semester, is what teachers say is doing the most damage.
Habib further says that
“Transparency and stability of the examination system are an important aspect for a good university. DU is being systemically damaged.”
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Abhishek Goverdhan
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