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
When winter turns to spring, the trees wake up from their cold slumber as tender leaves sprout from their fragile branches, adding colour to a body that stands like a bare canvas. The ground begins to thaw as life breathes through its pores, ready to face the onset of a new year. As we say goodbye to the three years that defined our outlook towards life, our branches shake off the protective layer of ice that kept us insulated from a world where we need to dig our roots deep into the soil, choosing our own paths and charting the course of our future.
an eager turn to the next page. DU is a waste of three years, the education system is below average, many of the professors can’t speak properly, and the infrastructure is pathetic. Warnings have always rained on the years of the delusional juniors. However, what we don’t realise is that behind the dilapidated, rusted exterior, we still have special moments. Moments when we run out of our class to visit the momo or bhel puri wala before he leaves, a quick snack between classes. Moments when we take part in a competition with our friends at a popular college’s fest and come back penniless due to all the food we ate for lack of anything to do. In other cases, when we outshine everyone else and hold the trophy in our hands, a reminder that no matter how big the stage is, school, college or life, the things we’re passionate about never leave us feeling less than satisfied. All the friends you make, the parts of your college that you cherish the most, the teachers that made classes memorable for you thanks to their teaching, or even their mispronunciations.