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DU’s FYUP fourth year may not continue across all colleges amid low student participation

By DU Beat July 14, 2026

Delhi University’s FYUP fourth year may not continue across all colleges after low student participation prompted principals to propose alternative implementation models for the research-based programme.

Delhi University’s optional fourth year under the Four-Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP) may no longer be offered across all affiliated colleges after low student participation raised concerns over the programme’s practical implementation.

According to reports, the Delhi University Principals’ Association (DUPA) has proposed that the fourth year be conducted only at designated colleges instead of every institution. The recommendation comes after only around 30% of eligible undergraduate students opted to continue into the fourth year during the previous academic session, leaving several colleges with very small batches that are difficult to accommodate academically and administratively.

In conversation with Times Of India, Delhi University Registrar Vikas Gupta commented that the University is positively considering the recommendation, adding that resources must be deployed judiciously where student strength is low. According to him, the final decision will be taken after the University receives complete enrolment data from colleges.

Introduced under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the fourth year forms part of Delhi University’s Undergraduate Curriculum Framework (UGCF) 2022. Students who complete the additional year with a research dissertation are awarded an Honours with Research degree, intended to strengthen research opportunities and provide a pathway to doctoral studies. More information on the UGCF can be accessed on Delhi University’s official website.

College administrations have cited multiple challenges in implementing the programme with limited enrolment. Running specialised research courses for small groups requires adequate infrastructure, faculty members qualified to supervise dissertations, and sufficient academic resources. In many cases, these requirements become difficult to meet when only a handful of students remain in a department.

Gupta also clarified that if the proposal is implemented, students whose colleges are not designated to offer the fourth year would not have to formally migrate. Instead, they would attend classes at the identified cluster college offering the programme.

Student preferences have also contributed to the low participation. Many choose to graduate after three years to prepare for competitive examinations or pursue postgraduate studies elsewhere.

To address these concerns, principals have suggested a cluster-based model in which selected colleges would host fourth-year classes for students from multiple institutions. They have also proposed introducing minimum eligibility criteria to ensure that the research component remains academically rigorous. The proposal is yet to receive formal approval from the University. If implemented, it could significantly change how the fourth year of FYUP is offered across Delhi University’s affiliated colleges.

Image Source: Parveen Negi, The New India Express

Vidhi Ramchandani
[email protected]

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Admissions

DU’s One-Year PG Promise Hits a Seat Ceiling

By DU Beat July 12, 2026

Delhi University’s first One-Year PG Programme offers just around 1,068 seats across 45 programmes, despite thousands of students completing the fourth year under the NEP. An examination of the seat matrix, admission policy, and student experiences reveals a widening gap between institutional promises and reality.

For Delhi University’s first NEP batch, students were persuaded to stay for an additional year on a straightforward promise: complete the fourth year, earn an Honours with Research degree, and fast-track into a one-year master’s instead of the conventional two. The seat matrix, released just a week before this year’s application deadline, tells a very different story: roughly 1,068 seats across 45 programmes for tens of thousands of students who completed the fourth year.

The Bulletin of Information (BOI) for the One-Year Postgraduate Programme 2026–27, published on July 4, 2026, lists 45 programmes across seven faculties. Adding the category-wise seats (UR, SC, ST, OBC-NCL and EWS) gives an approximate university-wide intake of 1,068 seats. M.A. Urdu tops the list with 50 seats, while M.A. English, Hindi, Sanskrit, Philosophy, History, Political Science, M.Sc. Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics and M.Com. appear capped at 45 seats each. At the other end, M.Sc. Biochemistry and Microbiology offer just three seats each.

Another important point is that the one-year PG programme is not spread across multiple colleges, unlike the conventional two-year route. M.A. English alone offers more than 500 seats through the two-year programme when the allocations across colleges are combined. The one-year route compresses that entire intake into a single university department for each subject, explaining much of the apparent seat shortage.

The University also released its official guidelines in December 2025, stating that each department’s one-year PG intake would be a minimum of 20% of its existing pre-NEP-sanctioned two-year intake, capped at 45 seats. Smaller humanities departments could increase intake to 40%, while laboratory-based science departments remained capped at 20%. Crucially, the intake formula is based on a department’s pre-existing sanctioned strength – not on the number of students who actually completed the fourth year.

On August 1, 2025, Delhi University’s Vice-Chancellor told PTI that roughly 55% of the 71,000 eligible students – around 40,000 – had opted for the fourth year. DU’s own figures have since varied, with a later report citing a 30% retention rate for the same cohort. Humanities and language departments nevertheless reported the highest participation, with colleges such as Lady Shri Ram College recording 70–80% fourth-year retention in subjects including English and Psychology. Ironically, many of these are the very subjects capped at 45 seats, suggesting that the seat ceiling and the size of the applicant pool move in opposite directions.

The one-year PG intake formula was finalised only in December 2025, months after most students had already committed to the fourth year. The actual seat matrix was published on July 4, 2026, after students had already completed that additional year.

This is what Aanchal, a fourth-year B.A. (Hons.) English student at Hansraj College had this to say about the programme’s implementation:

I enrolled in the fourth year because DU promised it would lead to a smooth one-year M.A. pathway. Instead, the entire year was poorly planned. We weren’t even properly introduced to our syllabus; professors themselves were often confused, and we were buried under assignments, dissertations, presentations and exams. Despite all this, DU never officially informed us about the one-year M.A. admission process; we had to learn about it through a podcast. The biggest betrayal came after we’d already finished the year. The Bulletin came out on July 4 with shockingly few seats. We invested an extra year, our hard work and our trust, only to discover that a two-year master’s will now effectively take us four.

Another student from Kirori Mal College described fourth-year students as experimental props, pointing to delayed syllabi, faculty shortages and assessment rules that changed midway through the academic year. Teachers’ associations have also separately objected that the one-year PG resolution was passed without adequate consultation with faculty.

The bottom line is this: as of July 11, 2026, when registrations closed, Delhi University had still not released the number of applications received for the one-year PG programme – either overall or subject-wise. Without those figures, it is difficult to calculate the applicants-to-seats ratio for any programme.

Whether this amounts to negligence or simply the turbulence of launching a new programme is open to debate. What is harder to dispute is the mismatch between student numbers and available seats, and the University’s failure to communicate that reality in time to students who based an entire year’s academic decision on a promise that Delhi University could not fulfil.

Name-: Arshia Sharma

Email- [email protected]

Image credits: DuBeat

Delhi University Restructures Fourth-Year Credits

By DU Beat July 11, 2026

The University of Delhi has revised the credit structure for fourth-year undergraduate students under UGCF 2022, increasing the weight of academic tracks from six to ten credits per semester with effect from 2026-27.

The University of Delhi released a notification, dated 10th July 2026, restructuring the distribution of credits in Semesters VII and VIII for students enrolled under the Undergraduate Curriculum Framework (UGCF) 2022. The changes will come into effect from the academic session 2026-27.

The most significant change concerns the credit weight assigned to academic tracks. Previously, tracks such as the Dissertation, Academic Project and Entrepreneurship carried six credits per semester. Under the revised structure, four credits previously assigned to Discipline Specific Core (DSC) courses in Semesters VII and VIII will be transferred to these tracks, raising each track’s credit value from six to ten. Academic tracks will now carry a total of twenty credits: ten in Semester VII and ten in Semester VIII.

Alongside this, DSC courses in the two final semesters will no longer be listed as core requirements. They will instead be moved to the Discipline Specific Elective (DSE) pool for the respective semesters. Students will be required to choose three courses from this broader pool each semester, with the following combinations permitted: three DSEs, two DSEs and one Generic Elective (GE), or one DSE and two GEs.

This is not the first revision to the fourth-year credit structure under UGCF 2022. In January 2026, the university had permitted students in Semester VIII to take up to eight additional credits, thus raising the per-semester cap from 22 to 30 to enable students who had not yet completed core discipline requirements to qualify for a major. That change applied to students enrolled in the 2025-26 session. The July notification, by contrast, applies from 2026-27 onwards and addresses the internal distribution of credits rather than the overall cap.

Rishika Jain

[email protected]

Image Caption: Official Notification, dated 10th July 2026

Image Source: University of Delhi

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Uncategorized

Humanities Students Lead Delhi University’s Shift to Four-Year Undergraduate Programme

By DU Beat October 26, 2025

Delhi University’s bold transition to a four-year undergraduate programme (FYUP) reveals a clear trend: humanities students and those in top-ranked colleges are embracing the change most enthusiastically. In centrally located colleges such as Miranda House, Lady Shri Ram (LSR), and Hindu College, nearly 40% of students have opted to continue for the fourth year, compared to an overall university average of about 30%, according to DU officials.

The highest continuation rates have been recorded in the humanities and social sciences, especially subjects like political science, English, psychology, history, and Hindi. In contrast, students in science courses show less interest in extending their studies. A DU official explained, “Many science students prefer to move on to postgraduate programmes at premier institutions such as IITs and IISERs, where they can specialise immediately.”

This makes the FYUP’s early success a story led by liberal arts and social sciences, traditionally popular disciplines at DU’s prestigious colleges. “At Miranda House, about 30% of students are continuing; Hindu College has retained 38%, and LSR has reported close to 40% retention,” the official said. However, colleges located on the city’s outskirts have seen significantly lower participation, with continuation rates ranging between 15% and 27%.

The divide, principals say, stems from differences in infrastructure, visibility, and student profiles. Centrally located colleges tend to attract higher-performing students and provide stronger academic and research facilities, while off-campus colleges face resource constraints. Still, some administrators see a positive side. “Smaller fourth-year batches give us time to fine-tune the system before scaling up,” said the principal of a South Campus college.

The new four-year programme, introduced under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, aims to encourage multidisciplinary learning, flexibility, and research orientation. Launched in 2022–23, the programme offers three exit points — a certificate after one year, a diploma after two, and a degree after three, with the fourth year leading to an honours with research qualification.

Last week, DU officials held a review meeting with affiliated colleges to assess implementation. Some institutions reported very low enrolments, with fewer than 10 students in some fourth-year classes, posing academic and administrative challenges. Colleges have been advised to form clusters so students from different institutions can attend joint classes for similar courses. A DU Spokesperson says,

We expect participation to rise once students see the long-term academic and career benefits.

For many students, the decision to stay reflects career planning and academic ambition. Another final-year student from Hindu College said,

The fourth year lets me specialise and focus on research. The ‘honours with research’ tag will strengthen my postgraduate applications and give me an edge professionally.”

As Delhi University becomes one of the first central universities to fully adopt the FYUP model, the transition marks a significant shift in India’s higher education landscape—one that places research, flexibility, and academic depth at the core of undergraduate learning.

Featured Image Source: The Indian Express

Richa Choudhary

[email protected]

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Campus Central

NEP Approves Research Supervision for NEP-UGCF Amidst Concerns on Implementation

By DU Beat July 6, 2025

Despite the Academic Council’s approval of the policy of research and supervision in regards to NEP-UGCF’s fourth year policy in DU colleges, many concerns have been raised in regards to its implementation.

As of July 5, 2025; the policy of research supervision for the fourth year of NEP-UGCF has been approved by the Academic Council amidst dissent by several elected members. According to Rudrashish Chakraborty, who is Associate Professor at the Department of English in Kirori Mal College, as well as an executive of DUTA (Delhi University Teachers’ Association) from 2023 to 2025, the poor devising of the policy is owed to multiple reasons; the first of which include the lack of infrastructure in the form of space and laboratories in colleges to conduct quality research at the undergraduate level to research supervision not being accounted for as workload for teachers, excessively burdening teachers who are already inundated with work.

Aside from these issues, the division of workload has also been a contentious topic, with the policy deciding on a stipulation of a minimum of ten students to be allotted to a teacher for research supervision. This ratio is not only too high and would therefore jeopardize the quality of research, but also make coordination difficult as it is not possible for any teacher to do justice to the research work of so many students after engaging in their own workload.

In addition to this, no funds have been allocated for research work in the fourth year of UGCF, which leaves colleges to fend for themselves. Colleges in the Delhi University circuit are being advised to mobilise funds through the Students’ Fund, which may prove to be insufficient in the long run.In terms of research, the students are to study four courses alongside writing a dissertation, which not only takes the focus away from the conduction of research, but will also lead to a reduction of quality leading to research becoming a compulsion instead of being an original, worthwhile contribution to Indian academic spaces.

One of the guidelines for research supervision expects students pursuing the fourth year to publish in a scopus-indexed journal as research outcome. Given that even teachers would find it difficult to pursue such interests within the stipulated time while balancing full-fledged studying, this unrealistic clause will discourage students from pursuing the fourth year.

Anumeha Mishra, a member of the Academic Council, has stated,

The university must refrain from applying a one-size-fits-all size model in approving projects eligible for research funding under IoE. Discipline-specific parameters must be evolved.”

In 2019, Delhi University’s colleges saw a 25% increase in student intake due to the EWS expansion. An additional surge in admissions by 20% occurred following the implementation of the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) from 2022 onwards. This move, having been undertaken along with the fourth year, comes in light of accusations of mismanagement and lack of infrastructural accommodation for the rising number of student intake every year. The absence of laboratories, reading rooms, and teacher workspaces severely undermine the programme’s feasibility. The implementation, thus, appears rushed and in the absence of structural and financial support, risks diluting the quality of education and pushing the system toward collapse.

Dr. Monami Sinha, also a member of the academic council, points out how undergraduate students currently studying seven courses per semester, including SEC and VAC, dilute the study of core subjects and awarding of credits per subject.

Image Credits: Hindustan Times

Aastha Singh

[email protected]

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