The University Grants Commission (UGC) on Sunday announced that students who had enrolled last year for the four-year B. Tech programme offered by Delhi University will not be affected by the rollback of the four-year undergraduate programme (FYUP).
The University has been permitted to continue with the B. Tech programme in computer science, electronics, food technology, instrumentation electronics and polymer science for just this batch of students, who were particularly apprehensive about the change in nomenclature and duration of their course owing to the FYUP rollback.
Ending the uncertainty on this count, the UGC issued a fresh directive to the University on Sunday and asked it to ensure that necessary clearances are taken for the B. Tech programme from the Commission and the All India Council for Technical Education.
Students currently under the B. Tech course, however, are unhappy with this decision.
“We will be written off as an experimental batch and that will severely affect our prospects in the job market,” said Shivam, a B.Tech Computer Science student from PGDAV College.
“We will not be able to enrol for M. Tech in other universities under the prevailing circumstances,” rued Kashish, another student.
A group of students agitating in front of Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani’s residence demanded that B.Tech be continued as a four-year course under Delhi University.
They reached Ms. Irani’s residence at 8 a.m. and camped outside all day. The students said they had arrived early in the hope of running into the Minister and placing their demands before her.
“Since we will be the only batch studying B.Tech at DU, what is the guarantee that we will receive quality education?” said Rahul Kumar, a student of B.Tech Computer Sciene at PGDAV College.
Additionally, students of Bachelor of Management Studies (BMS) also participated in Sunday’s agitation. There has been no clarity on the fate of this course in the aftermath of the FYUP rollback and the UGC announcement for the current batch of B.Tech students made no mention of the BMS course that was initiated in 2013.
“We want a professional four-year BMS degree, something we were promised when they began the course. If the course is scrapped, we will have no one as our junior. And no one in the job market will know that this course even exists,” said Deeksha, a student at the College of Vocational Studies
