The All India Students’ Association (AISA) on Wednesday held a public meeting at the Arts Faculty on the North Campus of Delhi University against the four-year undergraduate programme (FYUP).
The students’ body said it conducted a month-long survey, ‘FYUP Ka Report Card’, of nearly 4,000 students across 23 DU colleges and found that 87% of respondents expressed dissatisfaction with the programme and demanded its revocation. AISA added that 78% of the students who participated said that “DU failed to provide them the quality of education they hoped for”, while 91% “felt overburdened by the continuous assessments and assignments”.
In December 2022, the University Grants Commission (UGC) replaced the Choice Based Credit System with the Curriculum and Credit Framework for FYUPs, developed in accordance with the recommendations of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The UGC stated that this new framework would facilitate a multidisciplinary approach and a flexible learning experience.
The new FYUP framework provides undergraduate (UG) students multiple entry, exit, and re-entry points: they may exit with a UG certificate after completing one year (two semesters), a UG diploma after two years (four semesters), a bachelor’s degree after three years (six semesters), or a bachelor’s degree (honours) after four years (eight semesters).
Several students and faculty members were in attendance at the meeting and raised their protests against the FYUP.
Rinku, 19, a first-year BA (English) student at Satyawati College, said, “Our core subjects are being sidelined and we are being forced to study value-added courses (VACs) and skill enhancement courses (SECs). They are not only irrelevant to our discipline but also are not clearly taught in classes. Last semester, the information on the course was provided only a few weeks before the exams. Moreover, so many assignments leave us with no time to study for our main courses.”
Nandita Narain, former president of the DU Teachers’ Association (DUTA), said that under the new framework, students are asked to study regional languages when the university does not have the necessary instructors. “This coerces the students to study Hindi. How do you expect students from the North-East or other parts of India who aren’t acquainted with Hindi to cope with it?” she added.
“DU has been converted into a laboratory,” said Jitendra Meena, a History professor at Shyam Lal College. Addressing the students, he said the problem lies in exclusion and not change, and criticised the university administration for “setting into motion the privatisation of a public-funded education system, thereby depriving many of the access to a good quality education”.
