Delhi University's decision to have a Cluster Innovation Centre for a four-year B. Tech programme on innovation in mathematics and information technology has not been welcomed from all quarters of the recently elected Delhi University Teachers' Association (DUTA).
“When we asked the university officials who were pushing for the course, whether on completion students would be eligible for the M. Sc programme in mathematics, they said they don't know. The future prospects of students have to be taken into consideration before introducing any course,” said DUTA executive member Abha Dev Habib.
There were allegations that the proposal document had been plagiarised from websites like Wikipedia and other university websites from abroad. “When we cross-checked the documents, we realised that the proposal document has been cut and paste exactly from Wikipedia and foreign university websites….when the ideas and language is borrowed, the question of innovation is non-existent” said Abha Dev Habib, adding that the teaching community was aghast with the manner in which the entire issue was handled and that the blatant plagiarism had led them to doubt the eligibility of the teachers who were going to handle the new course.
While the academic council in DUTA welcomed the course itself, it was not happy with the manner in which the meeting was called, as an emergency one, without giving due notice. The executive council too had issues with the emergency meeting with the DUTA president Amar Deo Sharma urging the authorities to follow due procedures and practices while calling meetings.
