Indian university strives to go the US way
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By Siddharth Theodore
NEW DELHI: I’m Siddharth, and as a freshman at St. Stephen’s College in Delhi University, I’m hopefully going to become a sophomore in a couple of months. Pardon me if I’m talking the lingo of a US student. Should you blame it on me squarely? Not entirely. The winds of change are blowing through Indian universities too as recent developments that have been taking place in Delhi University tells us. Let’s look at the changes that have swept our university – prestigious in this part of the world and a role model for many others in the states of India.
From June onwards anyone wishing to enter Delhi University to study will stare into a brand new perspective towards higher education. A new ball game, rather it could become a game changer for higher education in India, the authorities who went for this new paradigm shift say. So much so that anyone looking for a three year degree will never find it.
Now onwards there will only be a four-year undergraduate course in all of Delhi University’s 77 colleges. Students could just leave at the end of two years and will not be called a drop-out but a very respectable ‘Associate Baccalaureate’. Now this is where it smacks of the US system. On studying up to the end of three years, a student would be a Baccalaureate and after four years a Baccalaureate with honors in whichever subject he or she chooses, like History, Psychology or Physics. Now there won’t be a cohesive stream degree like B.A. or B.Sc.
Streams will now have only majors and minors and students can choose to mix and produce a cocktail like Humanities and Commerce while majoring in one stream. Major subjects will be designated Discipline One and minor subjects as Discipline two subjects. This would allow for intermingling of streams, wherein they could have disparate subjects like English or History as a major and Mathematics or Accounts as the minor.
If a student wants a degree in History the student will have to notify it as their major subject under Discipline One and choose to minor in any Discipline Two subjects. Sounds confusing, but let’s unravel a bit more.
Mandarins who created these new changes are proud to point out that there is no scope for failure. Even if a student gets a zero for a subject it won’t mean a failure. But the student has to be present at the exam, that’s all. The only thing that matters is that students have an overall score of 45 per cent from all the theory papers for the two-year associate degree or the three-year degree. The admission procedure remains unchanged.
The Reaction
Teachers across colleges say they were not consulted about the new plans or given enough time to re-design the courses and major stake-holders were left out of this massive overhaul. According to the Vice-Chancellor of DU, Dinesh Singh – the force majeure behind the change – the new structure introduces a healthy interdisciplinary approach to education.
In December, the Academic Council of the university sanctioned the switch to the Four Year University Program (FYUP). The council has 161 members including principals of colleges and Heads of Departments. Teachers say the meeting was called with just a three-day notice.
Students will have to complete 11 compulsory foundation courses in their first two years at college.
Many professors point out that the infra-structure for Delhi University, already anemic, needs to be reformed before adding an extra year to the current program. As an example, they point out that 4,000 vacancies for teachers have yet to be filled.
The road ahead
But the turn of events has not gone done well with several people, including a section of the teachers and students who have launched a movement that they term as the Save DU Campaign.
As of today 43 DU colleges signed a note in support of the four-year undergraduate programs. But teachers from the physics department of St. Stephen’s College slammed the new courses calling them strange and out of tune. The program provides flexibility to the students to exit after two and three years and such students can return within a span of 10 years, if eligible, to complete the degree and/or honors degree, says the Human Resource Minister says M. M. Pallam Raju.
The University has informed the Ministry that the Four Year Undergraduate Program aims at knowledge development, which cuts across the domains of traditional courses, as well as skill and value-building. It requires the students of all disciplines to undertake certain mandatory courses to meet the needs and challenges of the modern society and the nation.
Flexibility, they say, is one of the key aspects of the new reforms in the system which is also an important aspect of the American system. In contrast, students in DU will not be able to decide what he or she has to study at the time of taking admission. The student will also have no choice in deciding which foundation courses to study.
In all probability, most majors will have no optional courses, since the number of courses offered over four years is the same or less than the number of courses offered over three years currently. The so called “reformed” structure is as inflexible as the current system, if not more, some of the more reactionary teachers and the university have said about the system.
(Siddharth Theodore is currently pursuing a course majoring in History from St Stephen’s College, Delhi University. He is a keen cricketer and loves to hike.)
To contact the author, e-mail: editor@americanbazaaronline.com