College of Art to stay with DU, can begin admission process: Vice-chancellor

NEW DELHI: The Delhi University (DU) has asked the College of Art to start the admission process and has informed the city government that the college will not be de-affiliated from the university, vice-chancellor Yogesh Singh said. He said the issues between the 12 DU colleges funded by the city government and the AAP dispensation had arisen due to procedural lapses, and they are being sorted.

The office of L-G had earlier given in-principle approval to the merger of the College of Art (CoA) with the state-run Ambedkar University subject to its de-affiliation from DU. However, the Executive Council of the university, which is its highest decision-making body, refused to de-affiliate the college.

"The proposal was by the college. DU has a system and it has not given an NOC for de-affiliation ever. The university's Executive Council has decided to not give an NOC. We have conveyed our decision to the Delhi government," Singh told PTI in an interview earlier this week. "We have written to them to start the admission process. We have told them that we are not de-affiliating you. We will follow what the EC has decided. Students are suffering because of the delay," he said. The admissions to the fine arts college have been delayed due to the de-affiliation tussle.

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Over the last few years, the Delhi government has several times locked horns with the DU administration over the funding of 12 DU colleges funded by it. The Delhi government has in the past stalled funding of these colleges pending the formation of governing bodies in these colleges, which are composed of people nominated by the government and approved by the university.

"See the problem is that colleges got additional posts created after getting approval from their governing bodies. But they did not take funding approval from the funding agency, which is the Delhi government in this case," Singh said. He said that this had been going on for several years and nobody paid heed to it but when the funding agency saw this, they objected to it. "This is what I have understood so far. It was a procedural lapse and there was an issue of trust deficit," he said. So how are things being sorted now? "We have had meetings with the Delhi government and it has agreed in principle to give one-time approval for all the posts that were created. “It is a welcome step. The posts were created because colleges started new courses,” he said. Singh has earlier served as the vice-chancellor of the Delhi Technological University.

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