Delhi University plans to favour interdisciplinary courses over honours ones by 2047

NEW DELHI : The Delhi University is planning to shift focus from single-discipline undergraduate and postgraduate courses, such as its renowned honours courses, to interdisciplinary programmes as part of its Strategic Plan 2024-2047. The university is also planning to “restructure” its admission in accordance with the demand for certain courses.

While identifying several areas that need improvement, the university also said that it will look at alternate financial avenues to “reduce dependency” on the government due to a “falling trend in government grants” over the last five years. It has proposed reducing expenses and even encouraged departments to start social media channels to boost revenue.

The Delhi University Academic Council (DUAC) will be discussing the drafts of Strategic Plan 2024-2047 and the Institutional Development Plan 2024 in an upcoming meeting on Thursday. The plans were prepared to be in line with the central government’s Viksit Bharat 2047 which aims to push India to a developed status by 2047.

The plan also proposes setting up various centres, including a patent office, making internships mandatory, and “venturing” into Indian knowledge systems of science and technology. It also proposes to devise a system of teacher promotions based on “feedback analysis” and necessitate two SCOPUS publications from its PhD students. SCOPUS is a multidisciplinary database for abstractions and citations.

Delhi University: Interdisciplinary programmes

Among the plans for 2047, Delhi University is aiming to gradually “increase focus on interdisciplinary rather than single-discipline UG and PG courses”. The university will also conduct an “assessment” of the admission process to determine the total vacant seats across programmes and the relevance of the newly introduced courses for students.

It also said that the admission process will be restructured “according to the assessment of the rise and fall of the demand for particular courses”. The university will also gradually shift towards paperless administration by turning the existing ‘Samarth’ portal into a centralised data control office.

Also read Stanford University’s list of top scientists must not be misused to win perception battles, says JNU professor

DU also proposes to gradually implement a system of continuous curriculum revision of all programmes in consultation with industry experts. This is to ensure that programmes remain “responsive to technological advancements, and aligned with shifting market conditions”.

As per the proposal, individual departments will be developing flow charts outlining the academic pathways for each programme, along with potential employment opportunities. It also proposes to introduce a mechanism for taking periodic feedback from students for improving the quality of the programmes.

DU curriculum: Revamp, phasing out of courses

Delhi University proposes introducing new skill enhancement courses (SECs) and value addition courses (VACs) developed in collaboration with industry and societal experts, who will also be integrated into the SEC and VAC committees.

Individual departments will be allowed to create their own “pool of experts” for curriculum consultations. They will also collaborate with industry experts to identify gaps in the current curriculum and “make timely updates” to address immediate market needs. Courses that are deemed outdated will be revised or phased out.

It also proposes to provide students with short-term certification programs and workshops that complement their SECs. These will be certified by “industry-leading institutions”.

The university will also encourage colleges to establish Principal Internship Programmes (PIPs) similar to the Vice-Chancellor Internship Scheme (VCIS), allowing students to earn while they learn and contribute towards activities such as admissions, events, library management, and faculty-led projects.

It also proposes introducing mandatory internships or industry-led projects on emerging technologies.

According to the plan, internationally renowned academicians will be involved in advisory capacity at various levels at the university. Additionally, a representative from a school education regulatory body, such as the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) or National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), may also be nominated for seamless transition from school to Higher Education.

DU to cut ‘dependency’ on govt funds

The university, in the 2047 plan, said that it will focus on reducing dependency on the government due to shrinking grants.

“[The University’s] major source of funds (76.6% of total receipts in the financial year 2023-24) is received as UGC grants and the rest of the 23.4% is obtained from internal sources like student fees. The five years trend of the distribution of receipts clearly indicates that there is a falling trend in government grants,” it said.

“Although University of Delhi is a public funded organisation, its long-term goal of financial planning should aim to reduce its dependency on the government grants and to achieve financial stability gradually.”

The university had complained about reduced grants on multiple occasions. The university has already taken a Higher Education Finance Agency (HEFA) loan to tackle the shortage of funds.

To raise funds the university has proposed a multitude of activities. This includes organising an annual fundraising campaign to create an alumni endowment fund, and identifying wasteful sources of expenses. It also hopes to ramp up CSR funding, and increase exhibition and festive activities to generate revenue. It will also rent out laboratories in a way that out of the 6 working days students and faculties will use the lab for four days and the remaining two days will be rented to the external research organisations.

The university also hopes to provide translation services to national institutes and departments for preparing their academic as well as administrative documents.

It has even proposed that individual departments should set up “souvenir shops" and be active on social media platforms to generate revenue. It will also allow individual departments to generate their endowment fund through grants received from alumni, philanthropists and industry collaboration in the long term.

DU: New infrastructure, improvements

The university also plans to establish the Centre for Emerging Technologies and Applications (CETA) to focus on the application and integration of new technologies. It aims to create a School of Liberal Arts to promote transdisciplinary studies and a Centre for Research in Disaster Management.

It will also be looking to create a registered Patent Office and proposes to have a designated consultancy office to map and handle consultancy services rendered by its employees.

It aims to increase the number of CCTV with direct Live transmission and recording and provide smart cards will be issued for all university employees and students to access different services, such as health centres and the library.

It also aims to attract a diverse segment of international students, research collaborations, and foreign faculty along with digitisation of course content, and increasing scholarships, fellowships, internships for students.

Steps will be taken to “restructure” the rules and regulations for teacher promotion by linking them to feedback analysis. The university will make two SCOPUS publications compulsory for all PhD submissions.

It will also venture into Indian knowledge system to “explore the richness of Indian science and technology”. Moreover, the existing student representation in Academic Council will be improved by making provisions to include at least one specially-abled and one female student representative.

The university has identified the following as its weaknesses that need improvement:

• Infrastructure upgrade
• Inadequate student-teacher ratio
• Lack of energy efficient campus
• Need for green buildings
• Lack of internationalisation
• Need for zero emission campus
• Need for digitised administration