Delhi University notifies 8 am-8 pm college hours; professors call it ‘impractical’

DU assistant professors have opposed the decision of the executive council, which states that the working hours for Delhi University will be from 8 am to 8 pm. The university has begun its new academic session 2025-26 for the Four-Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP) from August 1.

According to the directive of the executive council, the decision for new Delhi University working hours was taken so that the assistant professors can make “optimal utilisation” of the college resources.

The decision was taken during an executive council meeting on July 12 this year. The meeting was held to discuss the issue of implementation of FYUP.

“The University has already advised the colleges/institutions to function from 8:00 A.M. to 08:00 P.M. for optimal utilization of the available resources. In order to achieve this and to ensure availability of faculty and staff during the period, the deployment of faculty and staff be staggered,” the executive council said in an official statement.

Condemning the order, Rudrashish Chakraborty, an associate professor at Kirori Mal College, told PTI: "8 am to 8 pm schedule of the colleges has now got an official stamp of approval from the University, thereby forcing the colleges to adopt such a draconian, anti-teacher and anti-student notification.”

Furthermore, the university has directed the senior regular faculty members to teach and guide fourth-year students, and appoint guest faculties as per the requirement.

Such faculty members and staff shall be compensated for additional work performed as per prevailing norms of the university, it added.

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DU Executive Council’s new directive

Here is the list of orders from the executive council for the college working hours guidelines of Delhi University for the academic year 2025-26.

• Working Hours: The workload of the teachers in full employment should not be less than forty hours a week for thirty working weeks in an academic year.
• Daily Duration: It should be necessary for the teacher to be available for at least Five hours daily in the university or college.
• Mentoring of Students: Teachers shall devote at least two hours per day for mentoring of students for extra- curricular activities.
• Timings for UG Courses: At least two hours per day for research in case of post-graduate courses, for which the necessary space and infrastructure shall be provided by the university.
• Direct Teaching-Learning Work Load: For assistant professors, the working hours should be 16 hours per week. It should be 14 hours per week for professors.