DU FYUP: Teacher calls project requirement 'unreasonable' as 4th-year guidelines remain a ‘work in progress'

Terming the Four-Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP) requirements as “unreasonable” and “constantly changing”, Monami Sinha, member of the DU academic council, has urged the Delhi University to revise the dissertation guidelines to protect academic integrity and student welfare.

The FYUP dissertation guidelines are “still work in progress” and were never placed before the academic council after being issued on September 30, 2025, Sinha said.

The guidelines have constantly been changed through “weekly notifications” without a final document for DU’s FYUP students or teachers to follow, she added.

Also read ‘Bitter experience’: DU’s 4th-year students face sudden rule changes, limited options, teacher shortage

'FYUP guidelines lack academic feasible'

Explaining the students’ ordeal, Sinha said: “The semester is ending and new requirements are still being issued. There is no clarity on the structure or requirements for semester 8, even though the dissertation is a full year project. Students are being asked to submit two chapters in semester 7 without knowing the final length of the dissertation.”

The new dissertation guidelines include a 120-page translation, a 30-minute video presentation, and geo-tagging of the video. These new rules introduced at the last moment, Sinha stated, are “academically unworkable” as it demands 50 secondary readings at the end of semester 7.

Sinha further expressed her disagreement on the Entrepreneurship track, where two external industry experts will evaluate students’ work. It could compromise confidentiality and risk misuse of student ideas, she said.

“Overall, the guidelines are not academically feasible for UG dissertations because students are not given any research foundation in the first three years due to the poor structure of the Value-Added Courses (VAC) and Skill Enhancement Courses (SEC) courses,” she added.