DU's Vidya Vistar Scheme aims to collaborate with other universities

NEW DELHI : An academic cooperative system between colleges and departments of the Delhi University and those of other Indian universities is on the cards, acting vice-chancellor P C Joshi said while releasing the DU's six-month report card on Tuesday. Through the initiative, "Vidya Vistar Scheme" (V2 Scheme), the DU has proposed to make available its faculties, library and other academic facilities to the partnering institutions for academic cooperation and collaboration.

The V2 Scheme has already started. Letters have been sent to all colleges and departments. Now we are giving them the freedom to chose. We are not imposing anything. "For now, we are talking about all our online resources. DU has state-of-the-art resources, our lectures, textbooks, projects, everything. In the coming time, we will see if we can invite researchers here and share our laboratories and other facilities with them," Joshi said.

The scheme will involve organising online and offline lectures, workshops, faculty training, conducting joint researches, and publishing in collaboration. The DU administration is yet to hear from the participating colleges, he added.

Improving QS ranking

Charting the course for future, the acting VC said the university will focus on improving its QS Ranking, which is an annual global university ranking and bring to fore its rich 100-year history. "My mission right now is Mission 500, which is to be ranked between QS Ranking 400-500. Currently, we are at 510. It means we will have to improve ourselves on several fronts to get to that number. This involves recruitments, promotions, teaching methods, our researches, and connections with our alumni," Joshi said.

The university will mark its 100th anniversary in 2022, for which the administration is planning to create a "DU Encyclopedia". "I am forming a new committee that will be involved with the 100-year history of DU and creating a DU encyclopedia. There are so many people who have been a part of DU, but we don't know much about them since we weren't working in that direction," he said.

Talking to media, the acting vice-chancellor detailed the university's activities in the last six months. The university has constituted a 42-member committee, chaired by Professor Vivek Suneja, for the implementation of National Education Policy 2020.

Digital degrees

Joshi informed reporters that the university conducted online open-book Examination (OBE) for the first time involving 2.5 lakh students in August and 1.7 lakh students in December last year.

This was also the first time that the admission process was conducted entirely online. The DU issued digital degrees to 19,821 students and provisional certificates to 3,885 students.

"There will be a mixed (online and offline) convocation ceremony on February 27," Joshi said.

In the last six months, the DU signed an MoU with the Indian Council for Cultural Relations as well as with 18 universities across the world for the purpose of academic cooperation and collaborations with Indian and foreign scholars and students.

Joshi took charge as acting VC when Yogesh Tyagi went on medical leave. Later Tyagi was suspended over allegations of administrative lapses and a probe committee was set up in late October last year.

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