Change sweeps across varsity

Delhi University is busy formulating the course structure for the four-year graduation to be implemented from the 2013 academic session. It will mark a big shift from the familiar three-year degree courses taught so far.

Those designing the course say the immediate requirement is to bring about academic reforms. But teachers and students opposed to it find the proposed new course structure complicated.  A task force has been constituted to formulate the syllabus and course structure for the four-year graduation. It includes teachers, principals, deans and senior DU officers.

“The semester system was imposed on us by higher authorities like the University Grants Commission (UGC). We cannot go back to the annual mode now,” says Anurag Mishra, teacher and member of the task force, referring to the current course structure.

“The division of papers in the semester system was uneven in which one semester had too many topics to study and the other did not have much. In the semester system, we saw that 40-50 per cent students were failing,” says Mishra.

“We realised that this system was neither feasible nor practical,” he says.  The burden on students needed to be reduced. “We had to clear the mess created by it.”

Making courses relevant to job opportunities is a key concern. Mishra says over four lakh students graduate from DU every year, but only only 60,000-70,000  get placements. “Where do the rest go?” says Mishra.

“That means students who couldn’t get any job applied for further studies. There have been instances when DU graduates returned to the university asking for a menial job.”

Another task force member, who doesn’t want to be named, says the reason behind the shift is to restrain students from opting for private universities. “Private universities will start coming to India in a big way in some time. We don’t want our students to go there. This shift was required,” he says.

‘Pressure from ministry’

A senior DU officer who recently retired says, “It is being hurriedly implemented. But the university cannot do much. There is huge pressure from the ministry.”

According to task force members, the existing system is unfair to at least 70 per cent students from Hindi medium background who take Humanities (usually BA Programme), and do not have a sufficient amount of  translated reading material. They are forced to take recourse to ‘low quality’ guides to help them score passing marks.

“We have to design a course that is job oriented. In addition to that, the core papers should be maintained,” says Mishra. “Education is not just classroom teaching. New methods have to be incorporated keeping the changing times in mind.”

He says the new system will work as a filter with some 70 per cent opting out early, with a three-year degree.  These students are likely to be are more interested in taking competitive exams.

“Only those interested in further studies, which is 10 per cent, will finish the four-year programme. Thus in a way we filter and teach those who are interested,” he says.

Not convinced

A section of teachers and students have been questioning the ‘hurried’ implementation of the new structure, calling it a blow to quality of courses. This section of teachers also resisted when the semester system was being implemented a few years back.

Although these teachers are not against revamping the existing syllabus, they fear that a hurried, unplanned change will further dilute courses that were partly diluted with the introduction of the semester system.

 “Such a shift is a much larger issue than the shift from annual to semester. We are in a 10+2+3 scheme under the National Policy of Education. It is not for a Central university to shift to four-year graduation programme in isolation,” says Abha Dev Habib, teacher and executive council member.

“Such a change should be arrived at only after due deliberations at the national level. It can be brought about only if the government (both Central and state) promises money for infrastructure development in public-funded colleges and universities, and creates more posts,” says Habib.

“Without investment, this change is bound to be at the cost of quality, which currently stands severely damaged as colleges and the university till date have not been able to cope up with Other Backward Classes expansion.”

The new system will have several exit options.
Finishing the four-year programme will lead to the award of Baccalaureate with Honours or a BTech degree. But the students will also have the option to pursue a three-year programme leading to award of a Baccalaureate degree.

And then, there is the two-year programme option, leading to an Associate Baccalaureate degree. Students who leave will  have the option to rejoin the course.

“In case the course is revised, the students have to study the new course after rejoining. We have not yet thought about the stipulated time frame to rejoin; at least five years will be given,” says a DU officer, rubbishing the claim that the move will increase the dropout rate.

“The multiple exit points, which give a false sense of option, will create real dropouts. The only filter that will actually function is affordability. The National Knowledge Commission report (2009) that forms the basis of all education bills recommends that 20 per cent of institutional expenditure should come from students’ fees,” says Habib.
What about weaker sections?

“We recently saw 80 per cent fee hike in the Indian Institutes of Technology. With accelerated inflation, the multiple exit points are likely to result in the elimination of students belonging to weaker and underprivileged sections of society.

“In a structured society like ours, this option will not work for most, especially women. Women’s colleges that operate on the outskirts of Delhi fear that most parents will allow their daughters to attend college only for two years in such a graduation programme,” says Habib.

Critics also say that employability of students who leave after two years is questionable as they will lack critical skills. “The vice chancellor has callously claimed that the associate degree (equivalent to a diploma) will make students eligible to teach in primary schools, a claim that has been refuted by the faculty of education that already offers good quality BEd course in the university,” says a teacher.
The new system involves the revamp the existing internal assessment system. Marks for tutorials and attendance have been scrapped, and instead presentations and communication skills will be marked. There will also be no concept of repeating a year as a back paper can be attempted in the next semester.

“These changes could not have been made in the existing system as work and study load on teachers and students respectively were high. To accommodate a systematic syllabus we had to add a year,” says Mishra.

Under the new system, all Programme courses will be scrapped and will become Honours courses. According to task force members, the change from Programme to Honours courses will not affect the class size and students will be divided according to the course they choose.

“Like in BA Programme, there are several subjects that are taught. Depending on what the student is interested in, a new batch will be formed for a given subject.

The approximate class size will be some 50 students,” says another member. During the admissions, students have to choose the degree beforehand. “This condition is required for assessment of workload and division of classes,” says the member.

Compulsory activities

In the new system, sports and extracurricular activities (ECA) will be compulsory. “Papers like integrating mind, body and heart in the first two semesters and cultural activity from the third to the sixth semester are mandatory. This will include indoor and outdoor teaching like visiting a museum or showing an informative movie and other fieldwork. Classroom teaching will be a bare minimum,” says Mishra.

There has been no decision on the option for admission through the sports and ECA quota. Admission to courses and degrees will be on the basis of class 12 marks.  
Several teachers have objected to making sports and ECA mandatory. “Sports or ECA should not be made mandatory for 1.5 lakh students. We can motivate students to opt for ECA and sports, but cannot impose them on all. The main aim of higher education is to enable youth to discover themselves. It will be unfortunate to impose homogeneity,” says Habib.

The task force members confirmed that there will be no increase in the number of ad hoc teachers as the workload will be balanced by introducing the BEd degree wherever necessary. “BEd has a variety of subjects from Humanities to Science. There will be no instability or contractualisation,” says Mishra, though teachers feel the structure has loopholes.

“The workload decides the number of teachers required. In a semester system, the number of papers and students coming to a particular department keep changing. Teachers can be made permanent only on the basis of common minimum continuous workload over the year,” says  Habib.

DU has some 4,000 teaching posts lying vacant and thousands of ad hoc teachers in the existing system who are interviewed, hired and fired every semester.

As far as the School of Open Learning (SOL) is concerned, the task force members say changes will take place in a phased manner. When the semester system was implemented, a similar argument was put forward by DU regarding SOL, which still works in the annual mode. “SOL students faced issues related to migration to regular colleges when  the semester system was implemented. With the new structure, they will be pushed to the periphery,” says a teacher.

Although no decision has been taken on the structure of postgraduate courses, talks on running two PG courses simultaneously are going on.

“One-year integrated MA and PhD course for students who finish four-year graduation, and a two-year course for students under the three-year graduation system. In the one-year integrated PG, students will have a choice to not opt for a PhD,” says a member.