UGC standing panel on DU to meet at 4 p.m.

The standing committee set up by the University Grants Commission to advise Delhi University to scrap the four-year under-graduate programme and revert to the three-year course will meet here Monday at 4 p.m., said a committee member.

The commission Saturday constituted the standing committee headed by the UGC vice chairman with representatives from the academic and executive councils of DU, Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA), Delhi University Students Union (DUSU), and college  principals and teachers, to advise the varsity on the change-over.

"We have a standing committee meeting at 4 p.m. today (Monday) at the UGC where we will discuss strategies for the migration to the three-year programme," Nandita Narain, DUTA pesident, told IANS.

Also, the commission Monday issued a public notice against the four-year under-graduate programme (FYUP) in all leading newspapers for the parents and students.

"After taking into consideration the larger interests of the students, they are hereby informed that they shall seek admission in a college of the University of Delhi only to the three-year under-graduate programmes, which were prevalent prior to the introduction of the FYUP and shall pay fees only for the three-year programme," read the UGC public notice.

After several letters to the varsity, the commission Sunday ordered Delhi University that it should make admissions for the under-graduate courses only under the three-year programme, which was prevalent prior to the introduction of the four-year programme (FYUP), or face action under the UGC Act, 1956.

As the four-year programme introduced last year violates the National Education Policy 1986, which advocates the 10+2+3 system, the commission said DU must go back to the earlier system.

The commission has also ordered the varsity to comply with the letter "without fail" by Monday.

With no comment from the varsity, confusion has gripped the campus on whether admissions would go through as scheduled from Tuesday.

A Left student group protested outside the ministry of human resource development (MHRD) office, asking Minister Smriti Irani to intervene and speed up the process of transition.

"Now the minister has to talk. We have heard that the colleges are conducting their admission committee meetings and are not discussing the UGC letter at all. 

Today (Monday) it is crucial that minister intervenes," Sunny, president of All India Student's Union, told IANS.

The student group Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi parishad (ABVP) celebrated the UGC order.

"We wanted the FYUP to be rolled back and the UGC order is clearly in compliance with it.

Further, all other issues of the students will also be put forward to the UGC," Aman Awana, president of Delhi University Students' Union, told IANS.

However, some Bachelors of Technology (B.tech) students say they want their four-year under-graduate programme to continue.

"... we want that we should be given a four-year degree like all other engineering colleges," Nidhi Jadega, a B.Tech. computer science student at Hansraj College, told IANS.