Admission seekers rejoice, FYUP students worried

The fate of the existing four-year undergraduate programme batch students in Delhi University remained unclear as scores of students were looking for answers even hours after the authorities on Friday rolled back the controversial programme.

While admission seekers felt relieved over the end of the FYUP deadlock, students of the first batch of the programmed sounded worried about their future.

Ansh Goyal, a second-year BTech student from Maharaja Agrasen College said, “Now what will happen to us?”

“Last year when the new structure was introduced, students were not consulted. Now again when the FYUP is being withdrawn for fresh batches, we have not been involved in the process,” he said.

The university authorities issued a statement in the afternoon that FYUP will be rolled back and the admission process will be conducted “under the scheme of courses that were in force in the academic session 2012-13 in all colleges of the University of Delhi”.

Even teachers welcomed the exit of the controversial programme. Sanam Khanna, associate professor of English at Kamala Nehru College, said, “I am happy that FYUP has been rolled back.”

She said the information trickling down from the university suggested that the new batch of three-year undergraduate students may have to follow semester systems, an innovation introduced two years ago. “We want the annual exam system to be back,” she said.

The semester system, with exams every six months, was introduced in DU a year before the introduction of FYUP in 2013. Despite the rollback of the FYUP, the six-month each semester system is likely to continue for students taking admission this year as well, she said.

According to a university source, the current FYUP structure will be improved with a possibility of making the fourth year optional and devoted to research and application based programmes.

He said that in the post-rollback scenario, the current FYUP students will be provided Honours degree after three years and those pursuing a BSc degree will have their degree converted to BTech if they opt for an additional fourth year.

Prapti Bajaj, an FYUP student from Gargi College, said, “If they are making our fourth year optional for research and application based activities, it will be an advantage. This will help us apply to American universities.” She wants the foundation courses be either scrapped or  made optional.

Shreya, who is seeking admission to the university this year, was happy that the first cut-off list would be out soon. “The politics over FYUP has wasted a lot of time, now the admissions should start soon,” she said.