No limits to what an institution can achieve: VC Tyagi

Away from the controversy over ‘authenticity’ of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BA degree, Delhi University vice-chancellor Yogesh Tyagi, who assumed office on March 10, is thinking about bringing more diversity in university classrooms.

With the opening of entrance test centres outside Delhi, he says the university will get a fair share of talented students from across the country.

Delhi University holds entrance test for postgraduate courses, while a cut-off based admission formula is used for undergraduate courses.

Tyagi spoke to Pratik Kumar about his long-term plans as the new vice-chancellor. Edited excerpts:
 
What is the roadmap for the next five years?

There is an unlimited scope for expansion. And there is no limit to what all can be achieved. DU has a good work culture. I plan to take suggestions and help from all my colleagues.

There is no limit to what an institution can achieve. New challenges will come along the way, and you will have to create some challenges for yourself in order to achieve newer goals. We will have to work positively.

Undergraduate admissions will begin soon. Are there any changes this time?

A committee is looking at issues related to undergraduate admissions.
Our priority is to prevent students from hassles.  

DU is conducting entrance tests at six centres outside Delhi. Do you think this will bring more diversity in classrooms?

Yes. Our priority is to conduct fair exams. I’m studying the admission-related data on a daily basis. If all goes well, we will take it other cities in future. The idea is to have diversity. There will be diversity when people from different places come to study here. It will benefit both the university and the students.

So far, we have received good response from Kolkata and Varanasi. Hundreds of students have applied.
 
How do you plan to address shortage of hostels?

There is an attempt to think of a solution beyond constructing of hostels by the university. Look at how many students take admission in DU every year.

However hard you may try, you will have a large number of students not getting accommodation. So you are likely to face a situation where even the best of efforts will not help achieve the full accommodation target.

It will be premature to announce now. But shortage of hostels can be solved with the involvement of government agencies and charities in large-scale housing projects in Metro-connected areas like Dwarka, Najafgarh, Noida and Gurgaon.

Probably, we will have to encourage more and more people to live at places having connectivity to Metro.
 
How will you make DU degrees more marketable?

I don’t think degrees should be linked with jobs. We should look at the real purpose of education.

It is not that people will not study Sanskrit because there will be fewer jobs available for them. The subject offers “Bharat darshan” and much more. Some subjects will always have more demand than others.