'New curriculum for Social Science courses not cleared'

DU says faculty approved programmes

Delhi University said a meeting with Social Sciences faculty approved Economics and Political Science course in respect to all requirements of the new four-year-undergraduate programme. However, teaching faculty of the courses alleged that the meeting did not pass the new curriculum as repeated attempts to get the final draft of the syllabus were not met.

A statement by the registrar dated April 20 said the meeting approved Honours courses (Dicipline 1) as well as for the entire list of Discipline II courses and the entire list of Application Courses related to departments of Economics and of Political Science.

These are among two of the largest and most important departments of the varsity.
Discipline 1 and Discipline 2 are major courses and minor courses. “It must be noted that DC II courses are available as a wide list of options from various departments for all UG students to grant them, as per their choice, wide exposure to other subjects outside their chosen major (Honours course) discipline. The Application Courses are skill-based courses that shall enable employability for students and they offer a wide list of choices,” the statement said.

However, teachers present at the meeting said the new curriculum was presented but not passed at the meeting.

“Members said they can’t agree to consider the courses which were never circulated. The chair agreed that no course will be passed at the meeting. Another meeting was to be held later this week to get feedbacks and come to a conclusion about the courses,” said an Economics teacher.

Teachers said after the meeting, a letter by the Dean of FSS was sent to teachers concerned asking for feedback.

“As discussed in the Meeting on April 20, please send your suggestions on the Economics four-year- Undergraduate Programme latest by the evening of April 22, 2013 to the head of department, Economics,” stated the letter from the FSS Dean. A similar letter was sent to the teachers of the Political Science department also.
Senior DU officers confirmed that the courses have been approved.