Plan to introduce new courses in shambles

The Delhi University’s plan to introduce new courses seems to be facing a roadblock as the varsity’s academic and executive councils are still mulling over approval on financial grounds.

If new courses are not introduced, it would be a major setback for the students as the number of seats would remain the same in that case.

Going by the applications pouring in, the online registrations on the university’s admissions portal reached 2,33,883 on Friday, with a total of 1,29,066 paid applications of which 63,577 are male applicants and 65,483 are females and six other category candidates. According to DU registrar Tarun Das, five most sought-after courses this year by the order of preference are B.A. (Hons) English, B.A., B.A. (Hons) political science, B.Com and B.A. (Hons) economics.

However, the university’s original plan to introduce 35 new courses in 19 colleges this year for which the University Grants Commission had given its approval seems to be in a shambles.

The UGC had approved the launch of the new courses in a self-financing mode. However, in order to begin these courses in a self-financing mode, the university has to get the UGC approval cleared by the academic as well as executive council.

Delhi University academic council member and new course standing committee member Dr Nachiketa Singh said, “There was a chance of increasing number of seats with the introduction of new courses, but now the move seems to be likely impossible. After a long process, there was an approval by the academic council. However, the entire process was later stalled.”