Delhi University faculty oppose fourth-year UGCF credit restructuring

Delhi University faculty members have raised objections to the university's decision to revise the credit structure for the fourth year of the Undergraduate Curriculum Framework (UGCF), alleging that the changes were introduced without the approval of the Academic Council and Executive Council.

The objections came after the university issued a notification on Friday revising the credit distribution for the fourth year of the Four-Year Undergraduate Program (FYUP).

Under the revised framework, dissertation credits have been increased from six to 10, while the number of Discipline Specific Core (DSC) papers has been reduced.

The notification stated, "Courses listed under Discipline Specific Core (DSC) in semester 7 and 8 across all UG programs under UGCF 2022 may be removed and be listed hereafter under the Discipline Specific Elective (DSE) pool of that discipline in the respective semesters."

Beginning with the 2026-27 academic session, students will select three courses each in semesters 7 and 8, in addition to their academic track. They can choose either three DSEs, two DSEs and one Generic Elective (GE), or one DSE and two GEs.

According to the notification, "The four credits that were assigned to the DSC shall be added to the academic track, i.e., Dissertation, Academic Project, Entrepreneurship tracks, thus making it ten credits instead of six credits earlier."

Consequently, academic tracks will now account for 20 credits, with 10 credits each in semesters 7 and 8.

Anumeha Mishra, assistant professor at the Faculty of Law and an elected member of the Academic Council, alleged that the university implemented the changes through a Registrar's notification instead of placing them before the statutory bodies.

"By pushing through a drastic restructuring of the UGCF via a Registrar's notification and bypassing the Academic Council and Executive Council entirely, the University has completely disregarded the proper process. This decision will unrealistically burden fourth-year students," Mishra said.

Mithuraaj Dhusiya, an elected member of the Executive Council, also criticized the move, calling it a "top-down approach."

"This top-down approach where a handful of people decide arbitrary changes in the academic structure with no discussion in the statutory bodies, Academic Council and Executive Council, is very unfortunate," he said.

Dhusiya further argued that replacing a compulsory core paper with an elective could dilute academic standards and reduce the stable teaching workload available to university departments and faculty members.

Delhi Teachers' Front (DTF) secretary Abha Dev Habib also questioned why the university implemented the changes without convening meetings of the Academic Council or Executive Council. She asked whether a policy decision of such significance warranted the use of emergency powers.

In a statement, Habib alleged that removing the only compulsory discipline-specific core paper in the fourth year would weaken students' academic foundation, while increasing dissertation credits from six to 10 would add to their workload without adequate academic support.

She also alleged that the existing practice of assigning up to 10 dissertation students to each teacher alongside regular teaching responsibilities was already impractical and warned that the revised framework could increase pressure on both students and faculty members.