Delhi University (DU) is planning to restructure undergraduate courses that are attracting fewer students, raising the spectre of Indian languages being dropped from BA programmes.
At a meeting chaired by vice-chancellor Yogesh Singh with principals last week, DU analysed UG admission data from its affiliated and constituent colleges and found that hundreds of seats are vacant at several institutions this year. For instance, 606 seats have been filled at Aditi Mahavidyalaya against 1,010 available seats, while 359 seats have been occupied against 985 seats at Bhagini Nivedita College.
These colleges offer BA (Honours) and BA (Programme) courses in various subjects. Among the suggestions that emerged from the meeting, the colleges may offer seats in BA (Programme) only if previous data show that the seats got filled in Honours optimally. Another proposal is to promote programmes with high preference ratios and rework others.
Based on the recommendations, the DU joint registrar on Wednesday wrote to principals of all colleges, asking them to submit proposals by December 8 for restructuring the courses and seats offered under them from the next academic session.
Abha Dev Habib, a faculty member of Miranda House, said Indian languages under BA (Programme) courses attracting fewer students might face the axe. Habib said the December 8 deadline would prompt principals to bypass wider and academically necessary discussions in staff councils on this issue.
“From discussions now commencing at college level, we apprehend that the first casualty of these recommendations will be the teaching of Indian Languages,” Habib posted on Facebook.
Habib cited the example of Bengali. Deshbandhu College, Kirori Mal College and Miranda House offer 10, 16 and 6 seats in two BA programmes with Bengali as a subject, while Dyal Singh College has 25 seats in three BA programmes with Bengali as a subject.
“Seats in these courses were always getting filled up by students from Delhi and nearby areas. They were taking admission based on their Class XII marks. Once the government introduced the Common University Entrance Test (CUET), local students stayed away, fearing low scores and a slim chance of admission in DU colleges. The main issue is CUET, not any subject combination,” Habib told The Telegraph.
She said DU was being pushed towards commercialisation with adverse consequences for public education.