NEW DELHI: The University Grants Commission has granted Category-1 University status to Delhi University. This move comes as part of UGC’s initiative to provide autonomy to well-performing universities, following the UGC’s (Categorization of Universities for Grant of Graded Autonomy) Regulations, 2018.
The proposal received from DU under the UGC regulations was examined and considered by the commission in its 571st meeting held on July 25, 2023. It has approved Category I University of Delhi in accordance with the provisions of the mentioned UGC regulations. The university will now be eligible
for all the benefits as stipulated under Clause 4 of UGC.
The UGC also stated that the university shall be required to intimate UGC in case of any change in the accreditation/ranking status as per clause 6 of the above-mentioned UGC regulations. However, this development has sparked conversations and concerns among educators. In the DU’s academic council meeting held on Friday, the members protested against the move of pushing the university towards self-financing courses in the garb of “autonomy”.
Dr Vikas Gupta, elected academic council member said, “The present idea of graded autonomy is completely meaningless when under NEP, we are forced to comply with external structures like the CUET and curricular impositions such as VAC, SE and others.” “The present model of graded autonomy will only pave the way for online courses, self-financing and gradually to the defragmentation of DU itself because the same is also being solicited by its component colleges. If this happens, the older rules of service conditions will become infructuous,” Dr Gupta added.
Nandita Narain, Delhi University Teachers Association Executive said, “This is a blueprint for privatisation. Every clause has a condition of self-financing or raising one’s own resources since the UGC is not prepared to commit any funds. The autonomy is a misnomer because every kind of academic autonomy is being taken away from the university and its teachers, whether it is admission process, course structure, syllabi or examination scheme.” Dr. Mithuraaj Dhusiya, another elected member, Academic Council said, “Graded autonomy will put tremendous pressure on HEIs to generate their own funds in the
absence of government funding and grants.”