Delhi University's new four year undergraduate programme, which has attracted a fair amount of controversy, was approved by the university court and the students at large after exhaustive deliberations, Parliament was informed today.
The HRD Ministry was informed by the varsity in 2008 that the academic council has resolved to hold wide consultations for introducing the programme, HRD Minister M M Pallam Raju said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.
The Minister appeared to support the programme in his statement in Parliament which came in the wake of a section of teachers accusing the varsity authorities of being in a hurry to introduce the programme from July this year without holding exhaustive deliberations.
"The proposal to introduce the four year programme from July, 2013 was approved by the academic council by a majority, recording only six dissents out of 86 members who attended the meeting in December last year," he said.
The Ministry has been further informed that the university held extensive consultations with various stakeholders such as students, parents, teachers, deans of faculty, heads of departments, principals of colleges, employers, among others over a period of two years, he said.
Raju said an open academic congress was also held in September last year attended by over 1,400 stakeholders and it recommended introducing the four year degree programme. A 61 member task-force had also endorsed the recommendations.
The Minister said after the court of the university approved the proposal on March 22 this year, the vice chancellor with his team attended a meeting organised by Delhi University Students' Parliament to respond to the queries of the students.
"After the discussion, the students expressed support for the new undergraduate programme," he said.
