More courses in the offing at AUD

AR Khan, dean, School of Undergraduate Studies, AUD, tells Gauri Kohli that there’s a lot more in store for those applying at the varsity

What is the USP of Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD)?
We understand that at this time, most students would be looking to secure admission to Delhi University. AUD is located between DU and JNU, which are one of the most sought after varsities in the country. Our aim is to give students a different form of learning and to attract good students. We have seven undergraduate programmes in sociology, economics, English, history, maths, psychology and social science and humanities and five masters programmes in history, economics, English, sociology and psychology. Unlike DU, we have moderate class sizes of 35 students in masters programmes and 40 in bachelors. This allows us to pay more attention to students. We also have regular tutorials and we assessment of students. We do not have term-end exams. Other unique aspects include the choice of subjects given to students in different courses and not distinguishing between a pass or honors course as we have all honors programmes at AUD. We even offer a dual major to students after they complete one degree. For the masters progammre, students can even take a break to work in related fields after completing one year of the course for which we give them a diploma in that discipline and they can come back and finish the second year and take home a masters degree. We are planning to introduce something similar at the undergraduate level as well.

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How would you describe the teaching faculty at AUD?
The faculty here is highly-qualified and we even have teachers who have great experience teaching at foreign universities. We have around 70 teachers which is a plus. Our teachers are also products of coveted varsities like DU, JNU, Oxford and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, to name a few.

AUD mainly offers courses in social science and humanities. Are there any plans to start commerce and science programmes?
We plan to start three new centres from the next year namely the School of Law, Governance and Citizenship; School of Business, Public Policy and Social Entreprenuership and School of Culture and Creative Expressions. These will cater to commerce, arts and law courses. As for science, we have no such plans as of now as we are a social science and liberal arts varsity.

What are the admission criteria at AUD?
For undergraduate courses, we look at a candidate’s marks in Class 12 and for postgraduate programmes, we admit students on the basis of entrance tests. We invite applications for admission for the bachelors programmes after which we prepare merit lists. Those who make it to the merit list are given admission.

Also, we do not insist on English as a compulsory subject for the best of four aggregate. We take English test of applicants on the first day and give free

English teaching classes to those who are weak in English. As many as 85% seats are reserved for Delhi students. The first list for undergraduate courses will be out on June 27.

Which are the areas where you think AUD is lacking?
We should focus more on extra-curriculars and sports infrastructures. We are also working on building a new and bigger campus that will be operational soon.