Delhi University may add courses in cluster scheme

The scheme lets DU colleges to pool resources to allow students greater flexibility with regards to their subjects. Over 1,000 students used it last year

Last year, Ahtisham-Ul-Zama, a BA Political Science (Hons) student at Delhi University’s Rajdhani College in Raja Garden, opted to study Urdu as an Ability Enhancement Course (AEC), and was allotted classes at Dyal Singh College at Lodhi Road, around 19km away, under DU’s cluster college system. This meant that Ahtisham was faced with logistical issues such as clashing classes, and extra travel time.

Last year, 95 students came from other colleges to study Indian languages at Daulat Ram College in North Campus. Meanwhile, 57 students of Daulat Ram went to other colleges in the north cluster to study various other SEC programmes. (HT Archive)

Now in her second year, Ahtisham, originally from Jammu and Kashmir, said, “Sometimes, there would just be a few minutes in between the classes and I would have to request a teacher to let me leave a few minutes early. It took me around 45 minutes by metro to reach Dyal Singh College from my college... I would often reach 10-15 minutes late.”

DU, through the cluster college scheme, which began in the 2022-23 academic year, allows colleges to pool resources to allow students greater flexibility with regards to subjects that they can study.

Dean (academic affairs) K Ratnabali said more than 1,000 students made use of the cluster college system last year. She said, “Based on geography, we divided the colleges into five clusters — north, south, east, west and central — each of which has a hub college and a co-hub college. We started with two credit courses, which means classes of two to four hours a week. For this, colleges have synced their timetables.”

For example, last year, 95 students came from other colleges to study Indian languages at Daulat Ram College in North Campus. Meanwhile, 57 students of Daulat Ram went to other colleges in the north cluster to study various other SEC programmes.

Hindu College principal Anju Srivastava said, “Last year, we sent a few students to other colleges to study regional languages such as Assamese, for which we did not have professors. All the arrangements had been made and the timetables were being made accordingly.” She added that the system works smoothly if there is constant communication between the university as well as the colleges.

With DU offering more SACs, value-added courses (VAC) and ability enhancement courses (which includes languages) from this year, the varsity is likely to see more classes take place in clusters, officials said.

Ratnabali said, “Since there have been a number of new recruitments for language teachers by the Department of Modern Indian Languages this year, we will be able to manage much smoother this time. We will synchronise the timetables and ensure smooth implementation this year.”

A DU notification issued on July 28 said that any class with less than 20 students will be part of a cluster set.

While students have a wider pool to pick from, they are still apprehensive about picking classes that might be held in other colleges.

Abhishek Kumar, who studies at Hindu College, signed up for creative writing (skill course), and ethics and culture (value addition course) last year. He was allotted classes at Hans Raj college under the new cluster system. “The classes were good and it was easy to make friends in other colleges, but the timings used to clash with some of my internal classes,” he said.

A student from a North Campus college, who did not want to be named, said, “Our college offered only Hindi and Sanskrit language courses. I wanted to opt for Bengali but that would take place in the cluster. Since it was a new concept and I did not know what to expect, I did not sign up for it.” Miranda House professor Abha Dev Habib said, “The cluster system makes it harder for us to design our timetables. For instance, if a student of Miranda House has a class in another college, we will also have to account for half an hour of travel time for the student. This means we will not have to have consecutive classes and timetables will have to be altered accordingly.”