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DCAC’s three courses introduced this year fail to get UGC approval
DCAC introduced three new courses -- Hindi, Computer Science, and Mathematics -- and enrolled 32, 23, and 20 students, respectively. The college sought UGC’s permission on September 7 which the latter denied on November 1
The Delhi College of Arts and Commerce (DCAC) has introduced three new courses and admitted students without getting financial sanction from the University Grants Commission (UGC), a section of teachers has alleged. The move has created uncertainty around the fate of 75 students enrolled in these courses this year.
DCAC, a Delhi University college, this year introduced three new courses -- Hindi, Computer Science, and Mathematics -- and enrolled 32, 23, and 20 students in these courses, respectively. The college sought UGC’s permission on September 7 which the latter denied on November 1.
The UGC’s letter itself followed a complaint made by Shrikant Pandey, an associate professor in the college’s Computer Science department, on October 9. In his complaint, Pandey said, “Our college has been sanctioned posts of assistant professors (34) under the OBC expansion scheme to restore teacher-taught ratio. The first tranche was distributed among existing departments as per the government’s mandate. However, the second tranche has been utilised to open new courses, completely diluting the purpose of restoring teacher-taught ratio as per norms stipulated by the University/UGC (sic)”. He requested the UGC to intervene.
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In response, UGC education officer Shalini wrote to college principal Anuradha Gupta and said, “I am directed to inform you that the second tranche has been sanctioned to the college to meet teaching workload due to the increase of student intake for implementation of OBC expansion scheme in existing courses. Therefore, these posts should not be considered for starting new courses. Hence, UGC regrets its inability to approve the proposal of the college for starting new courses with the posts sanctioned under the second tranche of OBC expansion scheme.”
Despite several attempts by HT, Gupta did not respond to calls and texts sent for a response.
In 2006, under the OBC expansion to ensure 27% reservation of OBCs in public sector employment and higher education, universities were provided additional teaching posts and funds.The UGC education official could not be reached for a comment. The story will be updated once her comment comes in.
