Delhi University must not rush its four-year undergraduate programme

The fundamental idea behind Delhi University’s decision to move to four-year undergraduate programmes may be sound, but the execution is hasty. The move is supposed to introduce interdisciplinary pedagogy, enhance the quality of education and impart employable skills. As it will be watched as an exemplar for academic reform throughout the country, it’s all the more important to get it right.

At present, the move is creating more problems than it is solving. The ad hoc manner in which it is being implemented raises disturbing questions about the decision-making process of the premier university. Even though the new system is to be operationalised from the coming academic session, there have been no public discussions with the university’s teachers regarding its implementation. New syllabi for the four-year courses are also being introduced surreptitiously, with subjects such as economics losing optional courses and papers with interdisciplinary perspectives.

Such ad hocism poses a serious threat to academic quality and university output. Even though the four-year programme will add another 54,000 students to the university’s existing roll strength, little thought has been given to college infrastructure and teaching workload. Forcing innovation in higher education can have unpleasant consequences. Premier teachers have protested, saying they are not against the move to a four-year programme as such, but against the way it is being implemented. Ways should be found to get them, or at least a majority of them, on board.

And some of the paradoxes of centralised innovation can best be tackled by allowing competition to organically stimulate innovation . Deregulating higher education and encouraging private and foreign players to invest in building colleges and universities would, by giving more choice to students, tackle the capacity and quality problems simultaneously.