Delhi University Vice-Chancellor Dinesh Singh on Friday said the semester system would let the university give freedom to its college teachers to design papers. For the first time since taking charge,Singh has shared his vision about the implementation of the semester system. Of the 24 papers being offered,each college department will be allowed to design and evaluate about four papers, he said. The idea is in line with Singhs view that semesterisation is a gradual process the Vice-Chancellor gives himself three years to place the matter before the universitys Academic Council. As of now,college teachers have very little say in what they teach. This will be a chance for teachers,with expertise on a topic,to offer a paper about it, said Singh. The papers will have to be approved by the relevant statutory bodies. If the session begins in July,the material should be before the AC by March, he added. While Singh said he would not interpret this freedom being proposed to colleges as autonomy,he said that he was not opposed to the idea of autonomous colleges. As a Vice-Chancellor,I do not mind if some of our best colleges want to be autonomous, he said. He,however,added a caveat: I do not know what the parameters of autonomy are. Also,the statutory bodies of the university have to accept the decision, he said. St Stephens College had recently made public its desire to become an autonomous institution. Talking about the anti-semester campaign,Singh said he was 95 per cent sure all undergraduate courses will be in the semester mode starting next academic session. When asked about the absence of guidelines on how the semester system is to be implemented,Singh said that it was a non-issue as departments have the freedom to design curricula. He said that in three years,the university will put in place a credits system. It would shift the focus from departments offering structured courses,to students choosing what they want to learn. Students can opt for 30 papers if they want to. They can take 20 of the 24 papers if they can earn sufficient credits by doing so. We might even offer summer internships with reputed researchers in exchange for credits so that students can choose to take up a paper very different from their core interests, said the V-C. Singh also indicated a move away from the Honours system. We could have three blocs of eight papers each. If a student chooses to take up all 24 papers from the same department,then she will graduate with a BA or BSc degree in that subject. On the other hand,if she takes up eight papers each from two science departments along with eight papers from a humanities subject like Political Science,she will earn a BSc degree with a Minor in Political Science, said the V-C.
