Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

In a meeting of Delhi University (DU) Academic Council, plans were laid down to start a school of journalism and introduce diploma courses in cyber security and law, and transnational studies and all these to be self-financed courses. This idea of having self-financed courses ignited a flame in the university bringing its teachers together, cutting all party lines, standing in unity in opposition.

This strong action pulled off by the teachers forced the university to rethink and eventually it was decided that courses at School of Journalism will be general courses while the two diploma courses will be self-financed.

What is the difference between general courses and self-financed courses?

University Grants Commission, a statutory body from the Government of India funds all government higher education institutions, some as much as 95%. This leads to great subsidization in the fee of education and the fee collected from students is not used to run these institutions.

However, in self-financing courses, the students are charged a higher fee which bears the cost of salaries of teachers, and sometimes, infrastructure as well.

There are about 60 undergraduate courses being conducted in the Delhi University, and only a couple of them – Computer Science, Bachelor of Management Studies, and Bachelor of Financial and Investment Analysis — are self-financing, but even these are not in all colleges where they are taught. A college can teach the same course under the general scheme or under the self-financing scheme.

What is the current uproar about?

When the panel laid out the plan to start a School of Journalism, it proposed the fee of one semester as Rs 30,000 and hence, Rs 60,000 per year. This is in deep contrast with the fee collected by Lady Shri Ram College for women, which conducts most popular journalism course in the university, at a per annum fee of Rs 27,190, which is not even fifty percent of the proposed fee for the newly planned college.

According to a 2008 study by Dr. Sudhanshu Bhushan of the National University of Educational Planning and Administration, fees paid in self-financed courses is 6 times more than that of fees in general courses. It directly results in students mainly from financially stable families joining the self-financed courses.

Why are teachers opposing?

Self-financed courses, as per teachers and educators, exclude more than they include. According to what they say, higher fees make sure that only those who are strong financially have the means to do the course. These replicate the socioeconomic status among students.

“Self-financing courses reinforce gender discrimination. We have seen that people with limited means are reluctant to spend on a woman’s education. They might sell off the little land they have to fund their son’s education but will not do the same for their daughter,” says Saikat Ghosh, Delhi University Academic Council member.

As per Delhi University rules, the syllabus is uniform across all its colleges, and so is the qualifications and method of selection of teachers. “Why then, should a student pay more for the same quality of education in one college as opposed to another? In some colleges, Computer Science (honors) is a self-financing course but in others it is not despite the quality being the same. The government is just washing its hands of the responsibility of educating an entire generation,” says a professor at the university.

By Rupal