Semester System in Delhi University

Writing again after a long time ...!!

So much has happened since I last wrote the blog (July 2009). At that time the DU administration had shown intention of IMPOSING semester system at undergraduate level in DU.

NOW, DU VC has made is loud and clear that the semester system WILL be implemented from coming academic year (2010-11), come what may !!! Is this attitude correct ??

Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) after some initial apprehensions now have come out openly and very actively against this move of the VC. Next few weeks would be very crucial for the future of not only Delhi University but will be a trend setter for all the Universities in India. If DUTA could able to force VC to retract his steps than it would be a great victory for the teachers and democratic setup of Delhi University.

Many DU departments like Economics, English etc. have come out openly against this imposition. But HoDs (Head of Departments) of some depts. like Hindi, Chemistry etc. are trying their level best to by-pass the democratic norms of formulating the syllabus and getting it passed from the relevant bodies. ILLL (Institute of Life and Long distance Learning) has been grossly misused by DU administration in this context. First of all I fail to understand the existence of ILLL !!

Tomorrow (5th March 2010) DUTA has called for another strike against the imposition of semester system in Delhi Univ.

Now coming of some very unique experiences I had with Delhi University during last couple of months. First starting from Delhi University Computer Center (DUCC). I happened to visit DUCC sometime back. While I was present in DUCC, a middle age person came while talking on his cell phone and I would like to quote the discussion that person had with some one in DUCC.
Middle age person : "What is the data capacity of a CD???"
Answer : 700 MB.
Middle age person : Ohh. this is not sufficient, next question came "If one wants to store more data than what to do??
Answer :Use DVD !!
Middle age person: What is the capacity of DVD ??
Answer : 4.7 GB
Middle age person : How much is 4.7 GB, i.e. now many CD's ??
Answer : approx 6-7 CDs.

Can you guess who could be that middle age person ??
Get a shock of lifetime, that person (I came to know later) was none other than the "Esteemed Director of DUCC".

If this kind of person is heading DUCC, than I don't think even god can save Delhi University !!

More about my other experiences later !!
bye for now !!

Delhi University semester system

This is for the first time I am blogging. I am teaching Physics in a college in Delhi University.

I am writing about the recent "autocratic" changes done by our present Vice Chancellor (Prof. Deepak Pental). Being a physicist I will only focus on this issue from the viewpoint of a physicist working in Delhi University.

From last couple of year, the main physics department in DU is undergoing huge makeover. Firstly new M.Tech courses were floated by the dept. I completely fail to understand what the authorities had in mind while floating these courses. This introduction has completely ruined the structure of the department. The main physics dept. of DU had a golden past. The structure of the dept. (ever since it was conceived) was to focus on pure physics.I personally know a large fraction of the faculties in the physics dept. and with this knowledge I can say that this dept is incapable of holding such a professional course like M.Tech. I am sure DU stamp will (and has already) attracted students but let's be frank, the present faculties are incapable of teaching a professional course. I feel that this course will also meet the same fate as that of B.Sc. (H) computer science that was launched few years back and then scrapped. The present administrators of DU (including physics dept) have no vision of how things should be done. Some of the faculties of the dept. are incapable of teaching the basic courses (like what has happened in the Electrodynamics course last year). How can one expect such department to run specialised professional courses like M.Tech.

It is really very interesting how these so called jazzy courses are managed. The people who are teaching this courses are people of pure physics background without any experience (in student and professional life) of any professional courses. In addition dept. is also taking the help of some of it's retired people. In last few years DU has also recruited few faculties to undertake the responsibility of teaching in these courses. But I would like to note again that all the people recruited were from pure physics backgrounds. So these are the set of people who are responsible for these new courses.

In my future posts I will write more about these M.Tech courses and the restructuring of M.Sc. and B.Sc. courses that DU is presently undertaking........