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By Fred, July 15, 2010 7:19 pm

Delhi University’s Academic Council (AC) has rejected the proposal of getting DU-affiliated colleges accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). The members of the council feel that the accreditation would ‘adversely affect’ some colleges of DU. Also, a large number of academics feel that the NAAC methodology is too general and cannot be applied to DU colleges.

“NAAC assesses colleges on parameters such as infrastructure, research, faculty, etc, and on the basis of it provides ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘C’ rankings. Based on the rankings, a college receives grants. Colleges with lower ratings are at a disadvantage and get lower grants from the University Grants Commission (UGC),” said Abha Dev Habib, member of AC. NAAC accredits colleges on the basis of seven parameters: curricular aspects; teaching-learning and evaluation; research, consultancy and extension; infrastructure and learning resources; student support and progression; governance and leadership; and innovative practices.

Instead of the NAAC accreditation, the university has passed a proposal to set up its Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC). Although the cell would assess colleges on the similar parameters set by NAAC, the university feels that the cell will prevent from creating differences among colleges. At a time when the government is planning to set up a single regulatory body instead of multiple bodies, the rejection comes as a blow to NAAC.

“If not NAAC, we still have to go for some other quality assurance. Universities across the world subscribe to accreditations as it helps them assess their strengths and weaknesses. Delhi University’s internal cell will evaluate a college’s performance on the basis of certain set parameters,” informed Deepak Pental, vice-chancellor, DU.

Further, SK Garg, principal Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, added, “The NAAC accreditation is meant for new institutions. But DU has several old colleges of reputation, which do not fulfill certain criteria set by NAAC. For example, some DU colleges — of high academic standard — operate from dilapidated buildings. If those colleges go for the accreditation, they are bound to be ranked low due to their poor infrastructure.”

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By Fred, November 30, 2009 7:08 pm

The University of Delhi was established in 1922 as a unitary, teaching and residential university under the Act of the Central Legislative Assembly. Initially, there were only three colleges, namely- St. Stephens College, Hindu College and Ramjas College that were affiliated to the University. There were only two faculties (Arts and Science) and about 750 students. In October 1933, the University offices and the Library shifted to the Viceregal Lodge Estate, and till date, the same is the main campus of the university. It is one of the most reputed Universities in India.

To cope with the increasing demand, University initiated a new organizational scheme based on the multi-campus concept during seventies. University was divided into two separate campuses- South and North. In 1973, South Campus started postgraduate programmes in some departments of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences in a rented accommodation. After sometime, the campus acquired land near Dhaula Kuan where the building of Arts Faculty was first constructed. Offices and teaching activities shifted to this campus in 1983. Out of a total of 18 Centres of Advanced Studies, 6 were chosen from Delhi University by the University Grants Commission in the early sixties. These were in Physics, Chemistry, Botany, Zoology, Economics and Sociology. Now, these centres are amongst the pioneers in teaching and research in their respective areas. It is one of the popular Universities In Delhi.

The University has 15 libraries, apart from the individual college libraries. The University Science Instrumentation Centre (USIC) has a number of sophisticated research instruments which are being used by several departments of the University and by other institutions in Delhi. The DU has also recently completed the implementation of fibre-optic networks on the North and South campuses.

The University of Delhi offers various programmes under different faculties, such as English, Hindi, Philosophy, Sanskrit, Political Science, History, Commerce and Mathematics at both undergraduate and masters level. The admission procedure of the university generally starts in the month of June every year and the session starts from July onwards. To apply for the courses, students have to fill in a Centralized Admission Form..Admission to the colleges affiliated to the University is strictly on the merit basis, although some colleges do have an interview round, besides the regular qoutas like SC/ST, Sports, etc. Cut-off lists of every college are decided and declared individually once the applications procedure is over.

Those who are unable to get admission in the regular courses of the University of Delhi can apply for admission to the ‘School of Open Learning’ of the university. The classes of Open learning are generally held on weekends or public holidays.

Adarsh Sharma is the webmaster of Latestt.com. For more information about University of Delhi, Universities In Delhi and Universities in India visit the site.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/college-and-university-articles/university-of-delhi-the-oldest-and-the-best-1327693.html

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By Fred, October 10, 2009 9:18 am

After ragging and smoking, students in Delhi University want the authorities to take up a campaign against sexual harassment. Students from different DU colleges took out a protest rally in the North Campus on Friday and also submitted a charter of demands at the office of the vice-chancellor.

“We want to make our campus a zero-tolerance zone as far as sexual harassment is concerned. We are not only targeting students and teachers but also the non-teaching staff and even the bantawala on the campus to stop any incident of sexual harassment,” said Devangana Kalita, a final-year student at Miranda House. She added that the students wanted DU to take up a “highly visible” campaign against sexual harassment and put up hoardings on the campus on the lines of anti-ragging campaign. On Friday, nearly 300 students armed with banners, slogans and songs started their rally from the Arts Faculty and covered at least ten colleges and departments before reaching the vice-chancellor’s office.

It all began earlier this year when a group of Delhi University students and teachers conducted a survey amongst students to gauge the impact of ordnance XVD against sexual harassment in the university. The result wasn’t so encouraging which forced the group to turn their initiative into a movement. Devangana said, “We had prepared a questionnaire and gave it to random students during January to March earlier this year. We found that there was hardly any awareness about sexual harassment or the redressal system in the University of Delhi.” She added, “That’s when we thought of taking our efforts further and sent an open invitation to students to join us.”

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By Fred, August 26, 2009 11:57 pm

The University of Delhi is the premier university of the country and is known for its high standards in teaching and research and attracts eminent scholars to its faculty.

The University of Delhi was established in 1922 as a unitary, teaching and residential university by an Act of the then Central Legislative Assembly.

Only three colleges existed then in Delhi: St. Stephens College founded in 1881, Hindu College founded in 1899 and Ramjas College founded in 1917, which were affiliated to the University. The University thus had a modest beginning with just three colleges, two faculties (Arts and Science) and about 750 students. In October 1933, the University offices and the Library shifted to the Viceregal Lodge Estate, and till today this site is the nucleus of the University (Main Campus).

Over the last even decades the University has grown into one of the largest universities in India. At present, there are 14 faculties, 86 academic departments and 79 colleges spread all over the city, with about 2,20,000 students.

In an effort to cope with this enormous expansion, the University in the early seventies initiated a new organizational pattern based on the multi-campus concept. The South Campus made a beginning in 1973 by starting postgraduate programmes in some departments of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences in a rented building. A beginning has been made towards establishing the East and West Campuses of the University of Delhi.

The East Campus is being developed with the University College of Medical Science as its nucleus, while the West Campus will have as its focus on Engineering and Technology. The University has just completed the implementation of fibre-optic networks on the North and South Campuses.

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By Fred, August 11, 2009 1:12 am

In order to get hands-on training, Delhi University’s BEd students will now have to teach in government schools for a year as part of their internship. This is the latest such tie-up by the university tie-ups are already in place for 26 programmes.

The government had approved the proposal and the directorate of education (DoE), in consultation with DU, is preparing the memorandum of understanding as well as the modalities of the collaboration.

This is a good move, like students pursuing professional programmes undergo industry training during their studies, BEd students also need similar training and we think government schools would be the best place for a teacher to understand the complexities of the profession. Most students in these schools are from economically weaker sections and are first-time learners.’

Apart from a monthly stipend, the students on completion of the teaching assignments would also get a trainee certificate. The Delhi University is working on the proposal. The government in principle had approved it and final modalities would be ready in a few days.

This is a welcome move by the Delhi University and will help the BEd students immensely. This move will not only help the BEd students in getting a practical exposure of teaching and educational environment but will also provide them with an opportunity to earn while they learn. The monthly stipend will help the students with financially weak background to earn the much needed money for their education and future growth.

It would be good if the Delhi University can come up with similar programs for students of other courses. On the job training while studying not only provides the students with an opportunity to earn a little but also provides them the much needed exposure.

Andrew

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By Fred, July 4, 2009 6:15 am

Delhi University held its first ever online examination with the 60 minute paper on environmental sciences conducted for the students of BSc at Miranda House and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya (DDU) College. Taking this as a step towards the examination reforms and semester system to be introduced in 2010 at the undergraduate level, this could be one of the ways for time management in the semester system.

Conducted by DU’s ILLL, the exam was taken by over 800 students, with 1,700 more waiting to appear for their online exams on June 9 and 13 at three different centers.

Terming this as the beginning of the next generation examination in higher education, officials said the success of this pilot-run would help ILLL make the Computer Based Test (CBT) an integral part of the examination reforms in future.

Most students seem to find the CBT system more interesting than writing the test using pen and paper. According to a student of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, “Online examinations are much more interesting than the routine theory papers. It was a fun way of taking an exam and also made us familiar with technology.”

The students found the exam less tiring and are looking forward to the introduction of more such exams. They said: “The most positive feature of this exam was that it was not tiring at all.”

Speaking on the first day’s experience, officials also said that while students found it more convenient, for the examiner and evaluators, too, it was time saving. “Exams are conducted to test students’ application and knowledge and one can develop such questions for online exams as well. In fact, we already have the results although we have not declared them today,”

While exams having multiple choice questions can test the knowledge on a certain subject, they won’t offer an insight on the writing and presentation skills of a student. “The only disadvantage is that we may not be able to judge the writing and presentation skills. But we’re working on that format and there are software available for such exams as well,” said an official of Delhi University

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Abhishek Sinha

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/college-and-university-articles/first-ever-online-exam-at-du-995414.html