3 min readNew DelhiJul 11, 2026 01:08 PM IST
Delhi University teachers objected to the university’s decision to restructure the credit distribution in the fourth year of the Undergraduate Curriculum Framework (UGCF), alleging that the changes were pushed through without approval from statutory bodies.
The objections followed a notification issued by the university on Friday, revising the credit structure for the fourth year of the Four-Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP). The revised structure raises dissertation credits from six to 10 and cuts down the number of Discipline Specific Core (DSC) papers.
The notification stated that “Courses listed under Discipline Specific Core (DSC) in semester 7 and 8 across all UG programmes under UGCF 2022 may be removed and be listed hereafter under the Discipline Specific Elective (DSE) pool of that discipline in the respective semesters.”
From the 2026-27 academic session, students will be required to choose only three courses each in semesters 7 and 8, apart from the academic track. These options will be either three DSEs from the pool, or two DSEs and one Generic Elective (GE), or one DSE and two GEs.
According to the notification, “The four credits that were assigned to the DSC shall be added to the academic track, i.e. Dissertation, Academic Project, Entrepreneurship tracks, thus making it ten credits instead of six credits earlier.” As a result, academic tracks will now carry a total of 20 credits — 10 each in semesters 7 and 8.
Anumeha Mishra, assistant professor at the Faculty of Law and an elected member of the Academic Council, alleged that the university introduced the changes through a Registrar’s notification, sidestepping the Academic Council and Executive Council altogether.
“By pushing through a drastic restructuring of the UGCF via a Registrar’s notification and bypassing the Academic Council and Executive Council entirely, the University has completely disregarded the proper process. This decision will unrealistically burden fourth-year students,” Mishra said.
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Mithuraaj Dhusiya, an elected member of the Executive Council, also criticised the decision, terming it a “top-down approach”.
“This top-down approach where a handful of people decide arbitrary changes in the academic structure with no discussion in the statutory bodies, Academic Council and Executive Council, is very unfortunate,” he said.
Dhusiya also raised objections to the replacement of a core paper with an elective, warning that it could hurt the quality of education and shrink the stable academic workload available to departments and teachers.
Delhi Teachers’ Front (DTF) secretary Abha Dev Habib questioned why the university chose to roll out the changes without holding meetings of the Academic Council or Executive Council, and asked whether a policy decision of this scale justified the use of emergency powers.
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In a statement, Habib alleged that cutting down the only compulsory discipline-specific core paper in the fourth year would weaken students’ academic foundations, while raising dissertation credits from six to 10 would increase their workload without corresponding academic support.
She further alleged that the existing norm requiring teachers to supervise up to 10 dissertation students, on top of their regular teaching duties, was already impractical, and warned that the revised framework could add to stress levels among both students and teachers.
(with inputs from PTI)