The Delhi University has constituted a National Education Policy (NEP) Interdisciplinary Courses Committee to frame syllabi for undergraduate interdisciplinary courses that are to be offered to students as part of the implementation of NEP in the next academic year 2022-2023. DU’s Academic Council (AC) and Executive Council (EC) had earlier passed the NEP’s implementation from the next academic session. This means DU will now have a four-year undergraduate programme starting next year. While there has been criticism from a large section of teachers regarding the “undemocratic” and “hasty” decision to implement NEP, the administration has said it is geared to adopt it from the 2022-2023 academic year. The interdisciplinary courses for which the syllabi will have to be prepared are: Ethics and Culture, Social and Emotional Learning, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Co-curricular, Science and Society, and IT Skills, Data Analysis and Mathematics. In a notification dated September 20, Registrar Vikas Gupta announced the constitution of a seven-membered Committee to frame the syllabi. The Committee will be chaired by Professor Vivek Suneja of the Faculty of Management Studies, who also chaired the earlier NEP Implementation Committee - the suggestions of which were finally adopted by DU’s AC and EC. Apart from Suneja, the Committee has former Dean of Admissions Shobha Bagai, and principals of Hindu College, Lady Shri Ram College and Ramanujan College, among other members. “The Committee shall frame the syllabi with respect to new interdisciplinary courses that are part of the structures of the undergraduate programmes of study approved by the Academic Council… and Executive Council… for implementation from the Academic Year 2022-23, for consideration of the Academic Council of the University,” Gupta said. “The NEP Interdisciplinary Courses Committee is empowered to constitute interdisciplinary sub-committees/working groups for assisting the Committee in framing the syllabi for the NEP Interdisciplinary Courses, composed of teachers of the departments, centres and colleges of the University,” he added. Gupta told The Indian Express that the Committee will create the basic structure. “They have the freedom to decide what sub-committees they want to form, the subject experts they wish to co-opt. They have not been given any deadline as such but since it is to be implemented from next year, it will have to be done before that,” he said.
