DU respects autonomy, won’t take steps to curb academic freedom: Vice-Chancellor

On Wednesday, The Indian Express reported that the varsity had constituted a six-member committee to frame policies on the use of social media platforms by its employees.

Sanjeev Singh, who was appointed chairperson of this panel, said the idea behind framing the policy was to ensure “effective use of social media for university members” as it plays a huge role in teacher-student communication.

The V-C also addressed concerns raised by a section of teachers who claimed that the ongoing appointments at the institution and the displacement of ad hoc teachers were a threat to academic freedom. “Whenever there is a procedure of interviews in place, this is natural. The people who don’t get selected level allegations and the ones who get selected stay quiet. Appointments have been happening in several colleges now, the chairman of the governing body and principals are responsible and must be doing their duty well. The colleges of course do take into consideration the work of good teachers who have been working at these colleges for years. If someone is not selected, then there must be a valid reason for it.”

Singh further mentioned that under his tenure, in the past two years, the university has made about 3,500 permanent teacher appointments.

“We are very clear on following proper procedure. Merit should be maintained during these selections… those working at the university for many years, if they are good, some preference should be given and it has been given. Out of these 3,500 permanent appointments, more than 3,000 teachers are those who have been working on an ad hoc basis in various colleges. But the counter-argument is that if an interview is being held, it is just not possible for everybody who has been teaching in these colleges to become permanent.”

With hirings underway since 2022, ad hoc teachers, whose positions were already precarious, have found themselves in an even more uncertain situation.

The V-C reiterated that the varsity constituted the selection committees as per prescribed University Grants Commission guidelines and there has been no violation on that front.

On the recent controversy over DU’s ‘Strategic Plan’ document, parts of which were alleged to have been plagiarised, Singh said, “This document is to gain perspective of how the next 25 years are going to look for Delhi University. For now, we have sought comments from everybody in the Academic Council and passed the document over to a committee. We will also invite some language experts to look into the whole document to ensure there are no chances of plagiarism. After that, we will come up with an improved document very soon.”

A strategic document sets the goals for the university for the next 25 years. “We thought we should discipline ourselves on this front and came up with this idea. Even in the case of adhocism, it has been in the university for years, but now we are changing that too… by starting permanent appointments to end adhocism,” Singh said, adding that the varsity will take inspiration from the Centre’s resolution to have a Viksit Bharat in the next 25 years and incorporate this in the fresh draft.

When asked if the plagiarism was acknowledged by the administration, the V-C said, “This is just perspective… the ones who drafted it got influenced by some university and borrowed a few lines but we are changing that also.”