DU’s economics faculty opposes bid to drop three elective papers

The suggestion to drop these papers and replace them with a new one was first made in the AC meeting on May 26, as part of the curriculum review being undertaken based on the National Education Policy.

A letter by faculty members to the V-C Thursday stated: “You may recall that during the last AC meeting, a query had been raised concerning syllabi of certain papers of the Economics department. You had set up a committee to examine (it). The recording of the same in the agenda for the EC meeting states that the committee would ‘revisit the syllabi… to avoid overlapping, similarity and to include economics of developed countries’.”

It further said the three papers have no overlaps between them or other papers in the course.

On the ‘Economy, State and Society’ paper, the letter said, “It is one of the essential papers covering value and crisis theory… Other than Karl Marx, (it) covers thinkers of very different persuasions like Joseph Schumpeter…”

When contacted, V-C Singh said, “We are awaiting the committee’s report on the issues raised on the three papers, which will be discussed in the Standing Committee Academic Affairs meeting on June 14. The conclusions will then be placed in the next AC meeting for approval. If the next AC meeting is being scheduled a little too late, to avoid delays, conclusions will be presented to the V-C for approval.”

Speaking to The Indian Express, Shriprakash Singh, Director of South Campus and standing committee member, said, “This issue was discussed in the AC meeting. Following that, a committee comprising top economists of DU and the country was constituted, which suggested dropping these three papers and replacing them with one paper on Political Economy. We had accepted it and communicated this to the EC.”

Singh further said, “We also said success stories of various economic models should be taught; we want to ensure students get more options. We will meet on June 14, during the standing committee meeting, and put these concerns forward.”

The six members on the panel constituted by the V-C include Director, SDC-Chairperson; Director, Delhi School of Economics; HoD, Department of Commerce; HoD Department of Economics; HoD, Department of Political Science; and Prof Ram Singh, Department of Commerce. The V-C further also advised the HoD to develop a paper on ‘Economics thought of Dr BR Ambedkar’.

What teachers say

Speaking about the ‘Economy, State and Society’ paper, Nandini Dutta, associate professor at Miranda House and member of the Department of Economics’ syllabus sub-committee, said: “In the AC (meeting), we got to know they are objecting to this paper as they feel there is an overload of Marxist Political Economy. Secondly, they feel many papers are repetitive. This is not true. These are three different papers. In fact, Economics of Discrimination was brought in as there was a demand for Dalit understanding and of economics for the marginalised. All three papers were passed in the department council… we told the AC that… rejecting these papers can do greater harm to our students, post which we wrote to the V-C.”

“The three papers have been passed in the postgraduate and undergraduate course committees and standing committee before being discussed in the AC meeting,” said Professor Surender Kumar, HoD, Department of Economics, adding that he cannot comment further until the standing committee makes its decision.

Saumyajit Bhattacharya, Associate Professor at Kirori Mal College, who is also a signatory to the letter and has played an active part in curating the Economics syllabus, added: “The Economics of Discrimination paper is a new addition to the syllabus this year. It is a topical paper, there is absolutely no overlap…”