EC, AC members write to Delhi University VC against College of Art

The members said the college, which was yet to be de-affiliated from DU, had started its admission process for the 2022-23 academic year under Ambedkar University Delhi.

The College of Art (CoA), New Delhi. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Eleven teachers of Delhi University’s (DU) Academics for Action and Development, including Executive Council (EC) and Academic Council (AC) members, have written to the vice-chancellor seeking intervention in the matter of the College of Art (CoA). They have claimed that despite the EC having refused de-affiliation of CoA from the DU, the college had started its admission process as part of Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD).

AUD comes under the Delhi government and the decision on the merger had been announced in March last year. “The Delhi cabinet has… approved the merger of Delhi University’s College of Arts, functioning under the Directorate of Training and Technical Education, and Delhi Institute of Heritage Research and Management (DIHRM) affiliated with GGSIP University functioning under the Directorate of Higher Education. Together they will now be part of Dr BR Ambedkar University,” the Delhi government had then said in a statement.

Teachers and students both at DU and CoA had then criticised the decision.

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On Monday, 11 teachers – including EC members Seema Das and Rajpal Singh Panwar, and AC members C M Negi, Kapila Mallah, Alok Pandey and Sudhanshu Kumar – wrote to the VC about the courses in fine arts which have started.

“This is to bring to your urgent attention that the Principal of College of Arts, has formally started the admission process in BFA & MFA courses for the academic session 2022-23, as a part of Ambedkar University. This development is consequent upon a meeting to this effect held on 9.5.2022,” they wrote.

“Such an unfortunate action is in contravention of the Acts and Statutes of Delhi University and also violates the decision of the Executive Council which has duly rejected the de-affiliation of the College of Arts from Delhi University. It should be noted here that the Lt Governor has clearly ruled that any such step towards merger is subject to ‘the de affiliation of College of Arts from Delhi University’,” they added.

The teachers asked the VC to “make the necessary interventions immediately to stop the dismemberment of the University of Delhi” and “to start the admission process of College of Arts for the academic sessions 2021-22 and 2022-23 under the aegis of Delhi University as per the decision of the Executive Council”.

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Last week the DU Teachers’ Association had written to the VC alleging that students who want to take admission in CoA were not getting the option to apply on the National Testing Agency portal as it was not appearing under the list of colleges in DU.

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