Education, Careers & Professional News
DU: All New Science Courses Promise More, For More
Planning to take up the brand new restructured science courses at Delhi University? Get ready to pay between Rs 500 and Rs 1600 more as fees.
According to officials, colleges over the next month will be beefing up their infrastructure in order to offer the new courses whose USP is a hands-on, contemporary syllabus. And to make that possible, students may be asked to shell out more from their pockets.
Said principal Ramjas college Rajendra Prasad: Ideally, the UGC should provide the funding. But if that doesnt happen, colleges will be forced to hike fees. After all, funding has to come from somewhere. According to principals, the hike, in that case, would be of the range of Rs 500 to Rs 1600 per student.
For those who came in late, DU has introduced a new syllabus for the old B Sc general courses, called the B Sc programme now. The first year of this programme will have a common foundation course for all students, irrespective of what their specialisation is in the second year. Students will, therefore, study all the science subjects as well as mathematics along with computers, environmental science and so on.
Said S R Arora, principal, Hansraj college, There are problems with the course. Like students who didnt have mathematics or biology in Class XII will now have to take up the subjects once again.
Colleges will also need to acquire the required infrastructure, which will be at least Rs 5-6 lakh per college. Even ones like Ramjas and Hansraj, which already offer most of the science subjects as honours courses, will need more labs and computers. The cost will then have to be borne by students, added Arora.
In some colleges, the cost, in fact, is substantially more. For instance, at Kirori Mal College, the staff council committee in its report has said that almost Rs 9 lakh would be needed for the labs and equipment alone. B e s i d e s, colleges that dont offer some subjects, like botany and z o o l o g y, would need to hire teachers, as its a comp u l s o r y component of the course. There are eight colleges in DU that dont offer these two subjects, added Inder Kapahy, convenor of the KMC committee.
Bhim Sen Singh, principal, KMC, said: These courses will start in a month. We have to find the resources for it. And though Singh denied that the college is contemplating a hike in fees, he added, Logically, thats the only way out. Added Manoj Khanna, teaching at a north campus college, Whats the point of restructuring if the student has to end up paying more for it? Any answers?
FEE HIKE
DU has introduced a new syllabus for the old B Sc general courses, called the B Sc programme
Fee hike between Rs 500 & Rs 1600 likely
Hike due to plans to beef up infrastructure in order to offer the new courses