As per new structure DU students will be attending 40 classes per week including practicals and tutorials

Updated on: Friday, January 25, 2013

From 2013-14 academic session, Delhi University students will have to spend more time in the classrooms. The university is planning to replace its present three-year undergraduate degree with a four year programme with multiple degree options. At present, an undergraduate student attends 30 to 34 classes per week, including practicals and tutorials. The new structure will have 28 classes per week without tutorials and practicals and around 40 with them.

As present, 30 to 34 classes amount to 27.5 to 31 hours, as each class is 55 minutes long. "In all likelihood, from what we gather from the structure presented by the university administration

on the website, the teaching hours per week are likely to go up by as much as 10 hours. Going by six days per week logic, it will amount to over six hours per day or seven periods per day," said Naveen Gaur, physics teachers at Dyal Singh College.

In the four-year structure, which has been approved by the academic and executive council and made public by the university,
tutorials and practical are to continue wherever applicable and will amount to around 12 classes or more per week. It will amount to around 37 hours of teaching per week.

According to the break up of teaching hours mentioned in the "four-year undergraduate programme with multiple degree option" document, foundation courses (language, literature and creativity) will include five periods per week, while other foundation courses will be allotted three periods per week. The document also listed 11 foundation courses, which apart from languages, includes information technology, business, entrepreneurship and management, governance and citizenship, psychology, communication and life skills, geographic and socio-economic diversity, among others.

The four-year-undergraduate degree structure has been prepared by a 61-member task force constituted by the university in October 2012. A member of the task force, Virender Bhardwaj said: "Without the tutorials it is likely to be around 28 classes per week. Regarding the tutorials and practicals, the structure has not yet been finalized, but yes the number of teaching hours will go up with respect to the present structure as the number of classes are to go up in the four-year system. But a final decision on this is yet to be taken as to what the structure will be."

Not only a student to get an honours degree from Delhi University from the 2013-14 session will have to put in an extra year, the classroom hours, too, are likely to go up significantly. The university is planning to replace its present three-year undergraduate degree with that of a four-year programme with multiple degree options. At present, an undergraduate student attends around 30 to 34 classes per week, which includes practicals and tutorials. The new structure will have 28 classes without tutorials and practicals and around 40 with them.

As per the present structure, considering each class to be of 55 minutes, 30 to 34 classes will amount to around 27.5 hours to 31 hours of teaching. As per the four-year structure which has been approved by the academic and executive council and made public by the university, per week there will be around 28 classes which don't include tutorials and practicals. According to university sources, the approved structure mentioned that tutorials and practical will continue wherever applicable which will amount to around 12 classes or more per week. Therefore, that number of class hours per week will be around 37 hours or more.

"In all likelihood, from what we gather from the structure presented by the university administration on the website, the teaching hours per week is like to go up by as much as 10 hours, which means going by six days a week logic it will amount to over six hours per day i.e., seven periods per day," said a physics teachers of Dayal Singh College, Naveen Gaur.

As per new structure DU students will be attending 40 classes per week including practicals and tutorials

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