The University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked principals of all colleges of Delhi University (DU) to confirm their participation in the Orientation Programme organised by it over the UGC scheme of autonomous colleges on 16 November.
The letter dated 10 November which is send to principals via email said, “In order to introduce and familiarise the stakeholders with the scheme, it has been decided to organise an Orientation Programme…,” .The letter also mentions the time and venue of the aforesaid programme, which would be in the form of an “open interactive session”.
According to UGC it has been implementing the scheme of autonomous colleges in order to facilitate the colleges to achieve further qualitative improvement leading to academic excellence.
However, the UGC letter has raised apprehensions among the teaching community that Central Government is upon imposing privatisation in wake of autonomy. Rajesh Jha of teacher body Academics for Action and Development (AAD) said : “The autonomous college scheme is a scheme to sell out public funded institutions to private players and contractualize the faculty. This will lead to deprivation of needy students, especially SCs, STs and OBCs from quality higher education,” said Jha.
Meanwhile, Delhi University Teachers' Association (DUTA) observed “Black Day” on Wednesday, in which teachers wore black badges against the alleged retrograde recommendations of 7th Pay Commission or 7th CPC. They also demanded that report of pay review committee should be made public.