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What was such an urgency to introduce this bill in the current session?
The need for autonomy to DCE was long felt. In the absence of autonomy, the institution has not been able to update its curriculum nor is able to recruit its faculty. The current recruitment of the faculty through UPSC takes a long time resulting in an acute shortage of faculty. This has constrained the growth of the intake capacity and further expansion.
The academic session is to begin in August. The upgradation of DCE into Delhi Technological University shall allow the institution to add new courses in emerging areas of Science and Technology, upgrade its curriculum and recruit quality faculty for its programs.
If we would have delayed further, we would have lost one full academic year.
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What are the immediate benefits to the people of Delhi?
The new programs proposed to be added will increase intake of students in the UG and PG programs. The Under Graduate strength shall go up by more than 2 times in the next four years and the Post Graduate and Research intake shall go up by about 8 to 9 times.
This will ensure that the talented Delhi students who go to other States for admissions in engineering and technology programs will now have much greater opportunities in Delhi in an institution like DCE which is known for its quality of human resource output throughout the world.
In addition to quality human resource development, the proposed University shall support the growth of industry relevant technologies and new product innovations.
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What are the new courses proposed to be added?
The details of the new courses proposed to be added are given in the Detailed Project Report, DPR with the Department.
These courses have been carefully planned to meet the requirement of the industry in the new knowledge age.
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Why the proposed University is not an affiliating institution?
We already have Delhi University and IP University as affiliating Universities in Delhi. The thinking of the National Knowledge Commission is that we should promote new Universities as non-affiliating Universities so that we may concentrate on developing world quality education and research facilities. It is for this reason Delhi Government has established in the last two years IIIT Delhi, National Law University, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University and Delhi Pharmaceutical University as non-affiliating Universities.
However, to ensure that Delhi Technical Education gets support for expansion, the Bill for Delhi Technological University has the provision for adding new Government Engineering colleges as constituent institutions.
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Why should DCE not be made a deemed University?
Firstly, a Deemed University is not created by the State Legislation. Secondly, if DCE would have become a deemed to be University, we would have been forced to reduce the Delhi seats to 50% as deemed Universities have 50% seats for the State and the remaining 50% for all India quota.
The proposed Delhi Technological University shall have 85% seats for Delhi and 15% for outside Delhi.
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How the interest of the existing faculty and staff be protected?
The clause 4 (d) of the proposed Bill for DTU provides that :
“every person employed by the Delhi College of Engineering immediately before such commencement shall hold his office or service in the University by the same tenure, at the same remuneration and upon the same terms and conditions and with the same rights and privileges as to pension, leave, gratuity, provident fund, and other matters as he would have held the same if this Act had not been passed, and shall continue to do so unless and until his employment is terminated or he has opted for the University’s terms and conditions of employment”.
Which means that the existing faculty shall not be put to any disadvantage by the passing of this Bill.
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How the interest of the students currently enrolled with Delhi University be protected?
The clause 4 (e) of the DTU Bill provides that :
“notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, existing students of the Delhi College of Engineering who joined classes before the establishment of the University under section 3 of this Act, shall continue to pursue their academic courses and programmes of study under the enrolment and affiliation of the University of Delhi, Delhi, which shall conduct examinations to them and award degrees to them upon successful completion of the courses and programmes of study they are pursuing there at present.”
Which means that the already enrolled students shall continue to be governed by the same ordinances and courses of study, as at present.
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How would the proposed University ensure quality of education and research?
The proposed University has the structure of governance both academic and administrative in line with the best Universities in India. Its academic council shall ensure high quality of standards for education and research. The University on its part shall ensure that quality and merit are not sacrificed at any level, whether admissions or recruitment of faculty and staff.
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What will be the financial implications?
DCE is a Government of Delhi institution having provision for plan and non-plan support as per the approved outlay in the Five Year Plan (2007-2012). This will be made available to the proposed University. The Government will make allocations as per the need and as per the expansion of educational facilities over the years.
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Are there any examples of institutions like DCE having been upgraded into State University?
Yes, the famous Thomson College of Engineering was upgraded to University of Roorkee as a State University. Likewise, the Bengal Engineering College has been upgraded into Bengal Engineering and Science University. Both these colleges were the prestigious institutions of our country and their upgradation has beyond doubt helped in growth and expansion with quality. The DCE enjoys the same reputation and its upgradation into DTU shall also ensure growth and expansion with quality.
