Delhi university sanctions supervision guidelines for fourth year UG

In a major development, DU's Academic Council, in its meeting on Saturday, sanctioned guidelines for supervision of students in the soon-to-be-launched fourth year of the undergraduate programme.

The guidelines will provide students with an option to choose either a dissertation, academic project, or entrepreneurship. The supervision guidelines in draft form seek to rationalize mentorship and academic guidance under the Undergraduate Curriculum Framework (UGCF) 2022, consistent with UGC Regulations, 2018.

As per the approved framework, all faculty members, whether they have a PhD or not, will be qualified to guide students choosing any one of the three streams.

Student allocation shall follow faculty specialization in the concerned field, and the colleges shall have the freedom to devise objective criteria for allocating student-supervisor pairs. Appointment of co-supervisors has also been allowed by the university, with assistant professors and industry experts being empaneled as such.

Every student pursuing a dissertation or project shall be allocated an Advisory Committee for Research (ACR), which shall review progress at monthly intervals. Moreover, students shall be asked to provide timely progress reports to the Subject Research Committee (SRC) for ongoing monitoring and academic mentorship. A maximum of 10 students can be supervised by a faculty member to achieve equitable distribution. Nevertheless, the number can be raised by the College Research Committee (CRC) under exceptional conditions, upon presenting a satisfactory justification.

Notably, the university has highlighted that dissertations should be individual work and not group submissions. In cases of disputes or uncertainties in the implementation of these guidelines, the decision of the VC will be final.

This initiative is a part of Delhi University's overall attempts to shift towards a multidisciplinary, research-based undergraduate education system.