Delhi University: FYUP Student groups protest at Arts Faculty against fee hike

On Wednesday, protesters from the Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS) and the All India Students’ Association (AISA) demonstrated in front of Delhi University’s Arts Faculty in opposition to the proposed tuition increase and the Four-Year Undergraduate Program (FYUP). Left-leaning demonstrators asked that the university rethink its four-year undergraduate program because they claimed it dilutes fundamental disciplines and puts an increased financial load on students. The students held signs that read, “Defer and Review FYUP,” “Rollback FYUP,” and “Resist Fee Hike in the guise of price structure rationalisation.” A protest was held against it as the academic council met to review the Undergraduate Curriculum Framework (UGCF) for the first semester of FYUP.

An AISA activist stated, “We reject the hasty effort by Delhi University to dilute degrees, job loss for professors, and passing the syllabi only for the first semester papers.”

The NEP and FYUP are nothing more than systematic barriers designed to exclude those from among the most marginalised and deprived sections of society and further the agenda of exclusion, according to a statement from AISA. “AISA demands that the VC should uphold the public nature of the university and withdraw the implementation of exclusionary policies like the NEP and FYUP,” the statement from AISA said.

The institution intends to start using the new curriculum in the 2022–2023 academic year. The DU academic council meeting on Wednesday will include discussion of up to 100 undergraduate course syllabi. The FYUP was first adopted at Delhi University in 2013, but the Union government later repealed it. The institution has made the decision to increase undergraduate course costs beginning with the academic year 2022–2023 The price will be updated under new headings, including updating university facilities and the fund for aiding the economically weaker segment (EWS), in addition to other elements.