Unhappy with the major changes in the admission criteria effected by the Delhi University (DU) administration this year, the members of Academic Council (AC) and Executive Council (EC) vent their ire against the DU Vice Chancellor (VC) Yogesh Tyagi for passing major decisions such as minimum eligibility criteria and changes in the admission criteria for various of Under Graduate (UG).  These decisions were neither discussed in the AC, the highest decision making body of the DU nor the VC convene a meeting of the AC for the last five months or so.

The teachers also demanded resignation of Professor Yogesh Tyagi from the position of DU VC. Besides, some parents and a lawyer Charanpal Singh Bagri, filed a plea in the Delhi High Court challenging the new norms and changes in the admission criteria and also claimed that the varsity made the changes in last minute without following the guidelines and principles by the University Grants Commission (UGC).

The members also submitted a letter to the VC saying the changes in the admission criteria as 'arbitrary' and 'unwanted' and a major setback for the students. The members demanded immediate revision of the eligibility criteria. The varsity has made changes in admission criteria for courses especially the most opted one such as BA (honors) Economics, BA English Honors and B.Com Honors. Till last year, a student applying for Economics honors course must have studied Mathematics but now a student's should have scored minimum 60 per cent marks in the subject and have to include Mathematics as one of the main  subject while calculating 'best of Four' subject. 

Similarly, for B.Com (Honours), student should have passed Mathematics/Business Mathematics with an aggregate of 45 per cent marks as a mandatory requirement. This year, a student should have 50 per cent or more marks in Mathematics/Business Mathematics and an aggregate of 60 per cent with number of new conditionality's attached.

"These changes are arbitrary, unwarranted and uncalled for as the admissions are finalized on the basis of merit as reflected in the cut-off of the various courses and thus creating chaos among the students. As per the rules and regulations of the DU, such major policy decisions must have been taken in the academic council, which have far reaching adverse consequences for Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) students," said Rajesh Jha, Member of the EC.

Another professor and former member of AC, Pankaj Garg, said, "The VC does not care about his teachers, students and non-teaching staff. These changes have ruined many students' career and future and the most important thing is that these major changes have been taken without taking the AC into confidence. As per UGC, any changes in academic affairs are taken and should be passed by AC and should be implemented two months before the admission, so the students can prepare well for the said examination."

The members further added that this year, the changes were also made under Extra Curricular Activities (ECA) and the admission bulletin released in this regard, was incomplete. The bulletin did not mention fees structure of all the courses, centers where ECA and sports test will be conducted.

"Any decision regarding academics is first passed by the committee for courses, then standing committee on academic affairs approves and after that it is approved by the AC," said Rasal Singh, AC member.