Delhi University (DU) will confer honorary doctorate degree to Prime Minister of Sri Lanka and alumnus of University of Delhi, Dr Harini Amarasuriya. The varsity has also decided to hold a second mop-up admission round but in physical mode to fill vacant undergraduate seats, framed uniform guidelines for PhD courses. The decisions were taken at the 1,278th meeting of the Executive Council (EC), chaired by Vice Chancellor Yogesh Singh. At the outset, the EC passed a resolution welcoming the 15th Vice President of India, CP Radhakrishnan, who is also the Chancellor of DU.
Dr Harini Amarasuriya had graduated in Sociology from Hindu College in 1991-1994 through a scholarship sponsored by Ministry of External Affairs. Announcing the honour, Vice Chancellor Professor Yogesh Singh said on Friday a special convocation will be held to confer the honorary doctorate degree on Dr Harini Amarasuriya. The decision to award her the degree was passed in the emergency meeting of the DU Academic Council held on Thursday, he added. She is likely to visit India on October 17-18.
Among other issues on the agenda of the meeting, regarding the vacant seats of some colleges in UG programmes, the Vice Chancellor suggested that an Open Mop-Up round should be considered for them so that students can get admission directly in the college through Spot Admission through physical admission. EC member Aman Kumar said, “The VC has been given the power to make the policy for the spot round. For the students who will not be able to come to the university physically, there will be provision for them to join online.”
EC member Sunil Sharma said, “Around 7,000-7,500 seats are vacant for the UG admissions as of now, and most of these seats are reserved seats for SC, ST and OBC candidates. The university has decided to hold a physical mop-up admission round to fill these seats.” The EC also passed guidelines to bring uniformity in PhD courses across departments from 2025-26. “The total credits required for the PhD course will range from 12 to 16, with the distribution of the minimum 12 credits being as follows: Four credits of Research Methodology or Advanced Research Methodology, two credits of Research Publication Ethics, two credits of Research Tools and four credits of Discipline Specific Elective Course,” the university said in a statement.
On this subject, the EC members authorised the Vice Chancellor to formulate a policy. Regarding the fourth year of UG started under NEP 2020, the Vice Chancellor said research discussion rooms should be made in every college and rooms should also be arranged for teachers. When the issue of a clear policy for all colleges regarding admissions under ECA and Sports quota was raised by the EC members, the Vice Chancellor said the provision of a combined five per cent quota set for this is for all colleges, in this, the colleges can make a provision of 3:2 at their level according to the facilities available there, as to who to give three percent and who two per cent. The EC members authorised the Vice Chancellor to formulate the policy.
Guidelines for PhD courses were also passed in the DU EC meeting. It is worth noting that all the departments of the university offer PhD programmes in their respective subjects. As a mandatory part of this programme, a PhD course is being conducted by each department. It has been observed that there are variations in the format of the course being taught in different subjects. Hence, to bring uniformity in the PhD course in different subjects, certain guidelines have been prepared to be effective from the academic year 2025-26, which have been passed by DU EC. Under these, the total credits required for the PhD course will range from 12 to 16 credits.
